The Great Glen skua portal opened up today, amazing to see Long-tailed Skuas thermalling over Loch Linnhe like giant Bee-eaters up to 1000m before whizzing northeast towards Inverness! 🪶 #ornithology #highlandbirds

Spring waders really are superb! This alpina Dunlin is bound for the European arctic somewhere, while the leucorhoa Northern Wheatear is bound for Greenland. I wasn't expecting to find a Nearctic passerine on patch today, but I'll take it! Just two of many globetrotters on the Outstrays today.

This Cuckoo at Outstrays was battling against the wind today, and doing rather well.

The rapid erosion of Easington continues. I took the first 2 pics in November, the last 2 today. The gravel path is gone, the fence is gone, but most annoyingly the plastic tree guards are just being left to fall into the sea. The sooner everyone just stops using plastic tree guards the better.

As well as rares, there are many, many common birds that give me a lot of pleasure. One of my favourite things are Dunlin in May, and the Warren at Spurn is a great place to look for all sorts of variation. Most of them at the moment seem to be schinzii, but a few alpina present too.

With only 10 post-1950 records, Desert Wheatear is surprisingly rare in Yorkshire. The most recent was 2017, but the last one at Spurn was 1962! So today's bird at Grimston was well worth the short trek up the coast.

Search is full of ads and wrong answers. Every other email is an ad. Prime Video charges you and shows ads. Paramount? Ads. Peacock? YouTube? Hulu? Ads followed by more ads. Netflix full of ads. 🧵

Post 2 about Cape Verde, and thought I'd get another rarity out of the way, but this time a local mega rather than a WP one. This reiseri Eastern Olivaceous Wblr seems to be the 2nd record for Cape Verde. Was nice to see while waiting for the Red-billed Quelea to show up! ebird.org/checklist/S3...

Frampton Marsh yesterday. Among the brent horde were two Pale-bellieds plus this presumed hybrid Pale x Dark-bellied, paired with a Pale-bellied. Appearance changed wigh angles of course, but consistently showed inbetween features.

We are pleased to announce that copies of ‘The Birds of Fair Isle’ are now on sale at The SOC, Waterston House, Aberlady, East Lothian at £85. @scottishbirding.bsky.social

Cape Verde really is an outpost of the Palearctic. It has a suite of endemic breeding birds, including some quality seabirds, and we were there to enjoy some pioneering pelagics in March. It also attracts some monster WP rares, and my first port of call was this wondrously-winged Willet on Boa Vista

🚨 Just a friendly reminder to users of the Mapper App housemartinconservation.com/house-martin... to re-synch it to the latest version before logging your first entries this year. It's good practice to re-synch regularly so you don't get caught out! 🚨 If you haven't already downloaded, please do! 😊

Decision relating to the #BritishList The subspecies Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus vetula has been added to the British List bou.org.uk/british-l...#BritishList The British List remains at 636 species #ornithology

Decision relating to the #BritishList Pied Crow Corvus albus has not been added to Category A or Category D bou.org.uk/british-l...#BritishList The British List remains at 636 species #ornithology

Honored to have had the chance to visit Oxford last week (after a few days in Liverpool beforehand!). I really enjoyed meeting so many great people and sharing ideas on bird migration. I hope you enjoyed the presentation, and stay tuned for upcoming results on vagrants and bird migration! 🪶

Naff boc shots, but the Willet on Boa Vista showed nicely today. All gearing up nicely for the pelagics off Fogo next week, hopefully some quality sea-birding here on Cape Verde to come...

Ross’s Gull Prints pre-order! - Original SOLD- A4, limited edition of only 25! £25 plus p+p. They are made to order, so will take around 3/4 weeks- msg to order. Reference photo credit to Sarah Jane, Gill Fisher and @runnelstone.bsky.social #birds #ukbirding #cornwallbirding #watercolourart

Getting there. Need a few adjustments, and text adding on a computer, but here are 5 Chiffchaffs and one Willow Warbler. #birds #ukbirding #sciart #birdart

We are so lucky here. We have a pr of Tawny Owls that are seemingly resident, roosting within (but mostly out of) sight of my desk, plus a pr of Barn Owls close by that sometimes take advantage of calm winter sun. Tawny photo'd well after dark, Barnie is just miles away!!

I don't often twitch long-distance anymore, but with 3 dips over nearly 30 yrs, Ross's Gull was up there as most wanted. And being a first winter, its even more special to the ID aficionados. Just a few 1000 pics to go through... #RareBirdsUK

Why oh why are we sacrificing everything to AI? It can't even get the bits right its supposed to be good at. How can you present the wrong answer, quote the source, then the source appears below with the actual correct answer!! But yeah, folding proteins.....

Complete change in fortune for my recently abysmal WeBS counts. The new realignment at Weeton has taken the majority of roosting waders, leaving me free to enjoy this Black Brant, plus a delightfully squeaky Otter. 3 GW Egrets, SEO and 40+ Rock Pipits in support.

Get a taste for British Birds in this month's Open Access paper: BB eye: A birder’s guide to High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti...

