The main aim of our trip to the Uists was to try and find American waders. The trip started with two Pec Sands, but not really what I was hoping for. Today, on our last full day here, we scored with a White-rumped Sandpiper. A self-found tick. Job done😀(full zoom digiscope)

One of the more unexpected species seen so far on our trip, has been this really smart juvenile Turtle Dove we found at Balranald a few days ago, possibly my best ever views of the species.

Today on South Uist, I rather embarrassingly / surprisingly saw only my 3rd, 4th & 5th ever British White-tailed Eagles! (previous Oxfordshire 1984 & Skye 2000). I can now happily add them to my self-found List.

Another day, another island, another Pectoral Sandpiper! This one on South Uist this afternoon & found by Linda. It showed a lot better than mine on North Uist yesterday!

A great first morning birding on North Uist, with Black Tern, 2 Little Stints & 7 Curlew Sands but the best of the bunch was my 4th self found Pectoral Sandpiper. (awful record shot attached). Enjoying my first proper birding on the Uists (only twitched here previously)

Excellent start to our Scottish trip: Stopped off on our way north to try for Eurasian Beaver, near Perth and was not disappointed, with 6 seen at dusk. A new mammal for me 😀

An excellent mornings birding on the Anglesey patch. It started with 8 Black Terns on an early morning seawatch-my highest patch count and a species I see less than annually. Followed by a Pied Fly at Hen Borth, my 4th Anglesey record, where its less than annual & my 1st for 9 years! 🪶 #BirdsinWales

I thought the day was going well when I found my first Great White Egret of the year on the Inland Sea, early morning. But it would soon get a whole lot better when I found: Anglesey’s second Pacific Golden Plover (Wales’s third?) on the Alaw Estuary! #BirdsinWales 🪶

Cemlyn is home to a scarce moth, the Thrift Clearwing, which is only found in a few west coast sites. I have looked for it several times & failed, but today I finally succeeded, thanks to a lure loaned from @philj61.bsky.social

Lunar Hornet Moth, at Keele Uni this morning. My first ever Clearwing and a first for Keele. A species I've wanted to see for a long time, as they were pretty mythical when I was mothing 25 years ago.

Really fortunate to have this Little Owl perch up right by the path, on my walk around Keele Uni. this morning.🪶

This female Common Scoter put in a brief appearance on Tyn Llan pool, Cemlyn, this morning. I found it swimming around with the Mallards! I think it's my first scoter record actually on the reserve.

One of the highlights of our Tajikistan trip has been Azure Tit, a species I have wanted to see since seeing it in field guides when I first started birding. The birds in Tajikistan belong to one of the yellow-breasted races also known as Yellow-breasted Tit.

We have finally managed to get decent wifi after nearly a week into our Tajikistan trip. My main target was Tibetan Sandgrouse, having missed them on the Tibetan plateau 23 years ago, so getting great views of a flock of 12 birds with will certainly make it the bird of the trip.

Spotted Flycatcher is a scarce & tricky to locate breeder at Keele University, so I was pretty pleased when, after finding non last week, I managed to find 3 territories this morning. 🪶

It's been a quiet few days back on the Anglesey patch, with very few migrants. The highlight has probably been this rather smart Red Squirrel, which showed rather well in the small plantation on Carmel Head this morning.

Another very enjoyable wader session on the Alaw Estuary / Llanfwrog beach area this evening, with 2 Curlew Sandpipers being the highlight. #BirdsinWales 🪶

The Iberian Wagtail was still present this morning, but this time closer and in much better light, so very pleased with the improved photos. This must be the real deal. #BirdsinWales🪶

Decided to spend the afternoon checking out the waders on the Alaw Estuary / Llanfwrog beach, but it didn't go to plan when we found this rather smart Yellow Wagtail - a good Spanish Wagtail candidate. 🤔 #BirdsinWales 🪶

An excellent wader session on the Alaw Estuary / Llanfwrog beach area this afternoon, with 3 Little Stints and a really showy Curlew Sandpiper. #BirdsinWales 🪶

Day three and the 2 Roseate Terns are still at Cemlyn & looking settled. 🤞 #BirdsinWales 🪶

Great to find a pair of Roseate Terns in the Cemlyn tern colony this morning. It would be even better if they stayed around🤞#BirdsinWales 🪶

A pleasant couple of days birding the nw Anglesey coast from Carmel Head to Cemlyn, with a decent scatter of migrants: The highlights being my 1st site record of Marsh Harrier for Carmel Head, only my 2nd Reed Warbler for Cemlyn, 8 Spotted Flys, 3 Yellow Wagtails & 1 Tree Pipit. #BirdsinWales 🪶

This last week on Anglesey has been poor for passerine migrants, due to the persistent northerly winds, with just a few Tree Pipits and Whinchats. The waders have been some consolation thanks to finding finding Anglesey's first Little Stint & Curlew Sandpipers of the year. #BirdsinWales 🪶

My first mornings birding around Keele Uni. for a few weeks, so great to catch up with a few summer visitors. The highlight was the 4th record of Sedge Warbler for Keele, plus Willow Warbler, 2 Garden Warblers & 5 Whitethroat. 🪶

Nice views this afternoon of 6 of 7 the Cattle Egrets, that have been present in the Valley area for the last few months. BirdsinWales 🪶

Highlights from an afternoon session on the Alaw Estuary: 1 Short-eared Owl, the Whooper Swan is still with the Mute Swan flock which has now been joined by a Snow Goose. #BirdsinWales 🪶

An excellent mornings birding on Carmel head: My first Melin, Whinchat & Cuckoo of the year. Plus 2 Whooper Swans - flew overhead & NW out to sea, 3 Tree Pipit, 20 White wag, 42 Whimbrel, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit & 1 Red Kite.

