Remarkable. Not just the latest Gwent record, but the latest ever in Wales by more than a month (26 October 2017 on @skomerisland.bsky.social was the previous latest). #BirdingWales

Nice one @bardseyben.bsky.social, finding #NorthWales' first Shorelark away from the coast. How many have birders already missed? Plus sightings in @northwaleslive.bsky.social BirdNotes and a blatant plug for my Birds in the Mountains event in May. #birdingwales www.birdnotes.wales/blog/what-do...

Enjoyed some bird therapy today at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate on the Wirral Peninsula near Chester. 58 species in total, with highlights being Pintail, masses of Shelduck (44 on one pool), an unusually showy Cetti's Warbler, plus Marsh Harriers and a Short-eared Owl. I needed that!

Well, if I hadn't hung up my bins already, this would deffo make me..

Late afternoon had a Hen Harrier/Merlin feel to it so I walked down to our Wetland Bird Survey site and... Not so much as a Kestrel or Sparrowhawk, even the Mallards had gone elsewhere! The day was saved by around 220 Fieldfare and eight Reed Buntings going into roost. #ShropshireBirding

The day that the @birdsinwales.bsky.social 2024 Welsh Bird Report goes to the printers, and work starts on the 2025 edition...

The UK Is Naming Roads After Birds It's Losing New analysis from the RSPB reveals an ironic trend of new housing developments using names of some of the UK's most threatened birds. www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/T...

Our new paper is out today in Journal of the Royal Society Interface (link below). All about eggshell roughness: "Scratching beyond the surface: examining macroecological patterns in avian eggshell texture". Congrats first author Marie Attard, and thank you @leverhulme.ac.uk for the funding.

Dartford Warbler with 4+ Stonechats on East Meadows, Titchfield Haven. Hundreds of Stock Doves too! #LowCarbonBirding #PWC2025

Unexpected headline of the week 🙂 www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Even consummate migrants like Corncrakes can end up being ship-assisted, although presumably being adopted by a family and fed prawns is a rarer occurrence.... #UKBirding #Ornithology www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/2563328...

The great thing about these hybrid #ornithology events which post to platforms like Bsky, is that you can read thru the presentations at leisure and they remain here for you to go back to later. And you share away! All content available on the event tag 👇🏼 Enjoy. I just did.

Best practice guidance for recreational and professional drones near colonial breeding birds | journals.plos.org/pl... | PLOS One | #ornithology 🪶

Inland diver hat trick ##UKBIRDING

Wild victims of bird flu increase - will it be the worst winter yet in Europe? @btobirds.bsky.social reminds birders we can play a role in monitoring #HPAI Plus the week's #NorthWales sightings in @northwaleslive.bsky.social BirdNotes. 📷 Tony Pope. #BirdingWales www.birdnotes.wales/blog/wild-vi...

We have a decent Starling roost back on the Crose Mere local patch, with around 5,000 birds putting on a nice display this evening before dropping into the woods at Sweat Mere, just before the massive corvid roost gets active. I'll add a short movie clip to this thread. #ShropshireBirding

Nature not a blocker to housing growth, inquiry finds

Bird flu has arrived very early this year and Shropshire is already under DEFRA restrictions. We are receiving regular reports of dead and sick waterfowl. Please do not approach or “rescue” wild birds that are obviously ill - ring your local wildlife rescue for advice and report your find to DEFRA.

This promises to be a fantastic evening! A chance to listen to Megan’s incredible stories about her upbringing and to find out all about why and how Cuan came to be - Megan is inspirational and will help to banish those January blues with her tales 😊 #Shropshire

St Claudia be praised, my Wetland Bird Survey site is a wetland again, for the first time since May! Small beer, but definitely progress: Teal, Wigeon, Mallard and the inevitable Canada Geese. I hope it doesn't all drain away again before the next @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count 🙂 #ShropshireBirds

Fascinating ABA podcast this week, reviewing the life of Roxie Laybourne, an amazing female scientist who “may be the most influential ornithologist you've never heard of”. #Ornithology

Hundreds of the "skeletal" remains of By-the-wind Sailors (Vellela vellela) washed up on the beach at Wembury and a near adult Yellow-legged Gull on the roof of Chelson Meadow recycling centre the highlights yesterday on a day out when the sun actually appeared!

