I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities. Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

Otherwise ad.-male looking Hen Harrier but with dark )brownish, exact pattern impossible to determine due to distance) central tail feathers (at least the central pair) - anyone seen this? @macstronach.bsky.social @helsinkibirder.bsky.social @timsbirding.bsky.social @saloplarus.bsky.social

“Heartbreaking scenes from Elit, Iran, where wildfire is damaging parts of the ancient Hyrcanian forests — a @unesco.org World Heritage treasure and one of Earth’s last temperate rainforests" Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health #Iran 🇮🇷

Hundreds of chicks clubbed to death every year for "tradition" - sign the petition to end it: protectthewild.org.uk/gannet-petit...

Just when we thought autumn was done, birding would be quieter and that was that, this vision of larid loveliness landed in the road in front of us! A cracking adult Franklin's Gull, the first record for Vatersay. #BirdingScotland #RareBirdsUK

Something to celebrate - our 2025 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker report - successful breeding season, the most nests monitored & highest number of chicks fledged per nest since we started in 2015. Acoustic monitoring giving amazing results too, download here www.woodpecker-network.org.uk/images/L_S_W...

A write-up of August’s Bridled Tern at Fife Ness, which I’d totally forgotten to post #birdingFife #rarebirdsUK chatterstanes.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/b...

"A voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a roadmap to an eventual phase-out of fossil fuels." Have you ever read such an absurd sentence?

And this is spot on. No other political figure or party gets so little scrutiny. And it’s not like there isn’t a track record… Corruption, Russia-links, Trump-christofascist-links, Brexit, racism, total incompetence in Reform-run councils… A dangerous clowncar revving up to drive us into the wall.

Rachael Johnson: "Boris did his best". Only because his best has always been fucking awful. Let's consider Boris Johnson, a moral man and a great politician: I'd love to talk about all three of them, but I only have space for Boris.

Durham will scrap full council-tax rebates, forcing 26,000 low-income working-age residents to start paying for the first time | Peter Morris

Compare these images with those of L l melanuroides from Japan www.instagram.com/reel/DOuYs0A... - images taken N Lincs August 21sta nd 29th 2010 and suggested at the time as L l m by RM at B World but mag folded before it was moved forward - forgot it until seeing images linked above -

A video from earlier in the autumn during some particularly heavy Pheasant migration in Highland! #highlandbirds

Take three minutes to look at pretty birds, explore radar data, and see how we connect the structure of skies to MacArthur's ideas of niche partitioning. 📡🐦☁️🎧

A truly mind blowing 🤯 study into migration in the US using vast amounts of radar data! 👇

NHS private finance diverts money away from healthcare, towards the pockets of private shareholders. Cat Eccles MP’s motion can force the government to drop their NHS private finance plans from the Autumn Budget. ✉️Take 2 mins now to email your MP to sign the motion and protect patients.

It is indisputable that Brexit has been an economic disaster, and notable that none of its political architects have paid any price.

Police must end Palestine Action arrests, says former UK counter-terror chief Richard Barrett condemned the UK government's designation of Palestine Action as a terror group and the amount of police time/resources used to arrest people holding signs. www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/20...

Insect Declines and the role of pesticides with @davegoulson.bsky.social online talk... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wsrt-wet-w...

OTD 25 yrs ago: A Small Whitethroat (Curruca minula) at South Gare. When did it become Small over Desert? ‘Just’ a subspecies back then. Unfortunately it was never trapped, nor was DNA ever obtained, so it’s all moot. 🤷🏻‍♂️ A female Pied Wheatear at Gibraltar Point on the way back was very nice too.

There's been a few Taiga Beans in the county since late Sept but nearly all (all?) have moved on. So 19 (min) here on Westray today is a surprise! Hard to get close to tho as they're by a road in amongst some flitty Greylags. iPhone and Leica APO Televid 82 to the rescue 🙂 #WestrayBirding #PWC2025

At the Budget, the Green Party's message is clear: Cut Bills. Tax Billionaires.

The catastrophic illegal waste dumping in Oxfordshire (see next post) is a direct result of the deregulation-by-stealth I wrote about in 2021, when my dead goldfish became a registered waste disposer. I warned it would let the mafia in. And here we are.🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump vs The BBC. Love or loathe the BBC, recent events have put the UK's journalistic sovereignty in peril. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCMn...

A 1st winter Ring-billed Gull was reported near one of my survey sites, so a slight diversion after work yesterday resulted in great views as it fed amongst the gulls and mallards in a small park.

