GBBG looking pleasingly like a Lammergeier whilst chugging a flattie yesterday afternoon.

Some weather at last! Curlew Sand being biffed by the wind on the roost today before nipping round the corner to get in the leeside of things. #UKbirding

First few juv Knot coming through here- must be bloody irritating to make it 4,000Km from Ellesmere Island or wherever and then have a Manila clam (I guess) clamp onto your hind toe when you land. #UKbirding

Plovers scuttling about on the baked crust of the salting this evening- here's lumpen juv Ringed Plover versus elfin juv Little Ringed Plover #UKbirding

Air defence systems still active this week. #BirdArt

Just to confirm that the young GBBG is now the size of small donkey.

Been doing a bit of long overdue taxonomy catch-up. I've got my head around divers no longer being at the front of the bird book, but cuckoos between bustards and sandgrouse is going to take a bit of getting used to. #UKbirding

Some weather at last! Not enough rain to lay the dust, but four inbound Knot plopped in and hauled out behind the Co-op. #UKBirding

There's consequences to having GBBG on the river- but hats off to this Shelduck who has successfully defended seven chicks for a week without loss despite daily check ups from the beast. #BirdArt

A bit of late season chickery down on the roost- Redshanks hatched in last week, so after the first godwits are back. The gatepost has been there since at least 1900 so has hosted more than 125 years of yelping Redshanks. #UKbirding

Shame you can't paint sounds- had a Peregrine follow me across a field and who00osh straight over my shoulder trying to take a Skylark. #BirdArt

Tempting to think that all gulls are rampant everywhere, but GBBG is still staying classy- as far as i can tell there's none pairs in Essex, just a couple in Suffolk inc. this one which escorted me off the premises whilst I was trying to count the early season Curlew. #UKbirding

That’s very cool

Its that tricky week when there don't seem to be any waders going north or south, so attention wanders to other things. Here's a grebeling at Ardleigh with a heart-shaped red spot on its forehead.

I thought y’all would be excited to get an update. Fledgie 1 lasted <24 hours and was nobbled by a Tawny Owl before it could even get itself into the Buzzard zone. Fledgie 2 is a lot nimbler so fleeting photos, but it does have a white eyebrow like a Siberian Thrush.

A bit quiet round here on the birding front but the Jackdaws have just fledged a white un out of the back of my shed

Always liberating to chuck a not-working-out paint off the easel and start something else. Meant to be Pied Wags skidding round some evening backlit gulls on ice in Feb, but the ice doesn't look like ice and the gulls look more oiled than backlit so👎 and on we go...#birdart

Good week for dark spots against blue water - on the left Knot cruising in to the roost in west Iceland then on return to the mighty Stour, 510 Dark-bellied Brent are still here on the weed.

Lovely thing down in the marsh tonight- spectrum of colours flashing in a spider's web as the spider scampered about the middle

Classic godwit departure tonight- birds super-excited, jumping and flapping to get flight muscles warmed up, then take off + up and away high north-west inland, maybe non-stop to Iceland #UKbirding

About another week to go for the godwits. We are at the moultpoint where the Spotred is so black it doesn't make any difference if you are photo'ing it against the light. #UKbirding

While I’m on- I’ve been off the paints and enjoying other peoples’ words lately- here’s WB Nichols writing on Hooded Crows here on the Stour estuary 1917 and you can’t help thinking what lovely social media posts the old stuff would have made hundred years on.

I wonder if the word baleful is used in any other context these days other than to describe the facial expression of Stone Curlew. Anyway, here's two fun lovin' SC gambolling about the sandstrip like gleeful newborn lambs. #UKbirding

Back on the river after a day off- the Black Swans snorkelling menacingly round the godwits like orcas round penguins on a floe.

