It took me YEARS to gain the trust of suspicious local farmers at an old birding patch. It took minutes for some selfish twitchers to chase a Woodchat from the roadside onto private farmland. I’d carefully consider matters prior to releasing #RareBirdsUK news if there’s any chance of disturbance.

Bloody lightweight - just keep them around yer neck at all times! 😉 #BirdingGear

Having witnessed and experienced countless adverse effects caused by this dangerous drug (drink driving deaths and injury, violence, abuse, hangovers, addiction etc) I find it truly astonishing that the term ‘drugs AND alcohol’ is still widely used. This must be one of the greatest misnomers ever!

It would be interesting to do a deep search into historical photographs and specimens of UK, Ireland and European Black-throated Divers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pacific Diver had occurred in the days before identification criteria and vagrancy potential was fully established. #UKRareBirds

As climate change and urbanization intensify flooding in Rwanda, the hilly capital of Kigali has pushed nature-based solutions, reshaping 18,000 acres of degraded wetlands, planting native species to filter and slow runoff and enhancing biodiversity.

One of the highlights of a January visit to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens is the collection of Witch Hazels. Most begin flowering just after the winter solstice. This truly gorgeous cultivar, bejewelled with iridescent orange-scented flowers, is Hamamelis × intermedia 'Jelena'. #GardensHour

Little Owl pair acrylic, 30 x 40 cms Little Owls may be found in parkland, farmland and at the edge of woods. They feed on small mammals, birds, beetles and worms. On a sunny day they may perch at the entrance, or beside, their roost site- usually a cavity in a tree or wall. #littleowl #birdart

Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita winds a single black thread around a grid of nails on a wooden board to create intricate portraits #WomensArt

I met a traumatised ex-soldier a while ago who had served in the Gulf war. Having seen both colleagues and innocent civilians maimed and slaughtered, and a nation destroyed, he simply described the invading coalition forces as mercenaries for rapacious multinational oil companies. #Venezuela

It’s almost like green energy is the only way forward and a handful of oil barons are doing everything in their power to keep that from happening so they can get even richer at the cost of literally everything else in the world.

It's almost like there's something Trump wants to distract us from

Fantastic work as usual @jmjbirding.bsky.social both for your weekly updates and this timely summary. There can’t be many other #WelshBirding or #UKBirding counties which have an annual bird report published on the last day of the same year! Best wishes and good birding in 2026.

Beth Robertson Fiddes, contemporary land and seascapes painter whose work captures the wild nature of the Scottish highlands and Western Isles #WomensArt

That’s very early, certainly compared to my sightings in North Wales. Ebol Troed (Colt’s Foot) in Welsh from the leaf shape. Scientific name is Tussilago farfara. "Tussilago" from Latin "tussis," meaning cough, and "ago," meaning to act or to cast out, as the plant is used for respiratory ailments.

The presence of Common Loons indicates ecosystem health because their bodies accumulate mercury and other contaminants as they move up the food chain. Loon monitoring can double as ecosystem health monitoring. The ABA salutes all the birders who monitor and protect Common Loons.

Contemporary Northumberland printmaker Rebecca Vincent #WomensArt

As a child I used to turn the pages of my bird book in wonder, returning over and again to the Bullfinch illustration. Would I ever see one? Imagine my delight when opening my bedroom curtains one morning after snowfall and there, in the garden, was my first ever pair of this gorgeous finch! 😍

Great recent article here packed with useful information, references and images of this distinctive (sub-)species. bsky.app/profile/gpcb... #RareBirdsUK

Not long now until our 15th #NewYearPlantHunt! From 1 - 4 January, let's head out and see how many wild or naturalised plants we can find in bloom. Resources to help us: bsbi.org/take-part/ac... The data we collect will deepen our understanding of how our plants are responding to a changing climate.

Blue skies but a fierce wind at Ynys Llanddwyn. Could only find three Purple Sandpipers on the rocks, but nice to hear a Crossbill singing from a treetop in the relative shelter of Newborough Forest. #BirdingWales @angbirdnews.bsky.social

Christmas can be an expensive time of year, so how about something for free? The @scottishbirding.bsky.social and Scottish Birds Records Committee are hosting a FREE online conference over the evenings of February 24th to the 26th. Three talks per night and some real belters among them.