116 Greenland W'fronts at W. Freugh this p.m., 2 neck-collared birds. 6 juvs seen (inc. 3 in one family), but there may have been more - one group of 18 birds was feeding in a dip, and while counting them was straightforward, ageing them was less so. @dgbirdnews.bsky.social @kanebrides.bsky.social

252 Pale-bellied Brents on Loch Ryan nr. Stranraer today. Only 8 juvs (2 families with 4 in each). Also c180 Scaup, a couple of Slav. Grebes, LtDuck, C Scoters, lots of GCGrebes, Goldeneye etc @dgbirdnews.bsky.social

Divers still at Covenham Reservoir this morning @lincsbirding.bsky.social @lincswildlife.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social #Birds #UKBirding

New independent report reveals locations of poisoned raptors in northern England 2015 - 2023 - info that has been suppressed by Govt. #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/11/17/n...

This Swallow at Balranald, N Uist this afternoon appears to be the American subspecies: erythrogaster due to the lack of a dark band across the lower throat.

Farmed Salmon is not good for you or the environment, in fact it’s a disaster for the environment. Amazing how many people eat Salmon unaware of how it’s reared and think it’s good healthy food. Antibiotics, colourants, pesticide sprays and still so many infected and lice ridden.

Eastern Black Redstart at the point near the green beacon. Pic: T Willoughby. #spurnbirds @rarebirder.bsky.social

This new online magazine has just been flagged up to me. I'm sure many will be interested as it aims to make ornithological research more accessible. #birdingWales #birdingScotland #birding #conservationscience 🌍 🪶

After a month of research in #Porcupinebank on board #VizcondedeEza in the wild waters west of #Ireland, we're finally at home! The most amazing #seabird sighting was a South Polar skua! @rspb.bsky.social @irishbirds.bsky.social @ieo-cadiz.bsky.social Ireland waters are always a box of surprises!

Government’s last chance to keep control of digital Digital sovereignty isn’t optional anymore. We sold our water to foreign billionaires. Now we’re handing them our health data By Philip O'Brien @yorkshirebylines.co.uk

Climate breakdown is driven by a storm of lies. This lying is systemic, funded and coordinated, and operates across almost all media, old and new. This week's column argues that we cannot fight the climate crisis without also fighting the epistemic crisis. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Just gonna repost this as we enter the terminal phase of Neoliberal Global Capitalism

Ross’s Goose amongst the Pinkfeet at Loch of Skene this morning; left NE from the roost at 8.15. A nice selection of ducks also present, including Scaup, Shoveler, Gadwall and an influx of Teal, with 19 Whoopers also through. #birdingscotland

A highlight for yesterday's session was a retrap Common Nightingale ringed here in Nov 2022. Probably the first we've ever retrapped in a subsequent year. It was of the race africana that breeds in north Africa up to Iran. #nguliaringing #ngulia #kws #TsavoWest #birdringing #birds

What on earth was the reason for the 3 line whip to vote this down? The Labour party supported the swift brick amendment when it was tabled on Conservative government legislation in 2023. Why has it gone from supporting swift bricks in opposition to imposing a 3 line whip to block them in government

Watching Labour MPs take a wrecking ball to nature makes me so angry & so sad. Their action tonight voting down amendments to the #PlanningBill intended to protect wildlife & habitats from destruction is so reckless & so counterproductive. People didn’t vote Labour for this 👇

Hen Harrier Susie, whose chicks were stamped to death on a Yorkshire Dales grouse moor in 2022, has been found dead on a N Pennines grouse moor with gunshot injuries. 18+ months of silence about this crime from the police & Natural England. #RaptorResearch raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/11/14/h...

1. Placing these two graphs side by side shows why we have a prisons crisis. They can also be seen as a kind of Authoritarianism Index, showing the trend in state attitudes. On the left is the Crime Survey for England and Wales. On the right is the UK prison population. 🧵1/8

1,600+ fossil fuel lobbyists at COP30, outnumbering every delegation except Brazil This isn’t ‘dialogue’; it’s the industry responsible for the crisis hijacking the negotiations meant to stop it If this doesn’t make you furious, you’re not paying attention www.theguardian.com/environment/...

'Policies that favour the interests of the working class are routinely dismissed as a fantasy, whereas those that push wealth and power towards the rich come to be seen as a realistic status quo.' @theguardian.com having a 💡 moment. Zack Polanski has hit a switch. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Simplism, basically.

Currently over Whitburn mill per Rob Stonehouse #NEbirding