Seawatching was very quiet last week but there were some notable distractions so I might have missed a couple of manxies…

Arctic tern are currently hanging round at Girdle Ness in un(recently)precedented numbers. I counted 460 today. Still plenty to come from the local breeding colony too. Lovely to see this species have a good year

Starlings, baby starlings, nest in wall, seaside. #bioacoustics #BirdingScotland soundcloud.com/fat-paul-sch...

Red knot foraging in a small group on the shore of the Little Sea, Sanday. I love these tiny contact calls, mostly inaudible to my ears even though I was only 15 m away. soundcloud.com/fat-paul-sch...

JOB OPPORTUNITY | ASSISTANT DEVELOPMENT OFFICER We're looking for an Assistant Development Officer to enhance the Club’s delivery of key programmes and provide vital support to our Development Manager, across several cross-cutting areas of activity. Full vacancy details here: //tinyurl.com/3jrd5t5r

A feature of my Sanday trip was the 'tundrae type' ringed plovers, including a tight flock of 172 birds together in a field. Here's several birds feeding on the Little Sea, a great place to see (and hear!) waders close up. #bioacoustics #orkneybirding #BirdingScotland soundcloud.com/fat-paul-sch...

Marsh Tits are now only found in 1 known area of Scotland & are one of our rarest breeding birds at 3 known pairs. The Scottish Marsh Tit Project is looking for volunteers to assist in the species' conservation. Join an online info evening on 2 July to find out more tinyurl.com/yswhtuxz #ornithology

04:45 this morning. A euphony of plentiful native avifauna. This is how it should be. 🇨🇦🌎 #birdingBC

Not only is this a really neat study but it also has the best 'lay' summary I've seen. I'm not totally lay but still, I appreciate the simplicity and clarity in how the work is described here. More of this sort of thing please...

Small webpage for an ongoing #bioacoustic monitoring project I am part of at Stora Karlsö: auklab-audio.github.io Adding #audio will hopefully let us learn more about the life of the Guillemots. What are they saying? Lesson learned: designing a recording setup is a challenge and lots of fun! 🔊

Absolute bliss. Our 30 yr rewilding plot at Monks Wood is full of singing Willow Warblers. This 2ha plot is the only part of the 165 ha woodland complex where this declining bird still breeds, showing how natural colonisation around existing woods gives biodiversity benefits from the diversity.

Ooft. Ya beauty!! Out of context, particularly ‘guiding finds’ are always a bonus- and jammy as. This 2nd cal male Pallid fairly raised the pulse this morning on way home for breakfast with my photo-tour group, after a 4:30 start this morning 😳 #rarebirdsUK #shetlandbirding #shetland #birding

#Nightjars! Don't you just love 'em? An exceptional year in NE Scotland. Another pr pinned down last night w/ Paul Baxter & another bird at a new site www.bto.org/get-involved... @scottishbirding.bsky.social @btoscotland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social #birdingscotland @greg-conway.bsky.social

A rare non-bird sound. Midwife toads pinging off each other in the heat of a French night #bioacoustics soundcloud.com/fat-paul-sch...

Regarding UK Stonechats with features of the Continental race rubicola, e.g. white rumps and ‘shoulders’… how about this stunner in Cumbria over the weekend? #UKbirding #birds

Iberian Chiffchaff still present early this morning. Same spot. Singing continuously and showing better than yesterday evening. #birdingFife #rarebirdsUK

More data on white-billed divers on the Dogger Bank.

It felt like a reward finding this Blyth's Reed Warbler in the irises behind the street on #StKilda yesterday after a long hard day in the field searching for Great Skuas. Fourth island record and third in 5 years! @hebridesbirds.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social

FEEEEEET

The persistent, strong, north-westerlies largely put paid to any hopes of spring overshoots this past week on Tiree, but there's always the local specialities to keep you entertained (and awake at night) #tireebirding.

Puffins nest in underground burrows for safety but some also use boulder scree like this individual…

On this day… another moment from Shetland 2018. This bearded seal in Lerwick was a real crowd pleaser!

On this day… in 2018. Tagging red-throated diver in Shetland with the late and very great Dave Okill and @ljohnbirding1.bsky.social

On this day… Burness, Sanday was the place to be. Yes, I know my eBird is in French. No, I don’t know why…!

2 Dunlin on the shore at Low Newton today. #NEbirding #arctica

On this day… in 2018, a golden oriole singing in the garden at Sandgarth, Shetland macaulaylibrary.org/asset/103097...

