Whatever Farage says, eating swans is a long-standing British tradition. Roast cygnets were a popular centrepiece of aristocratic feasts but swans are not easily domesticated, so complex customs developed regarding rights over wild birds. Swan marks, carved into the birds’ beaks, denoted ownership.

Hartlepool Headland 9-11: v quiet again except for a fine wp Black-throated Diver N v close-in around 9.40. 11 Red-throated Divers, 196 Common Scoter, 1 Great Skua N, at least 3 porpoises. @teesbirds.bsky.social

Hartlepool Headland 8.45-11.45: Quiet again with the obligatory 1 Manx Shearwater per hour plus 22 Red-throated Divers, 209 Common Scoter and smaller numbers of other duck. Harbour Porpoise. @teesbirds.bsky.social

We need to change everything. Step 1 - join.greenparty.org.uk

Hartlepool Headland 8.45-12: 20 Red-throated Divers, 4 Great Crested Grebes, 3 Manx Shearwater (N), 79 Common Scoter, 1 Velvet Scoter, 2 Merganser, 1 Barwit, 1 Peregrine. Harbour Porpoise. @teesbirds.bsky.social

07.45-11.45, Hartlepool Headland: some movement both directions. 17 Red-throated Divers, 5 Great Crested Grebes, 62 Common Scoter, 3 Manx Shearwater (N), 6 Great Skua. Pinkfeet over. @teesbirds.bsky.social

Too wet to see much but lots of Chiffchaffs between Bomb Hole and the breakwater at South Gare. Looks promising if rain eases. @teesbirds.bsky.social @nybirdnews.bsky.social

A massive veteran Crack Willow by Willow Beck at Northallerton, North Yorkshire. The tree has 3 stems, the main one having a girth of 4.8 metres. This is likely to be one of the riverbank trees shown on the 1st edition OS 6" map, surveyed ca. 1850. #veterantree

Hartlepool Headland 8.30- 10, quiet: marked northwards movement of juv Gannets; 7 Red-throated Divers including a couple of summer plumage birds on sea close in; 3 Arctic Skuas; up to 4 Harbour Porpoises. @teesbirds.bsky.social

🧪 BEARDED VULTURE stomach acid is so strong (pH ~1) that it dissolves bone completely, extracting fat and calcium. This adaptation allows them to survive on resources inaccessible to almost any other animal. www.projectvulture.org.za #AfricanOrnithology #beardedvulturerecoveryprogramme

Stay-put Gtr Flamingos enjoy early-life advantages but age faster later on, while migratory birds face more risks but age slower. What implications as Mediterranean migrants(eg. storks, raptors) increasingly winter close to home, avoiding long-distance movements? www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Hartlepool Headland 9.30-10.45: 1 Great Skua, 3 distant ?Arctic Skuas, 5 Red-throated Divers. Quiet. Large flock of Pinkfeet over Portrack en route. @teesbirds.bsky.social

Dolphins active off Headland 10.20 @teesbirds.bsky.social

Very sad news about Teesmouth seals @teesbirds.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Little 'Un sent me this pic of a 'seagull' eyeing up her breakfast in Ibiza. "Unlike most other gulls, Audouin’s are not scavengers" say @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social but Balearic birds seem to be learning. In Mallorca last year, gulls swooping round the pool were Audouin's rather than Yellow-legged.

Hartlepool Headland 9-10.15: plenty of gulls, terns, auks, Gannets feeding close in but v quiet otherwise. 2 Red-throated Divers N. @teesbirds.bsky.social

Arkle Beck in Arkengarthdale is a rare example of an untamed river with a braided channel and wonderfully complex riparian habitats. A decent water beetle list included the tiny, tongue-twistingly named riffle beetle Esolus parallelepipedus and Near Threatened diving beetle Oreodytes davisii.

The dead spikes of Thistle Broomrape can be easier to find than the living, with hundreds in evidence at Quarry Moor yesterday. The site almost certainly supports the largest British population of this enigmatic parasite. Why a plant of scruffy, weedy grassland is so rare and localised is a mystery.

Autumn Gentian and Eyebright in magnesian limestone grassland at Quarry Moor, Ripon, today.

Ship bringing monopiles for offshore wind turbines into the Tees for assembly this evening, accompanied by pilot boats. Hopefully renewables will be such a dominant part of UK energy generation by 2029 that the saboteurs won't be able to set the clock back.

Analysis of quadrat data shows fen-meadow at Flasks Lake has +/- equal floristic similarities to 3 closely-related NVC plant communities (M22 Blunt-flowered Rush fen-meadow, M24a Hemp Agrimony subcommunity of Purple Moor-grass fen and S24 species-rich reedfen). V promising for such young habitat.

Surprise, surprise: the snake-oil salesman at Reform are lying about cost of Net Zero. Two-thirds of supposed £30 bn/yr cost to public purse is a projection of 📉fuel duty revenue as transport electrifies. Not a subsidy and likely to be replaced by alternative levy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Working in a hidden corner of Wensleydale today, a mosaic of wet grassland, woodland and seepage fen. The latter contained abundant Marsh Valerian, Water Avens and still-flowering Devil's-bit Scabious as well as the seedheads of many orchids.

