You all know what I think about buying used! This year I’ve I’ve switched my bins and my camera setup and all have been bought secondhand. The ££ saving when buying used is too big to ignore! And is a greener way of buying as you’re not bringing new items into the system. #BirdingGear

David has done brilliant to claw back a species which, as he says, has a very strong east bias in Orkney. But it gives me hope for Westray, just as yday both David and I scored Firecrests, another eastern bias species, which were first record for Westray and only second for Papay. #OrkneyBirding

Another species returning to breed in 2023 was Temminck's Stint; a pair laid a clutch of four eggs in Highland, although the nest was later flooded out. This tiny wader bred regularly in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, but this was the first confirmed breeding since 1997 #ornithology #BirdingScotland

As the year moves on, the birds get smaller. Pallas's leaf warbler at Quoys today, looking for leaves on a day of haar and drizzle. Found by @papaybirder.bsky.social who has finally seen one in Papay! #orkneybirding #papay

And a wee bit of video as it fed along the dyke. Shame about the distinct lack of light! #OrkneyBirding

Since my time here, there have only been three species seen on Papay which I have missed. A difficult one to get back with a strong eastern bias to Orkney records, this was the last place I expected to claw back a Pallas's Warbler. The sweetest kind of patch tick #PWC2025 #OrkneyBirding

Worrying reports of bird flu (avian influenza) are coming in, including an outbreak in Whooper Swans in the Fens. Other waterbirds are also being affected, and cases are rising. 📷 Sick Whooper Swan by Kane Brides #UKBirding #BirdingWales #BirdingScotland

We have a rather well-stocked used optics cabinet this week! Check out our latest arrivals here: www.cleyspy.co.uk/product-cate... #BirdingGear

A great website. Full of crucial info and ideas for how to live in a way that gives us a fighting chance of avoiding catastrophe. I’ve threaded it to break it up a little… 1/17 #lowcarbonliving www.tudelft.nl/sustainabili...

Selling these via CleySpy, if anyone on here is looking for small binoculars #BirdingGear

Had all but given up hope of a Papay Firecrest until @papayranger.bsky.social came to the rescue with this bird at Shorehouse. An Island tick and only the 2nd Papay record. Now 13 birds found within Orkney this autumn, there had only been 35 records prior to this year! #BirdingOrkney #PWC2025

Hoopoes bred in Leicestershire & Rutland in 2023, the first confirmed breeding record in the UK since 1996. Here’s the family - parents and three offspring. Can you see them all? Read more about rare breeding birds in 2023 at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... 📸 Carl Baggott

This is the fearless journalism Britannia deserves.

Tree of the Day

I’m afraid I’ve heard enough to take this seriously - No.10 is thinking of abolishing ECO, the main source of funding for upgrading fuel poor homes. There’s no way to sugar coat this: it would be a disaster. And it would mean this government spending less on upgrading homes than the last one

Labour continue to put the wealthy first and the planet second.

The far right want you to believe that immigration causes an explosion of crime. It's simply untrue. Crime has gone down - and crucially, we are a markedly less violent society than we once were.

According to our analysis, YouTube's decision to delete the accounts amounts to the loss of more than 700 videos, many of which documented Israel's alleged war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2025/11/04/y...

This Labour government will do anything they can to protect those raping our country. Protect the rich. Protect their money. Fuck the ordinary man and woman. And as often as they can.

The stupidity of this woman beggars belief Notwithstanding the catastrophic impact this would have on green measures - excess energy corporation profits are costing average households £500 a year THAT'S the problem! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Bird flu is being painted as a problem wild birds are inflicting on the poultry industry, but it's precisely the reverse. Where do they think it developed in the first place, if not in the disease incubators that are mass battery farms? share.google/K4FBGkiuuUdc...

An investigation by journalists at The Ferret found that local MSP and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, the National Farmers’ Union Scotland (NFUS) and landowners had “privately piled pressure” on NatureScot to derail the application. www.thenational.scot/comment/2558...

Utterly scandalous that climate activists are prevented from mentioning climate change in their defence Even worse when one group is and another isn't, yet they're accused of the same offence Our legal system is being turned into a joke

Artificial lighting along the Pembrokeshire coast disorients young Manx Shearwaters, leading them to crash inland and become stranded. Manx Shearwater Rescue Pembrokeshire, a local volunteer group, helps collect and safely return these vulnerable seabirds to the sea. bit.ly/4oqW8qQ

One of which was Baroness Young of Old Scone - RSPB Chief Executive from 1991 - 1998. You couldn't make it up.