Every year I hope that this will be the year that I get to see, a long overdue, Eastern Bonelli's Warbler. Finally that year has arrived with great views on Whalsay, Shetland this morning. It was great, to have just the two of us locating and watching the bird, for over an hour.

A decent birding session on Carmel Head this morning, the highlights: 2 fly over Yellow Wagtails, 3 Tree Pipit (2 on the deck) and 3 Hooded Crows - my highest Anglesey patch count. #BirdsinWales 🪶

After 32 hours of almost constant rain, it was good to get out to the Alaw Estuary this afternoon. Good views of the long staying Whopper Swan & Pinkfoot plus decent numbers of waders: 105 Ringed Plover, 215 Dunlin & 13 Whimbrel. #BirdsinWales 🪶

The American Wigeon was still present on the Alaw Estuary this morning giving slightly better views & photos, mainly due to the better light. It appears to be paired with a Eurasian Wigeon. (no other Wigeon present today) #BirdingWales 🪶

Well pleased with finding Anglesey's 5th record of American Wigeon on the Alaw estuary this afternoon & a self-found tick as well.🪶#birdingwales

Good numbers of migrants along the Cemlyn to Hen Borth coast this morning; 1 LRP, 2 C.Sand, 1 Whimbrel, 3 Grasshopper W, 2 Sedge W, c30 Willow W, c100 White Wag. + 8 Med Gulls. This afternoons highlights: 8 Whimbrel on the Inland Sea, SE Owl & Whooper Swan on the Alaw Estuary

It's always great to see a daytime Tawny Owl. This one showed rather well on my early morning walk around Keele 🪶

Great to be back birding the Anglesey patch after missing last year, due to being in Aus. By far the highlight of the last 3 days is this extremely confiding Ring Ouzel on Carmel Head this morning. Only my 3rd Anglesey record & a site tick.🪶

Our SE Asia trips comes to a close. Final tick tally: Thailand 17, Borneo (Sabah) 10, peninsular Malaysia 10. Best bird; Rail Babbler, second & best photographed species: Bornean Peacock-Pheasant. A really enjoyable trip & nice to re visit so many sites with great memories.

The highlight of our last day at Fraser's Hill was watching and hearing these Siamang perform. Siamang are the largest species of gibbon. (Video sound should be on)🪶

We decided to go back to Fraser's Hill for the last couple of days of our trip, as we missed 2 species last week. My most wanted of these was Malayan Partridge, which we had heard several times & I even saw through the thermal! Finally this afternoon on the Mager Trail...😀

Our final full day in Taman Negara, a National Park that keeps giving: After 6 days of searching, we finally nailed White-necked Babbler, and what a stunner it is. One of the best Babblers? My 5th tick in the NP.

Our SE Asia trip is based around 2 species: Eared Pitta, which saw in Thailand & Rail Babbler the reason we are in Taman Negara, its a monotypic family, so a species I have to see if I wast to see all the bird families of the world. After 4 days of birding hot & sweaty trails we scored this morning.

After a slightly worrying tick free, first day, at Taman Negara yesterday, it was a relief to get 2 new birds this morning. The highlight being Malaysian Blue-banded Kingfisher along the Tahan River.🪶

One of my favourite mammals of the trip is this Max's short-tailed gymnure. Gymnures belong to the Erinaceidae family, the same family as Hedgehogs! (Note the tiny tail)

It's 34 yers since we were last at Fraser's Hill, Malaysia, accompanied by Dipper (RIP) & Ian Ricketts. My 1st trip to SE Asia. Inevitably we missed a few species, one of which was Black Laughing-thrush, so I was particularly please when a pair showed well this afternoon.🪶

The peninsular Malaysia leg of the trip has started rather nicely with these 2 Mountain Peacock Pheasants, this morning.🪶

Our final days birding in Sabah, Borneo; in the hot & humid Klias Peat Swamp reserve. After only managing UTV's of Hook-billed Bulbul in the morning, we returned in the sweltering afternoon and managed to get decent views. New species number 10 on the Borneo leg of the trip.

It may not be the best photograph, nor the prettiest bird of the trip, but it's certainly the rarest (only 3 eBird records, anywhere in the last 2 years!). Crocker Jungle Flycatcher, at the Rafflesia Centre, Mount Alab, this morning. Well chuffed. 😀😀

Excellent start to the Borneo leg of our trip, with a total 5 Bulwer's Pheasants seen, a mythical species until a few years ago when birds started to be fed/seen from a hide. Unfortunately it was virtually dark when the 2 immature males appeared, so slow shutter speeds & high iso.

Our last day in Thailand, before heading off to Malaysia this afternoon. Final tally: 17 new birds & c5 new mammals. This rather smart Ferruginous Partridge, was one of the highlights, albeit taken from a hide, just outside Kaeng Krachan earlier in the trip.

Excellent 3 days birding in northern Thailand, with all 3 targets in the bag. This Red-eyed Scimitar-babbler was the highlight; it came to investigate us whilst we stopped for lunch in the car - unfortunately, Linda had fallen asleep.😴