Does anyone know of any Long-tailed Skuas resembling the North American race pallescens being seen in the North Sea/Shetland areas? Birds resembling this form seen in SW and Spain (+ tracking data down mid Atlantic), but issue is paler birds in N Euro breeding grounds #RareBirdsUK

The new Missing Records file is now live on the BB website, please have a look at britishbirds.co.uk/rarities-com... and consider submitting any outstanding rarities that you may have been lucky enough to discover in 2025. Thanks.

This is a very worrying story with implications. Personally I'd like to fire the whole of AI into the outer Oort. stonefactionbirding2014.blogspot.com/2026/01/1492...

Oh shit! Our #TheTwoJonnies podcast guest this evening is our sister from another mister @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social 's very own Rob Hunton! ♠️ Got any questions for Rob? '26 fashion trends? Minor medical ailments? Life advice? Or even something to do with birds. Let us know! We might ask him.

Our long Dutch weekend comes to a glorious end, with some quality(!) WP tickage. Thanks to @gt1366.bsky.social for braving the perils of Amsterdam to give me a Cat C(rap) tick, and for the photo. Cheers mate!!

Our trip to Texel going very nicely so far, some Dutch megas with a few beers and quality bants. And who doesn't love Smew!!??

The Little Terns at Beacon Ponds have made a remarkable recovery, but they need urgent help to thrive in 2026. Your support can fund a professional warden, ensuring these birds are protected from threats. Please share and contribute if you can! gofund.me/83bf3bdd8

How is AI going to rule the World when you can't even share a contacts list from Outlook nowadays? The shittification of these things is mindblowing.

"nuffin to see here guv'", says falconry expert who also happens to supply the Gulf royals with falcons 🥸 share.google/3kuF0oOSPv6K...

While in the eBird garden year list, I'll happily take top 5. Always good to break 100, but amazing to see once again that both Tim Appleton's gardens score the same. How does he do it!!?? 😜

In a fairly decent year for the garden, we soared to the dizzy height of 174, with Cattle Egret, Crane, Glossy Ibis and White-tailed Eagle all new. Most importantly, I won the predictions competition between myself and @clickbeetle85.bsky.social. A new year and new competition begins tomorrow.

For ID purposes videos can be great for familiarising yourself with seabird flight actions, structure, etc. but it’s a pain tracking down useful clips. I’ve collated video links for various N Atlantic species here #seabirds #seawatching #birding #birdID chatterstanes.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/s...

Three Suffolk Shrikes - I have a signed, limited edition giclee print of a painting of the 3 rare shrikes in Suffolk this autumn (Isabelline, Turkestan and Brown). Just 50 available and only £50 window mounted (add £12 for P&P): PM me if interested and please repost, thanks

🏆 Carl Zeiss Award 2025: Celebrates top rarity submissions to @britishbirdsbbrc.bsky.social – the observations, images & recordings impress, visit: 🔗 britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti... 🏅Winner: Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, by Frank Moffatt. Thanks #ZEISSbirding for sponsoring & the prize binoculars!

Super article in December @britishbirds.bsky.social detailing use of passive bioacoustic recorders to detect Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - thanks to @lesserspotnet.bsky.social @simongillings.bsky.social @hosbirding.bsky.social et al A glimmer of hope? 🙏 Read here: britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti...

Me: 'huh, Oscar Wilde died at age 46, I'm older than that now" Wife: 'tick-tock muthatrucker' 🤔

Birdwatchers who are under 40 will not appreciate just how many breeding waders there were in Scottish farmland back in 1990. If your benchmark is 2015, look at what happened in the previous 25 years: wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/11/30/2... 🎂8️⃣ And things have not improved since: #ornithology

Above link fails! tinyurl.com/2026-Assista...

The Easington Hume's Wblr showed nicely on Friday, although the unseasonably bright sunshine made it surprisingly difficult to get a shot. Too much light combined with operator incompetence! #spurnbirds

A video from earlier in the autumn during some particularly heavy Pheasant migration in Highland! #highlandbirds

Its been a long while, but finally finished editing photos from my bucket list trip to Guyana last November. Bird of the trip? Barbados Bullfinch while transiting through there, of course!! www.flickr.com/photos/38562...

The colours of autumn, a Siberian Chiffchaff on Vicars Lane, Easington shows just how its appearance can change against different backgrounds. Probably the split I'm most hoping for! #Spurnbirds

Well chuffed for @clickbeetle85.bsky.social finding this lovely little Hume's at the Tithe Barn, Easington. Now, if it will only scoot about 200m to the east, i'll be even happier! #Spurnbirds #RareBirdsUK

Cracking photo of South Polar Skua with a Bonxie, the evidence keeps building.

Nice to find a Water Pipit at Outstrays on this mornings WeBS count, plus a PB of 10 Great White Egrets. The pipit was in the north corner of the older realignment, near the new pumping station #Yorkshirebirding

While dipping on Pallid Swift, I was contemplating the future of the gas terminal. I reckon its got 15-20 years at current rates of erosion before the cliff top comes knockin'!