Excellent work, Tom! Another great find by you 🙂
13.03.2026 11:03
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Excellent work, Tom! Another great find by you 🙂
Drake Lesser Scaup on the water showing compact size, peaked rear crown, bill with a tiny black nail, vermiculated mantle getting darker towards the rear, and whitish flanks
Thought I'd use the courtesy car to do a @btobirds.bsky.social heronry survey, and accidentally found a drake Lesser Scaup! Shropshire's third, but second at this site this year! South end of The Mere, #Ellesmere currently 🤩 #shropshirebirding #ukbirding
A new report from wildlife charity Buglife reveals that pesticides from common flea and tick treatments are now widespread in rivers across Britain and may be contributing to major declines in freshwater invertebrates bit.ly/4b1Pu50
Rest up! My next big webinar is coming up and you don’t want to miss it!
RSVP here: ABCbirds.org/jersvp
3cy Caspian Gull (centre) with wings raised showing P10 mirrors, amongst Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls
The eighth #CaspianGull of the year was in the Battlefield gull field this morning, a large and advanced 3cy shining through the gloom. Who knows how many individuals daily rather than weekly visits would have produced #shropshirebirding #ukbirding
A car's infotainment screen displaying a map of the Llandudno area of North Wales with the route information set for a destination called "Red-necked Grebe".
I remember the bad old days of phone box trips to check "bird line" and cliquey local grapevines.
I love that my @birdguides.bsky.social subscription lets me do things like this, *if* the finder includes a location pin!
Thank you to @penrhynbirder.bsky.social for putting initial word out 🙂
Royal rumble
The desire of various wildlife charities to appoint a royal patron leaves Mark Avery slightly bemused given the various scandals over the years:
Wow, Stuart, congratulations! That would be an impressive find *without* jet lag. An excellent find 🙂
3 seemingly unringed adult Common Cranes in a marsh
Up up and away
Another home from work diversion allowed me to catch another of #shropshirebirding recent purple patch with the 3 Cranes on the Weald Moors north of Telford until they got up at 1400 and headed SE until lost to view. @belvidebirding.bsky.social next? #ukbirding
“A real dark situation to be in”: thousands of starving #seabirds stranded in biggest ‘wreck’ in a decade.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Hey look it's my latest email newsletter! A little more barebones than usual, because February was, uh, a lot. buttondown.com/rheisman/arc...
Ban on sale and use of most lead ammunition in Wales, Scotland and England confirmed to be in place from 1 April 2029. Good.
www.birdlife.org/news/2025/08...
@alexanderlees.bsky.social I think you may have already posted about this story, but sharing just in case.
“Going from climate to the tree ecology to bird behavior to disease outbreak and making those connections was really exciting to me,” said Heather Watts, a Washington State University biologist.
HT @rheisman.bsky.social for the link in her excellent monthly newsletter.
#Ornithology
A graphic promoting the training event, with an image of a male Reed Bunting on a flowering Hawthorn branch.
Our friends in @btocymru.bsky.social BTO are running a free Breeding Bird Survey training event at Llandrindod Lake on 28 March. This survey is incredibly valuable for conservation, but takes just a few hours to do!
Open to the #ShropshireBirding community, too! Click on the link to sign-up.
A male Wheatear fresh in looking like he owns the place already.
A male Wheatear off to stir someone else’s soul for the afternoon …
With everything else kicking off around us, that these little guys make the effort to come here for the summer and arrive looking like this … blimey, nothing else really matters, does it? With 3 Sand Martins at a glorious Marazion this am
#cornwallbirding #birdsseenin2026
This change in predation pressure is linked directly to garden bird feeding see e.g. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Ornithology #UKBirding
He’s a cracker, Rhys! It’s good if they are there year round, very encouraging. 🙂
Wow, that male is *very* showy! 🙂
Red Male Crossbill amongst the branches of a tree
Green Female Crossbill amongst the branches of a tree
Crossbills at Haughmond Hill #photography #birds #ukwildlife #shropshirebirds #Nature #wildlife #birdphotography #ukbirding
A show garden to look out for if you go to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival (7-10 May): "Lifted by Birds is a peaceful, nature‑rich garden designed to support British birdlife" in partnership with the British Trust for Ornithology's @bto-gbw.bsky.social project.
rhsmalvern.co.uk/whats-on/gar...
A white van on a farm track, viewed at distance through a telescope.
A white van grounded in a flooded, muddy track with an ATV (like a big quad bike) in front of it.
The mud spattered side of a white van grounded in a flooded, muddy track.
A white van grounded in a flooded, muddy track with an ATV (like a big quad bike) about to make the first of several attempts to free it.
We will never know! I didn't get to The Mere in the end, I checked the local patch and got involved in what we initially thought was a sheep rustling incident but turned out to be someone with a bad sense of direction who had come to the village to collect a sofa bed. We did eventually get him out!
Great work by WMRG and the person who reported the sighting. If you see a colour-ringed bird, or can read the number on a metal ring, the place to report it is ring.ac
#ShropshireBirding
That’s a great question, Kev 🙂
Some of of the sub-tribes are listening and aware, others still seem oblivious. And others, like me, are aware and occasionally angst stricken by balancing the long term needs of the planet and the short term needs of their MH and wellbeing. Sad, but true!
I may be guilty of clutching at straws, Steve! Five minutes away from me there’s a gull roost that sometimes hits five figures, so it’s worth a try.
Two big unknowns: will it be there, and if it is, will I find it?! It would be good to get a few pairs of eyes on it.
There were lots of references to climate change at yesterday’s BTO Conference, Kev.
The Usutu virus situation deserves more publicity as the next “bridging zoonosis” might be more impactful for the population than a 50-75% “disease mediated population decline” in London’s Blackbirds.
I wonder where it will roost this evening, Tom 🤔
Has to be worth watching The Mere this afternoon, I’m going to try to rearrange my plans 🤞
Collage of four distant phonescoped images of a passing adult Iceland Gull showing the white wingtips and pale grey upperparts
#salopobs garden tick 💥151💥 came in the form of an adult Iceland Gull this morning, WSW over Condover at 0838. Amazing, especially in this era of dwindling wingers. I take it all back @danbranch94.bsky.social! #ukbirding
As screenshot of a web page promoting Dawn's talk. The text reads "Wednesday, 4 March, 2026 7:15 pm – (approx) 9:15 Rare Breeding Birds in the UK and Bird Atlas 2027-31 with Dawn Balmer with a short introductory talk on 50 Years of the Shropshire Rookeries Project by John Tucker Originally from Shropshire, Dawn is Head of Surveys at the BTO, Secretary of the European Bird Census Council and Chair of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel. Her many roles also include Director of British Birds and Editorial Board Member of British Birds and Trustee of the Eric Hosking Charitable Trust. Dawn is a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee and is a keen birdwatcher, ringer, general naturalist and enjoys photography. Dawn will be providing an update from the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, highlighting recent trends, key species developments, and the ongoing efforts to monitor and protect the UK’s rarest breeding birds. She will also introduce plans for the launch of the next Breeding Bird Atlas with data collection set to begin in 2027. This major national project aims to build on previous atlases by using new technologies, expanding volunteer participation, and delivering vital insights to support future bird conservation."
If you missed the BTO Conference today there's another chance to hear from BTO this Wednesday (4 March) when @debalmer.bsky.social will be talking about Rare Breeding Birds in the UK and Bird Atlas 2027-31, in Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury.
👉 www.shropshirebirds.com/index/indoor...
#ShropshireBirds
The opening slide of the British Trust for Ornithology Conference 2026.
Today is one of those rare days where I'm not the only bird nerd in the room!