Found a flock of c400 Redpolls 😍 at Stobswood this afternoon. One of my favourite birding challenges - stalking the ever-moving flock, scrutinising the subtle plumage differences, bird-by-bird, knowing that every 5 minutes they’re going to flush and I’ll have to start over again. Zen birding!

Fenham-le-moor - 5 Slavonian Grebes (inc 2 displaying to each other), LT Duck, RT Diver, c30 RB Mergansers, Peregrine. Harpers Heugh - c3,000 Barnacle Geese inc leucistic bird. 1 DB Brent Stag Rocks - 4 LT Duck, GN Diver, c60 RT Divers #NEbirding

Happy Christmas from Sam and Rosie 🐕 (who think it’s about time for us to get up and give them their presents)

I hope all your Christmases have started better than mine, in that none of you have just knocked your monitor off its shelf onto the laptop below, smashing the screens on both 🤦‍♂️. And, before you ask, I hadn’t even had a drink…

An early Christmas 🎁 and an unexpected reward for ‘volunteering’ to take the family shopping in Newcastle today… 11 Waxwings along the B6341 near Edlingham #NEbirding #birds

A great flock of 3,000+ Barnacle Geese and 1,500 Pinkfeet by the level crossing north of Elwick this morning, including this leucistic Barnie #NEbirding #birds

Guinevere's seasonal guide to pronouncing Northumbrian place names like a local. Goswick. Gozick. Silent W. Goz like gosling... which is apt given it means "goose farm". Recorded as Gossewic 1202. Granma kept geese (& ducks).She'd walk them down to the River Lyne for a swim!! Plenty ⬇️⬇️ too.

Keynote nominations are now open for the BOU 2027 Spring Conference on Avian Disease Ecology! Submit via the conference webpage: bou.org.uk/event/avian-... Also thrilled to announce that Prof. Dana Hawley (@danahawley.bsky.social) will deliver the Alfred Newton Lecture. Please share!

Mostly housebound with a bad back this week, so little to post. So here’s a handsome dog posing with his friend at home this evening

The International Swan Census is nearly here! UK coverage looks strong, but key Whooper/Bewick's sites still need volunteers for 17–18 Jan 26. If you can help, please reach out to @btobirds.bsky.social. Check map for vacant sites lnkd.in/eWqWm7GW Thanks to all who are taking part! Photo: Ben Andrew

A first for me today - in 100’s of gigs, I’ve never been to a matinee. Watching the Marconi Union was a blissful way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon in Newcastle

Sam’s turn to be the golden retriever at the end of the rainbow (sorry, old joke)

Northumberland was looking very moody after the rain finished this afternoon, mist rising off the fields and woods backlit by some weak winter sun

As usual, good numbers of farmland birds at Holburn Grange today - c200 Yellowhammers, 70 Reed Buntings, 80 Tree Sparrows #NEbirding

Also at Buston Links, Northumberland, this stunning leucistic Hare 😍. At dusk - when I saw the white moving across a distant field I thought it was a Barn Owl at first! I’ll return to look for it in better light #UKwildlife #UKmammals

Two of my favourite species at Buston Links near dusk - Short-eared Owl & Jack Snipe. Also Barn Owl, 2 Little Egrets, 2+ Water Rails #NEbirding #birds

A Purple Sandpiper channeling its inner phalarope at Seaton Pt this afternoon #WaderWednesday #NEbirding

Fontburn this afternoon - pleasant but seems to have very few wintering finches this year ☹️. Couldn’t quite read this Marsh Tit’s ring 🤷‍♂️. Called into Netherwitton on the way home to admire 20+ Bramblings #NEbirding

Visited Northumberland’s newest tourist attraction, in Warkworth Dunes. 5/5, would visit again - especially recommended for driftwood fans. Better than Alnwick Gardens and about 50 quid cheaper

Warkworth. After a week housebound with flu, a relief to get outside with our poor neglected dogs! Could’ve done without that rain on the horizon, mind.

NEW BLOG - the RBBP reviews what species we should collect data on regularly. Here’s an explanation of what we consider when species are removed, and why Avocet and Mediterranean Gull are staying on our list, for now rbbp.org.uk/2025/11/25/r...

There was actually a time quite recently when the Young People still used Tinder (Published around the time of Dawn Chorus Day)

Are you an MSc student based at a UK university? Or do you know one? RSPB @rspbscience.bsky.social have just released their list of research projects for 2026: www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu... #ornithology #conservationscience 🌍

This, from the Guardian, is Ryanair at its very worst. It's not good enough for them to insist that they're a low-cost airline and everyone knows the rules, in circumstances like this... I wonder if legislation is needed?