🪶 Birds inspire me daily — their songs, resilience, and epic journeys remind us why conserving them matters. Join me 🗓 Nov 19th at 🕓 4 PM ET for a FREE #ornithology webinar, From Wonder to Action for #Birds Across the Americas with @abcbirds.bsky.social RSVP: abcbirds.org/JERsvp

"Shouting at seagulls makes them more likely to leave your food alone, research shows." #Gulls news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

I've taken on a couple of new WeBS @webs-gsmp.bsky.social sites this autumn, one hasn't been counted in my lifetime and the other was my childhood patch. Both had Great Egrets this weekend, unthinkable back in their/my day! #shropshirebirding @btobirds.bsky.social

Good to see this development by WWT. "The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire is among the first UK nature reserves to use glass protection technology to tackle a major cause of bird deaths - window collisions." Link to supplier in the thread. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Venus Pool WeBS early morning 660 Canadas, Canlag, 21 Greylag, 12 Egyptian, 61 Teal, 21 Shoveler, 15 Wigeon (influx), 3 GWE, L Egret, 2 W Rail, 210 Lapwing, 5 Snipe. 2 L Grebe & GCG on CF. Influx of 22 Corn Bunting with 4 Y'hammer, 35 Linnet, 35 Greenfinch, 15 Reed B, 2 Chiffs. #shropshirebirding 🪶

Flock of 21 Whoopers went WNW past us in Lincs this morning on a direct line from Welney to the Ribble... #migration #climatechange #ukbirding

Did you know that Tom McKinney’s morning programme on BBC Radio 3 starts with a short dawn chorus piece just after the 6:30 news? Tom is a birder! Love the feature, @tommckinney.bsky.social, birdsong and classical music are a great start to the day! Too early? ⬇️ www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/sched...

We've had two separate reports of sick Mute Swans in North Shropshire today, and referred both callers to Defra. Please be vigilant, and report any sightings of sick birds to Defra (link in thread) and also log them in BirdTrack. #ShropshireBirds

Merrick was shot & killed as she slept, over two years ago. NatureScot has had all the evidence on its desk for over 18 months. Now we're being asked to wait "a few weeks" more. It's pathetic. #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/11/05/n...

A pretty depressing day counting sick & dead Whooper Swans. Avian influenza is within the population. Please report all dead birds for possible collection & testing. In 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 this is Defra gov.uk/guidance/repor… Reporting to @birdtrack.bsky.social also helps with monitoring.

UPDATE.A prompt response from Finland confirms that this is only the Fourth recovery of a Finnish ringed Rock Pipit in England.Ringed as a Nestling in Saltvic Archipelago SW Finland 27,06,2025. and recorded Lowestoft 03,11,2025 #suffolkbirdgroup #bto #ukbirding #birdingfinland #rockpipit

Woodpigeons are travelling, but where from - and where to? Plus a roundup of recent sightings in #NorthWales, including several summer visitors that really need to get a move on. #BirdingWales www.birdnotes.wales/blog/pigeons...

St Ives Island. An ‘all-dayer’. 13 Leach’s Petrel, 2 Cory’s, 3 ESP, 2 Pomarine Skua, 1 Little Auk, 2 Puffin, 3 Little Gull, 8 Sootys & a Snow Bunting with 000’s Kitts, Auks etc. But the highlight was the Loggerhead Turtle off the NCI gully for a few mins. #cornwallbirding Pic thanks to Adam H

Fourth record of Common Cuckoo for the eastern USA and Canada causes big twitch in New York State after being photographed by golfer. www.local10.com/news/weird-n...

This is heartbreaking. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...

Over 1,000 Redpoll ringed on Cannock Chase, Staffs and one had quite the story! 💫 Originally ringed on 01/10/25 in South Landing, Yorkshire 196 km away, it was recaptured by us just 13 days later. 🐦✨ Incredible journey for such a tiny traveller! #Redpoll #Migration

The not so black & white Magpie #photography #birds #Nature #wildlife #ukwildlife #shropshirebirds #birdphotography

My morning tomorrow - Radio 4 is repeating this at 09:00, a good listen from a couple of years back. Or there's a the link here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

This is why I can’t get excited about Ruddy Shelduck, Ferruginous Duck, Red-crested Pochard etc.

Another great #salopobs morning with 61 species recorded including 💥19,120💥 Woodpigeons SW, 2 Great Egrets, Brambling +225 Chaffinches, 79 Fieldfares, 2,310 LBBGs... ebird.org/checklist/S2... #vismig #ukbirding

This clip of today's #Brambling at Devon's, Hope's Nose, has the bird give the distinctive nasal 'wheeze' call. A sound often associated with coastal flyovers. It was this that alerted me to its presence on the headland's extremity this morning. #DevonBirds #UKBirding #BirdMigration

These videos of a rat hunting and eating bats will haunt my dreams. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Suck it robots!

Pleased to announce that two of these three sites have now been allocated to new WeBS surveyors, but we still have room for new team members who can identify and count wildfowl and waders on the monthly count date! You can view the vacant sites map here: www.bto.org/get-involved... #ShropshireBirds

We're here as volunteers to support the work of @btobirds.bsky.social in #Shropshire. See our profile for contact info. Our updated header pic shows what may be the largest Lesser Black-backed Gull roost in the country, at #Ellesmere. So impressive, people stop their cars to enjoy the spectacle!

Red-eyed Vireo joins White's Thrush, Red-flanked Bluetail and others on the list of remotely-sensed UK vagrants #UKBirding.

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford www.findaphd.com/phds/project...