Happy 20th Birthday to Xeno-Canto! xeno-canto.org/collection/s... #birding #BirdingScotland #ukbirding

#BirdingScotland #orkneybirding

On this day in 2017, a Sanday Subalp spp. all thoughts welcome! ebird.org/checklist/S5...

A quick plug for the second in our Just Reverberations sound workshops at Greyhope Bay. It's tomorrow evening and as well as featuring me and Rebecca it also features fairly local bird expert @fatpaulscholes.bsky.social #BirdingScotland #Aberdeen www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/recording-...

For the last few weeks I have been compiling sketches, photos, and videos of the Pacific Diver, and of Black-throated, working my thoughts into more finished ideas. Much has been written before on the id of both, but I enjoyed the process and learned plenty for the next one.

An Isle of May super seabird soundscape #BirdingScotland #bioacoustics #SuperSeabirdSunday @steelyseabirder.bsky.social soundcloud.com/fat-paul-sch...

Not much in the way of new birds the last couple of days so it's back to that funky grey Willow Warbler and looking at Dunlin again ! A new arctica Dunlin at Low Newton today (showing different scapulars and belly patch), this time on the beach. #NEbirding #Lowcarbonbirding

A 'flying' visit Unst saw me jam into the most accommodating Hobby ever!.... Still a scarce bird in Shetland, and the first I've seen in the 20 years I've lived here. Many thanks to the Unst birders for getting the news out..... 😎👍 #YellBirding #Shetland #JammyBugger

Another good night for #Nightjar in Aberdeenshire. Singing males found at another two new sites. www.bto.org/get-involved... @scottishbirding.bsky.social @btoscotland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social #scottishbirding @greg-conway.bsky.social

More Sanday sounds. Arctic-bound turnstone, sanderling and ringed plover bickering while feeding on washed up seaweed in Rooswick, while the waves gently wash the shore. #BirdingScotland #birdingOrkney #bioacoustics soundcloud.com/fat-paul-sch...

Wet and windy last night but this flyover #nocmig Quail still wanted wetter lips... 💋 #wetmylips #salopobs #quail

#BirdingScotland #BirdingOrkney #Bioacoustics

A highlight of my recent trip to Sanday was a perfectly calm day - just what you want for lots of recording. Here's a recording of a pair of common tern that got agitated about a common gull that happened to drift by. soundcloud.com/fat-paul-sch...

Sound recording up on the moors today and heard a sound I've never heard before, which eventually turned out to be young Curlew chicks: soundcloud.com/user-9092529... I quickly retreated once I figured out what was making the noise #UKBirding

A bit blowy & a bit distant but there's a brief bit of Common Rosefinch song audible in this little clip from Weybourne this evening. The bird did come closer later in the evening, singing strongly for a good while. Fun bird! @linnetincley.bsky.social #NorfolkBirding

Low Newton scrapes today - 37 Ringed Plover, 5 Dunlin and 43 Oystercatcher. This grey looking Willow Warbler is still singing at Newton Pool. It's appearance changes with the light conditions, grey/creamy (in shade) and more brownish grey/white (in bright light). #NEbirding #Lowcarbonbirding

5 minutes of marsh warbler mimicry madness, recorded at Girdle Ness last night. macaulaylibrary.org/asset/636571... #bioacoustics #BirdingScotland

Dotterel on Sanday yesterday. An absolute stunner.

The blue butterfly app seems like an appropriate place to ask… where do folks put their butterfly data? Is there anything like eBird for butterflies?

A rather grotty recording of a night migrating little ringed plover over Aberdeen in early April. Still an interesting record this far north. #bioacoustics macaulaylibrary.org/asset/634290...

A really nice, close, sweeooo calling chiffchaff from the Ness the other day. One of the trisyllabic variants (sweeeooo-ee). These are much more of an autumn thing but do happen in spring. I’d love to get to the bottom of what/why is going on with sweeoo… macaulaylibrary.org/asset/634078...

Lovely bit of mimicry in this snippet of greenfinch song. I hear linnet, pied wagtail, oystercatcher and redpoll in there. macaulaylibrary.org/asset/634038...

Shades of littoralis rock pipit from Girdle Ness yesterday. Cool to see 5 really distinctive birds together. Anyone have any idea how fast these things get their breeding plumage? These were either new birds or the dingy and quite Petrosus-like flock that’s been around lately has pijazzled fast.

Great note in the latest BB on colour morphs in bullfinch. Who knew there were light and dark morphs? Something I’ve noticed but never found an explanation for, and now I can stop unsuccessfully and unsatisfactorily trying to make pale birds into ‘northern’ bullfinch. Pale on left, dark on right.