Curlews dropping into the fields to roost at Boulmer this evening. A Jack Snipe coming in-off low over the haven was a pleasant surprise #NEbirding

Three gigs in a week, all very different - tonight was soaring psychedelia from Gong in Newcastle. Fantastic, but I am looking forward to a quiet night in tomorrow

Pete Kember - Sonic Boom - in Glasgow last night. 36 years since I first saw him in Spacemen 3, his music has enriched my life immeasurably ever since. I also enjoyed, in a clear case of mistaken identity, being ushered backstage to meet him, to the bemusement of us both (but my delight!) 😂

Epic skies at Goswick right now. Though tbh I think I’d rather be looking at them on my phone screen like you are, rather than standing here dreading the next 30 mph hail storm 😂

I recently wrote something about the science of pareidolia, the "you can't unsee this face in this inanimate thing" bias - and all the examples I found are delightful, ludicrous and worrying! (It's amazing how completely it hijacks our mind.) I dare you to unsee the following examples. 1/

Pleased to find a Black Redstart on the beach at Howick this afternoon, but it didn’t want its photo taken #NEbirding

Purple Sandpipers evading the waves at Howick this afternoon. Thought that sooner or later there’d be a wave big enough to disturb the roost, so I waited... I was right #NEbirding #WaderWednesday #birds

Well, they did say there might be snow. One of a flock of 11 Snow Buntings at Seaton Point this afternoon. Also 5 Whooper Swans, 35+ Purple Sandpipers, Barn Owl #NEbirding #birds

Left it a bit late to go out - forgot how early it’s going dark now - but a quick jaunt around Howick-Craster was good for Firecrest & Yellow-browed Warbler (both nr Craster car park) plus Chiffchaff, Woodcock, c20 Goldcrests #NEbirding

Great gig by the unique Fyfe Dangerfield in the grand setting of the @thebowesmuseum.bsky.social last night. Honoured that he played ‘Birdwatcher’ for @yolobirder.bsky.social and I!

As well as a giant of raptor conservation and monitoring with a razor-sharp intellect, Patrick was a kind man with a wonderful dry wit. He was a pleasure to work with, and I and very many others will miss him.

Eating at the Woodburn Grange pub this evening, and it’s been suggested I should be sharing my chips… #birds

After almost a full day of RBBP meeting, we got out just in time to see this female Ring-necked Duck on Ladyburn Lake in very murky conditions #NEbirding

No great rarities, but my @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count at East Chevington was hooching with birds with much disturbance from Otters and Marsh Harriers. A Raven was a site first for me #NEbirding

Great entertainment from this Otter, one of two at East Chevington today. Pretty sure it was playing with the eel it had caught, releasing it and catching it again

Raptor recovery… Marsh Harrier, Goshawk, White-tailed Eagle and Osprey have all increased substantially over recent decades. Ospreys have colonised new counties at the rate of one a year, including Co. Fermanagh in 2023, the first breeding on the island of Ireland in 200 yrs #ukbirding #ornithology

The sound of a Dusky Warbler giving it large at Craster this morning #NEbirding

Two (!) Dusky Warblers at the south end of the Arnold Memorial reserve, Craster. Only one seen but the two birds heard calling at each other. Very pleasing self-found ✅ #NEbirding

Some good news for Friday: the new RBBP report reveals that five species of large wading bird reached record totals in 2023, including Spoonbill. See the trend since 2010 below… even the bird itself looks shocked by the increase! Read more at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... #ukbirding #ornithology

4 dead and 3 sick Greylags at Branton Pits Northumberland today (reported). Worrying #NEBirding

Both the Red-spotted and White-spotted races of Bluethroat try to breed in the UK occasionally but breeding has only been confirmed on five occasions, in 1968, 85, 95, 2016 (Red-spotted) and 1996 (White-spotted). There were single possible breeding records of both in 2023 #ukbirding #ornithology

Rock royalty without even having to leave Alnwick this evening. Martin Barre - the sound of Jethro Tull - at the Playhouse

The latest report from the RBBP, Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2023, is out now in British Birds. It reports on the 104 species and races of rare breeding birds recording breeding, or showing signs of breeding, in 2023. Read the summary at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... #ornithology #ukbirds 🧵[1/15]

Our report for 2023 is out now in @britishbirds.bsky.social. There's a summary at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... but if you prefer to watch rather than read then here's RBBP secretary @markaeaton.bsky.social with a few key points and some lovely photos! #ornithology #ukbirds youtu.be/arj1m7NfKmY

Hoopoes bred in Leicestershire & Rutland in 2023, the first confirmed breeding record in the UK since 1996. Here’s the family - parents and three offspring. Can you see them all? Read more about rare breeding birds in 2023 at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... 📸 Carl Baggott

Another species returning to breed in 2023 was Temminck's Stint; a pair laid a clutch of four eggs in Highland, although the nest was later flooded out. This tiny wader bred regularly in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, but this was the first confirmed breeding since 1997 #ornithology #BirdingScotland