Finally have a day to myself tomorrow AND the weather looks good. Absolutely NOTHING reported locally 😂 thinking I may just play PlayStation and draw or go to IKEA

Didn't even make it to December to lose Whamagedon this year

It took a while for me to realise that I'm the kind of birder that likes to just turn up to places and try and find or see something a bit interesting/rare or just look at my fab species, and that racing to CVL to see black terns that inevitably disappeared 10 mins before I arrived brought me no joy

Usual Bristol Autumn experience of not seeing any migratory birds but hearing redwings calling above whenever I leave the house after dark

The real stars today were the other birdwatchers who pointed out all these birds. I think I'd only have got the temminck's on my own. All the others were helpful birdwatchers directing people towards them

Things weren't going well for the first 2 hours at @slimbridge-wild.bsky.social, then BOOM YBW at Kingfisher Hide (visual lifer, heard before last year also at slimbridge) Bittern at Zeiss Hide Spotshanks at South Lake Temminck's Stint on Rushy (UK lifer) All targets seen except med gull

Fingers crossed the Slimbridge temminck's hasn't fucked off today in the nice weather and I can add it to my UK list tomorrow

Crested tit a nice bonus to my year list in a local Bois Guillaume park. Always track down the conifer trees in France for them but my first one this year was in deciduous in a mixed tit flock 🤷

Still on the fence as to whether these are golden or grey plovers. The beak and bird looked too dainty to be grey but beak looked too long to be golden and body too grey. RSPB Birders fbook page useless cause I'm not asking them to ID a sparrow

Look at all these YLGs in amongst the GBBGs, in Normandy of all places! The YLGs favoured the salt marsh in large numbers while the beach was full of herring gulls

Black redstarts in France. I saw them in both Dives-sur-Mer and Houlgate this week, 2 villages right next to each other on the Normandy coast. I've seen them in many small villages, particularly seaside ones, across France. It's a shame we've lost this with just the Channel between us.

Gros Banc - Normandy was as dead as I expected, but did manage some barwits and happy to find an osprey. These plovers that seemed too long-billed & silver to be golden but not strong-billed enough to be grey, with their prominent supercil caused much confusion before I decided they were just golden

Normandy doesn't always have the best birds but I DID just happen to raise my binoculars at the exact moment 2 arctic skuas appeared from nowhere to mob some sandwich terns right over the beach before barrelling down the coast with a 3rd distant one

At Dives-sur-Mer I was thinking I'd be lucky to see 1 YLG but they seem to be the most numerous larus here. Never seen 1 in Normandy before and here they're everywhere! Like being on the Atlantic coast! Bonus black redstart singing on a roof. Also a first for my Normandy list

Up to the Normandy coast next week. Not sure if Normandy is a major route through for autumn migration but hope to see some waders. Cheeky barwit? Grey plover? You all know me though; I will see nothing 😂

Well, hard to believe but I saw 4 birds in 4 hours 😂 2 juve gannets, 1 probable manxie and 1 putative sooty (see my other post - opinions welcome). Not sure if bad time of year, bad time of day or what but the channel was empty

BTO video on skuas says all arctic skua plumages show the white wingflash when shearing so I think I may have got a lifer sooty shearwater that was just bending its wings a bit weird (high headwinds maybe?)

Pretty sure I saw a sooty shearwater on channel crossing. All dark in good light, flap flap flap glide flight, effortlessly outpacing boat. But wings looked too bent for shearwater. Could have been an artic skua? But absolutely no white wing flashes. Do some skua plumages lack this?

Personal seawatching stations on the Guillaume of Normandy crossing! Praying for a sleepy baby 😂

Osprey hunting at Herriotts fantastic to watch. +2 wood sand, 3+ ruff, 4 greenshank, countless green sand, a group of snipe on the island, and a common sand on the channel. @bristolbirding.bsky.social

I'm always interested by the concept of "ferality" and what people count as having seen a bird. I think we'd all count feral pigeon, canada goose etc. I personally would count R-C Pochard. I wouldn't count ruddy shelduck though, which is weird. What is people's limit?