Not much room for waders these days- a gorgeous flock of 425 spring Golden Plovers squeezed inbetween a back road and the A12 just now. #ukbirding

Oh dear- dinged my back so I'm off driving and birding for a coupla days, but can still stand at an easel. I went for this one because I liked the way the Oyk throws a shadow over the taily end of the godwit. #BirdArt

Always the possibility that a blue-ringed Shelduck is as deadly as a Blue-ringed Octopus so best watched safely from distance through a scope.

Don't often get to add something to the birds seen with rainbow list today- here's Egyptian Geese glowing after that rain. #UKBirding

Seasons are on the turn- about half the Knot flock has pushed off to Waddensee and the rest will be gone soon and first of the regular spring godwits is back- this one WfR aka "Woofer" ringed in Spain more than a decade ago and is sometimes back here as early as end of December. #UKbirding

Top tussle today - GBBG winning the long battle by lifting the Cormorant + fish clear out of the water and Cormorant so hacked off it chased the GBBG half a mile downriver. #UKBirding

Scenic on the river today and pleased to see our ever-orange Bartail is back once more for a late winter visit. #UKbirding

Nice what you can achieve with some inept camerawork- these Bar-tailed Godwits today swirling about up high look not half like a flock of Black n White-winged Black Terns over a saltpan to me. #UKBirdingUK

Missed a wailing GND today which is a bit unfortunate- here's tweaked version of one on the river in 2023. #BirdArt

I've been a bit late to the party with all these Hawfinches but here's a quick movieskit to mark one in churchyard yews today #BirdArt

nice thing I read this morning - someone calling that white bit on a Buzzard's chest its mayoral chain #BirdArt

Doesn't take long for Lapwings to feel a freeze- several birds with ice hanging off crest and UTC first thing but hopefully they will make it into the thaw this week coming.

I seem to have a dose of the scribbles so here's another: Mergs have been in full display and pair-forming since November as per usual, but here's them cranking it up a bit today. #BirdArt

This Peregrine possibly the only bird on the river feeling a bit too hot today- had about a dozen shots at forcing Teal into the water and grabbing by hover, then gave up and had to sit on beach panting to cool off. #BirdArt

Not sure where a week has gone but anyway- here's three colours of acrylic dragged over a BTD drawing to liven it up. #BirdArt

Four days on the trot without anything you could call birding but I did get to watch a Kestrel in the fog out of an upstairs window. #birdart

Too windy for Knot flag reading, so a toss-up between checking the godwits and Xmas shopping. Blowy enough for them to roost on two legs, which does half help. #birdart

What a beauty- in world full of Robin paintings that don't look like Robins, here's one that does

the great green slug of Christmas squeezing out the busy ant of birding

Over 40 years since I was first bullied into doing a cover for Suffolk Bird Report. This one painted onto canvas and given a little tickle in Photoshop once scanned, might sound like a crime to the purists but is no different to finishing off a crème brûlée with blowtorch really. #UKBirding #Birdart

No godwit in a 1Km radius at low tide this AM then this one descended out of nowhere and parked next to my tripod whilst I was having a wazz in the hedge. Also odd for Dec is that it has a yellow bill- makes ya wonder how early the first birds from Iberia start to colour up? #UKBirding

A bit boisterous out on the river today- not spyhopping orcas or drowning badgers, but Avocets feeding in the foamy surf. #birdandwildlifeart #birdart

A bit of BNG/Slav fun on the river currently- still not sure which of which we have in our little flock of four. I am aware of the basic rule, which states that if it looks like a Jack Russell its a Slav and BNGs look like Poodles. #UKBirding

From last week. One of the grandest entertainments during hightide downtime is waiting for the dewdrop to fall from the tip of a GBBG's beak. #birdandwildlifeart #birdart

One for anyone thinking of writing a best-selling history of the digi-scoping adapter. Manual came out of a box c1950 but sadly no sign of the camera.. #BirdingGear

A quick paint- Shoveler in the roost, or for sports fans a rugby ball off the ground in a static maul. #birdart