Lost or Leading the Way? Rare Birds May Signal Shifting Migration Routes www.newswise.com/articles/los... #songbirds #migration #vagrants #ornithology #populationecology #speciesdistribution

The UK Must Urgently Distance Itself From Elon Musk and Space X, Warns Parliamentary Report The UK’s infrastructure has become far too reliant on the far-right billionaire, who could ‘politicise’ our reliance upon his companies, the report warns bylinetimes.com/2025/11/04/t...

Exceptionally mild airflow over central Finland today. Liperi Joensuu airport just set a new November heat record with a temperature of 10.8 °C. The reading is provisional and may still rise during the day.

One in five people are *now* economically inactive says Justin on the radio, asksing "is there a way out of this mess?" You probably know that one in five people have been economically inactive since we started measuring it over half a century ago.

The whole of his speech is worth a listen to for those of needing a boost and reminder about speaking out against the oligarchy, for immigration, for union rights and against tyranny. Well done NYC voters.

Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions rise again in 2024, up 2.3%. This is our collective progress, 10 years after the Paris Agreement. www.unep.org/resources/em... 1/

In a recent podcast appearance, Elon Musk claimed asylum seekers are showing up in their thousands to tiny towns and villages, specifically to abuse children, saying: “These lovely small towns in England, Scotland and Ireland, they’ve been living their lives quietly. They’re like hobbits, frankly."

“The symbolism of the moment is hard to beat. At a time when Trump is not just demonising immigrants, but harassing them and sending masked goons to kidnap them from the street, America’s greatest city – and Trump’s hometown – has elected a Muslim immigrant to run it.”

The latest report from the RBBP, Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2023, is out now in British Birds. It reports on the 104 species and races of rare breeding birds recording breeding, or showing signs of breeding, in 2023. Read the summary at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... #ornithology #ukbirds 🧵[1/15]

If you're just waking, it's been a good night for Democrats across the US, with voters rejecting Trump nationwide. 🎉 Mamdani's comfortable win in New York, on the highest turnout since 1969, provides further proof that you don't have to pander to the right to win. news.sky.com/story/zohran...

New set of forest towns to be built between Oxford and Cambridge www.theguardian.com/environment/... Well...it's ironic that when Natural England tried to protect the best wildlife areas of an Actual Forest (Bernwood) between Oxford and Cambridge, the Govt intervened and stopped them.

1. In the wake on Mamdani’s win, we’ll see a lot more far right anti-urban sentiment. Here’s a thread on its roots and evolution. The idea that the city is evil and corrupt, and the countryside innocent and pure, goes back a long way: to Theocritus in Alexandria, and to the Old Testament. 🧵

What a morning to be on Ridge & Frost to celebrate Zohran Mamdani's win! Improving people's lives. Focusing on inequality and empowering communities. This is how you do it.

Petition: Stop the Guga Hunt. Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend Section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to remove the power to grant licences for killing young Gannets. Please sign and Repost. #BirdingScotland #UKbirding #Birds #UKWildlife

Our report for 2023 is out now in @britishbirds.bsky.social. There's a summary at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... but if you prefer to watch rather than read then here's RBBP secretary @markaeaton.bsky.social with a few key points and some lovely photos! #ornithology #ukbirds youtu.be/arj1m7NfKmY

Inevitably, Kemi Badenoch has now sided with Donald Trump’s team against the BBC. Has she bothered to watch the speech or read the transcript? Because the BBC didn’t get this wrong.

RSPB Scotland Director 'cautiously hopeful' that proposed amendment will provide a meaningful deterrent to stop the illegal killing of birds of prey on Scotland's grouse moors. #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/11/04/s...

Yes. Exactly this.

Is this same Labour Government expanding airports, refuses to rule out extracting more fossil fuels from the Rosebank Oil Field Intent on destroying bats, newts and doesn't care about nature? Not sure going to Brazil alone is going to do much good. Join.greenparty.org.uk

I keep seeing journalism described as an "ecosystem" and I guess that tracks because it's undergoing an extinction crisis caused by billionaires, too.

“Households with smart meters will be able to run washers and dryers, air conditioning or any other appliances for free within the three-hour window.”

Tuesday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

In a way, I find the authoritarian takeover of our media system even more disturbing than the authoritarian takeover of our political system. Our political system has been failing basically my entire adult life. But, the media system provided accountability and sort of worked. Now it’s collapsing.