Absolutely mad the stuff that's been turning up locally the summer/autumn I have a newborn baby 😂 I think my year list would already be higher than last year's total if I wasn't changing nappies and giving cuddles

Bogey slain after all this time!!! 3 CURLEW SANDS with 2 dunlin at cheddar reservoir today along with 7 glossy ibis, 1 little stint, my first 3 knots of the year, 2 common sands, 2 blackwits and loads of ruff.

Forever regretting not asking the guides on my boat trip around Farne Islands in 2023 about the black bird sat in with the arctics... I'll never know

1 wood sandpiper and 2 greenshanks at HGB verrrrry far away on the mud. Plus a handful of green and common sand at Herriotts along with a kingfisher. No WTE or terns for me and my dad but still managed to increase my year list by 3. First birdwatching since start of June!

Zitting Cisticola Breeds in Britain for the First Time Family party in Suffolk confirms long-anticipated arrival of a new breeding species on the British mainland www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/Z...

3 swifts over my house in a very wtf moment. Maybe the latest I've ever seen one. @bristolbirding.bsky.social

Commodore cabin booked on Brittany Ferries Portsmouth-Caen 24th September. Mostly to allow us somewhere to look after the baby, but wondering if the window will have a good enough view for sea watching... Got to get my birdwatching in somewhere 😂 it's been 2 months 😭

Amazingly, in August, my first peregrine of the year on the Wills Memorial @bristolbirding.bsky.social

Here's one from the vault from before I knew Merlin existed - help appreciated! Camargue in April 2022. I hear corn bunting and, I think, crested lark. I recorded it hoping it would be crested rather than skylark and definitely don't hear skylark.

3 swallows over Aztec West as I left the office was a nice surprise. Seems like decades since I've seen one with all the baby stuff this summer @bristolbirding.bsky.social

Just had a flock of 30+ swift over the house @bristolbirding.bsky.social

One of our most memorable encounters was with the vast rafts of Puffins near Nordkapp. Thousands upon thousands, more than I’ve ever seen before. Even the sky was thick with them. #birds #nature #wildlife #photography #birdPhotography #wildlifePhotography #norway #birdsoftheworld #seabirds

Nice to see Aztec West's No Mow Zone is a great success

Screaming party of 6 swifts just went over my house

Just had a giant one of these in my kitchen. Is this cause for excitement?

Wow, I hate this

From the archives: Andalusia in 2023. Cirl buntings, rock buntings, tons of vultures and a black-eared wheatear. Can't wait to get back to Iberia one day

Awful photos but think this is a cinnabar moth on Horfield Common

Holy shit! Must be an ant day

Finally uploaded by Exmoor photos to my laptop. Here's the dodgiest photo of a whinchat ever and some actual decent ones of dartfords

9 swifts over Horfield Common at the moment. Like being in Spain

An early morning trip off the patch to Keynsham, just 20 miles from home. The reward was this fine Desert Wheatear showing very well at Somerdale playing fields. My first sighting since one I found here at Severn Beach in December 2013.

Desert Wheatear still Keynsham this morning #birds #ukbirding

Dessert Wheatear this morning at Keynsham

Dessert Wheatear, early this morning at Keynsham

Record phone video of the cracking dessert wheatear at Somerdale, Keynsham this evening. Let’s hope it stays for others to enjoy.

That desert wheatear is an absolute stunner. A pity that something that mega couldn't turn up on my doorstep a few months earlier but the photos online will have to do. What a bird!!

And that's that. I'm a dad, and will be for the rest of my life. Little Sophie was born on Sunday. No more birds for a while. Maybe if I play my cards right I'll catch some autumn migrants without ending up in the doghouse.

Severn beach wind conditions perfect. Scanned for 15 mins and saw nothing. Then noticed a juv(I think) drk mrph arctic skua floating on the swell right in front of me! Then a second! Both took off and flew south after 10 mins. Best views I've had of the species. (Then called home on an emergency)