UV trap out for an hour this evening resulted in a single Chestnut, NFY, actually in the trap rather than on the wall or sheet or window frame. #TeamMoth #Northumberland

This is leadership

"Oh, The Grand Old Duke Of York, He had 10,000 [𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱], He [𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱] them up to the top of the [𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱] And he [𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱] them down again"

Gave the UV trap a go last night, and got this single Pale Brindled Beauty on the window frame next to the trap. Better than nowt! #TeamMoth #Northumberland

Undoubtedly #cute but perhaps not superb in this plumage! A Superb Fairywren for today’s #BirdOfTheDay, phone-photo taken along the Yarra Valley near Melbourne in Australia last year.

Another favourite bird for me today for #BirdOfTheDay, a stunning bee-eater, this one is the Asian Green Bee-eater, seen regularly all over Sri Lanka last summer. This one keeps a look out for passing prey from the end of a dead branch. #BranchBirds

Anyone else watch Black Mirror??

Given me palpitations 😞

First post in 2026 for #WildflowerHour… Spring’s a-coming! 😊 Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage, flowering in Ulgham in #Northumberland yesterday.

Three weeks of rain, and finally today a bright, crisp day. Headed out on my 🚲 for a couple of hours and the #Cheviots were looking spectacular with their blanket of snow. #Northumberland

Another raptor from last year’s holiday in Sri Lanka for today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme, #Portrait. This time, a Crested Serpent Eagle from Wilpattu National Park.

Tell you what Jim. If the UK has been colonised by migrants, come back, pay your fucking taxes and support the country you purport to love. No? What’s that? You’re happy in Monaco where they don’t impose personal taxes on their residents? Funny that. Tax dodging, unpatriotic racist.

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme, #DivingForFood gives me a chance to post this male Eider. A regular site along our #Northumberland coast, the Cuddy Duck named after St Cuthbert, who set up perhaps the world’s first wildlife reserve on the Farne Islands for them. And their Frankie Howard breeding call 😝

Hi Andy. Just to let you know Mute Swan A058 seen today on the Wansbeck in Morpeth, by the rowing boat decking (which was unsurprisingly underwater!), NZ198857. Looks to be paired up, but no rings on the other one #NEbirding #Northumberland @andyrickeard.bsky.social

When was the last time a valid goal was disallowed because of a foul by the team who conceded the goal??? We get some weird decisions! Anyway, 4th win at Anfield in the last 60 years!!

The hypocrisy is off the scale. Does a puff piece in The Times. Then sends a notice via the press regulator telling journalists, those worthy of the name, not to harass him.

They’re lying. We know they’re lying. They know we know they’re lying. They don’t care. Straight out of the MAGA playbook.

Nice theme for #BirdOfTheDay, today: #BackYardBirds. Here’s a pair of Bullfinches, a fairly regular winter & spring visitor to our #Northumberland garden. Remarkably, one of 73 species I’ve seen in/from my small, edge-of-town garden.

Find the answer by using the @kenwhite.bsky.social principle. Works with most things but it was literally made for this moment.

The quality of photos from my phone sometimes amaze me. Here’s my contribution to today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme, #Reflections. A Grey Heron taken in the Autumn on the River Wansbeck in #Northumberland, the quality from my phone far better than half the cameras I’ve owned!

Put the UV trap out last night for a few hours here in SE #Northumberland, until the rain came. Attracted a single, solitary moth, this Light Brown Apple Moth. Better than nothing! First Tortrix of the year. Also, a puzzling caterpillar from yesterday, on a gravestone. Any pointers welcome #teammoth

🤣 #SLBenfica's stoppage time goal from Anatoliy Trubin interrupted a Portuguese news broadcast, terrifying a priest who was being interviewed.