Superb blog post with some exquisite images. Can’t wait to see (or even find!) one of these far eastern beauties. Interesting to hear a key reference highlighting just how distinct this (sub?-)species really is, especially with regard to recent (taxonomic) changes to the British List. #RareBirdsUK

Hawkmoths at Wakehurst Place Glow Up event this evening. Trap is on a timer at home 👍 #TeamMoth

I honestly think this could be a real game changer for all coastal/riparian rare bird enthusiasts, especially the ‘knit your own vegan yoghurt in an upcycled low-carbon tiny house’ types. Twitch without a guilty conscience (apart from the odd bit of road kill) and get fit doing it. #BirdingGear

I saw the ‘84 Teeside Lesser Crested Tern (then slept in a bivvy bag on a golf course). Nowadays most of my twitching is vicarious. It is also less stressful and way more comfortable! Having read of the recent elusive Devon bird this bit of kit might come in useful for some? #RareBirdsUK

I enjoyed an extended sojourn in north Norfolk last year and this windmill was always a feature of the drive along the beautiful coast road; birding at the NWT Cley Marshes reserve, trudging out to Blakeney Point, searching for fossils and enjoying the varied delights of the coastal towns.

I can’t resist posting another photo of Aseroe rubra (Anemone Stinkhorn). This was the largest specimen I found and nicely shows the remains of the ‘egg’ it emerged from. Surrey 4/12/25 #fungi #FungiFriends

‘Researchers from the University of Bonn develop a fish-inspired filter that removes 99% of microplastics from washing machine water’ 💦 #biomimicry

A few years ago I went to collect my grandson from his mate’s house where his little sister was sat on the floor. The baby had her mum’s phone in hand and I watched in astonishment as this child, who couldn’t even talk or walk, scrolled to her favourite music on the device 🎵 then rocked out to it!

Rust art piece, all my own photos. #rustart #rust #welshartist #abstractart

What a spineless hypocritice! Surely the socialist founders of the @teamlabouruk.bsky.social would be turning in their graves if they saw the state of the party nowadays; Reform lite, getting cosy with disaster capitalists like BlackRock, supporting genocide, ecocide and letting the poor rot.

Real wildlife laws unlike feudal Britain

Ireland’s first stranded #narwhal washes up on Donegal beach www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

If Britain is to renew itself, it will not be through punishing weakness, poverty, ill health, disability or immigrants. It will be through recognising the strength and potential that exists in every person and building the systems that allow that potential to be realised.

This fascinating short article is highly recommended for anyone interested in marine mammals, zooarchaeology, history, folklore, Orkney and the links between humans, seals and the sea. @mammalsociety.bsky.social @coastalpaleo.bsky.social @nesmammals.bsky.social @marinemammalogy.bsky.social

Incredibly, it wasn’t until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 when women over 21 were able to vote. My grandfathers were born in a time when females were deemed somehow inferior. Sadly this archaic attitude persists as some of your trolls are clearly lagging behind in terms of social human evolution.

The ‘dresser’ from the Neolithic village of Skara Brae on Orkney. Occupied from around 3100 to 2500 BC, the prehistoric settlement is one of the best preserved in the British Isles. 📸 My own. #SkaraBrae #Neolithic #Orkney

Presumably criminals are dumping waste because an expensive license is required to use the council recycling centres. Surely it would be more sensible to allow free access so materials can be graded and sold on, rather than wasting money employing staff and vehicles clearing up fly tipping?

Pink-footed Geese arriving in the rain, Sheringham - seemed an apt image for this morning's weather. Rain drops peppering the watercolour washes. Not the greatest weather forecast for an exhibition preview evening but such is life!

Some say ‘𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡’, ‘𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑦’ or ‘𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡’ but I’m so repulsed by the majority of these venal scoundrels that I propose a new collective noun: 𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐒 @susiedent.com @merriam-webster.com @oxfordacademic.bsky.social @universitypress.cambridge.org Cartoon: Osmani Simanca

Crikey, I passed a young woman earlier with such colossal false eyelashes that she could have really done with scaffolding on her face to keep ‘em in place!! ⺣👀⺣

Well that was off my rarity radar. What a superb find! Are there any other European records of this subspecies?

1/ “The first impression of Spurn is hardly a cosy one, the second impression is an abomination of desolation!” I doubt Julian Pettifer returned but the wildness is exactly what draws so many to @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social and the @yorkswildlife.bsky.social centre. youtube.com/watch?v=CULU...

A hugely significant publication from the great RJ Ussher in the Irish Naturalist of 1897: Great Auk bones in kitchen middens at Tramore Sandhills - barely 2 km (as the auk can’t fly!) from the 1834 live capture of the species between Brownstown Head & Ballymacaw, Co Waterford

So the former Ecology Party became so anti-science as to suggest humans can even change sex! IMHO they’ve been infiltrated by bad faith actors intent on destroying it from within. I’m awaiting a huge #GreenParty scandal involving top officials before the next election to further alienate voters.