Hartlepool Headland 9-11 v quiet. 1 Great Skua, a couple of distant skua sp, 1 Red-throated Diver, 1 Whimbrel, still plenty of auks & terns about. BN Dolphins but offshore, moving north. @teesbirds.bsky.social

Red List long-toed water beetle Pomatinus substriatus re-found in River Rye, North-east Yorks today. A habitat specialist associated w submerged timber or, at this site, fibrous willow roots. Unfortunately the river was also teeming with Signal Crayfish, a recent invader here. #Coleoptera #Dryopidae

Nice to see some recently fledged Ringed Plover at Redcar this week - lovely scalloped feathers and less boldly masked than the adults. 🪶🐡 #wildlifeArt

Spined Loach caught during sampling of Reach Lode near Wicken, Cambs, this summer (released unharmed). A scarce fish, restricted in Britain to river catchments in eastern England flowing into the North Sea, including the Trent, Welland, Witham, Nene and Great Ouse. 📷Jon Graham

Holme Fleet, Cowpen Marsh 17.00: 19 Ruff, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, single Snipe, Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Yellow Wagtail @teesbirds.bsky.social

Hoary Ragwort and Fleabane providing splashes of late summer colour at @teeswildlife.bsky.social Bowesfield Marsh NR, Stockton-on-Tees.

Lesser White-front still at Bowesfield 12:50, main lake w Greylags @teesbirds.bsky.social

Write-up of the diving beetle Laccornis oblongus in a new(ish) pond in Cambs: an unexpected find for a species usually considered confined to primary fens. The bulletin Latissimus is an invaluable source on wetland beetles yet inexplicably inaccessible online.

Looking for water beetles on the River Ribble today. Hard work, with what would normally be water-line habitats dry and exposed. Mostly riffle beetles such as Oulimnius tuberculatus, one of the three commonest species.

Today's work was to search for rare Hydraenas - tiny water beetles which inhabit the extreme edges of streams - in Upper Wharfedale. No luck, not helped by v low river levels, but one site yielded good numbers of Oreodytes davisii, a diving beetle with an important stronghold in Yorkshire Dales.

Meanwhile, Reform-controlled Scarborough Town Council has committed to "full and unwavering" opposition to fracking plans in Burniston. Beyond an inchoate notion that renewables are "woke", Reform's grasp of energy policy is similar to my dog's grasp of cross-stitch. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

08.45 small pod BN Dolphins moving S off Hartlepool Headland. Also 1 Harbour Porpoise. Birds v quiet over past hour, 1 Arctic Skua. @teesbirds.bsky.social

Planting of this marginal fen zone at the @nosterfieldnr.bsky.social reedbed began in February 2023. It's maturing well, showing that good quality wetland habitat can be established relatively quickly. Some management of reedmace is needed.

x.com/@MuntherIsaac Posted by a Palestinian Christian pastor:

Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Dunlin, Ringed Plover @nosterfieldnr.bsky.social main lake; Marsh Harrier, Green Woodpecker, Cetti's Warbler at quarry. @nybirdnews.bsky.social

Hartlepool Headland 8.30-11.30: 21 Manx Shearwater, 45 Common Scoter N; single Great & Arctic Skuas, Little Gull, RN Grebe. @teesbirds.bsky.social

Stinging fish on North-east coast. The increase in Weever Fish is associated with rising temperatures in the North Sea. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We are seeing population growth & range expansion in TyneTees area each year NB: Looking at nests we see *emerging evidence* of competition with other cavity nesters including TawnyOwl being physically usurped ! Also brood parasitism in Goosander Stock Dove & Jackdaw nests @teesbirds.bsky.social

Hartlepool Headland, 10.00-13.00: thin trickle of Arctic Skuas and Manx Shearwaters, some Manxies very close-in and mingling with foraging flocks of auks, terns and gulls. 1 Great Skua, 1 Black Tern, 2 Whimbrels, 105 Common Scoter. @teesbirds.bsky.social

🤑 The average FTSE 100 CEO is now paid 122 times the salary of the average full-time UK worker. ⚖️ The Green Party would introduce a 10:1 pay ratio, meaning the highest-paid employee cannot earn more than ten times the lowest-paid.

Two interesting wetland plants on Teesside: Golden Dock at RSPB Saltholme; and Nodding(?) Bur-marigold at @teeswildlife.bsky.social Bowesfield NR. I wasn't paying enough attention to the latter and will have to go back to check the leaves: neither of the bur-marigolds seem to be recorded for NZ41.

10.08 Cory's Shearwater N past Hartlepool Headland @teesbirds.bsky.social

Congratulations to Little 'Un: 'Double Distinction Merit' in her forensic science BTEC so she's going to Uni🏆🏆🏆

Hartlepool Headland 09:30-11.30; quiet apart from close-in Cory's Shearwater N at 9:55. 2 Arctic Skua, 49 Common Scoter N @teesbirds.bsky.social

Hoped to find Pillwort on the exposed shores of the moorland reservoir at Scaling Dam but no luck - just masses of Shoreweed and rush seedlings.

Exposed silt is so important for the seeds of wetland plants to germinate and establish. We've seen no recruitment of Tufted Sedge in shallow standing water but in this plot, prolific germination has been followed by rapid growth of young plants.