I think this Common Myna might be looking at my cake rather than giving me #EyeContact. Taken last year in Melbourne Botanical Garden, and brought to you for today’s #BirdOfTheDay

That most common of birds, the Starling: noisy, garrulous & beautifully #Iridescent. My contribution to today’s #BirdOfTheDay. There’s always a decent flock here, regularly breeding in our roof space. When the sun shines right, their dull plumage transforms into shimmering, speckled greens & purples

🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀 Can’t argue with this ……

A Scaly-breasted Munia for today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme, #BrownIsBeautiful. Seen enjoying the offerings at a Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City a few years back.

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

Not the best #BigGardenBirdwatch count I’ve had, but was a bit slack getting the bird feeders filled. Four magpies dropping in was quite unusual though for this small #Northumberland garden. @rspb.bsky.social

Haha! After an hour watching the waterfow in a rather dark, ramshackle hide here in #Northumberland, this week’s #WinterWatch came to mind. A scan of the eaves revealed this beautiful hibernating moth, The Herald, a new one for me! #TeamMoth @chrisgpackham.bsky.social

Here’s one of my local #Swans sitting on the frozen River Wansbeck in #Northumberland at the start of January. #BirdOfTheDay #NEbirding

10. It’s time to recognise how deeply weird this is, reserve our votes for people who give us what we want, and stop subscribing to media outlets that lie on behalf of oligarchs. More on this subject, with facts and figures, in my most recent column: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

7. Immigrants, asylum seekers, Muslims, women, transgender people, disabled people, students, protesters: anyone and everyone must be blamed for our dysfunctions, except those causing them. Ever more extreme “culture wars” (a euphemism for divide-and-rule) must be waged.

1. This short thread is about the issue that dominates almost every aspect of politics, and causes or exacerbates most of our problems: the extreme wealth of a small number of people. Here’s the amazing thing: almost the entire political class aligns with the ultra-rich against the rest. 🧵1/10

Help us make hope normal again. Join the Green Party now.

Hundreds of NATO troops died in support of the US post 9/11. Yet this draft dodging coward, a racist rapist, questions the willingness, abilities and courage of those NATO nations who supported the US? He is scum.

Think this fits the #TailsUp theme quite nicely, for today’s #BirdOfTheDay, even if the quality of this phone-binoculars photo is rather below par! A White-headed duck at #ElHondo in Spain, one of the few breeding sites for this endangered European “stiff-tail”.

Well worth a listen from Canadian PM Mark Carney at Davos summit.

Some stunning shots of #FeedingTime for today’s #BirdOfTheDay, so here’s my contribution, a Sparrowhawk devouring a pigeon on our garden fence when we lived in #NorthTyneside. Rather underexposed, but think that quite accentuates the piercing glare!

For today’s #BirdOfTheDay, here’s a strikingly shiny Hooded Crow in #Winterlight, taken at the start of December at Bull Island near #Dublin. I rather like the faintly amused look it’s giving me, perhaps thinking “No extra tick for your year list this time, buddy!” #Corvid

"The President’s threat to impose a 10 per cent tariff is another sign that the UK should turn away from Washington and towards its allies in Europe". www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...

A real shame if this photo went viral again today.

They’re going to let him have it, aren’t they?

Who doesn’t love a good #Raptor photo?? For today’s #BirdOfTheDay, here’s a Changeable Hawk-Eagle, at Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, photographed this summer.

Compare and contrast…

What the…. 😳 It’s corruption and extortion in plain sight. How can there be no process to stop this criminal?

Nowadays it’s the Wansbeck, pictured below, frozen during last week’s cold weather. The first 20-odd years of my life, and a large part of my family origin, was the Goyt/Tame->Mersey.

First three #lepidoptera of 2026 today, in three stages of life: - Large White pupa - Angle Shaded larva - Epermenia chaerophyllella adult #TeamMoth #Butterflies #Northumberland

What happened to “clear and obvious error”? If it takes 10 minutes to decide that it might not be, where’s the clear and obvious?? And what happened to the 5cm grace that magically got added to the VAR rules a couple of weeks ago for Liverpool. Pathetic

Haha! Who’d have thought the biggest grifters in the Tory party would end up in the grifter-in-chief’s party??