The fragment of ND2 DNA that @tessaroo.bsky.social got from Calshot GT Grackle doesn't tell exactly where it came from but it excludes a USA west coast (nelsoni) origin and puts it in the Panama-Central-USA populations. Orange shape overlaid on map from DaCosta et al., 2008 doi.org/10.1525/cond...

A deep-seated culture of entitlement exists in Great Britain’s landowning class. This enables them and their serfs to indulge in criminal behaviour that the rest of us wouldn’t dream of. That these crimes are wrought against OUR birds is indicative of the contempt in which the rest of us is held.

The only project in Sweden currently utilising this method for Jacks is here at Ottenby Bird Observatory, with super interesting and rewarding data just in the last two Autumns with 40 tagged this year. Still much to learn about this species!

It's been a long wait but an advance copy of 'Grasshoppers' has finally arrived. It's been worth the wait with excellent printing

My book has got a great endorsement from Chris Packham: "This clever and immensely resourceful book is an overdue gem". There's also a few pages up on the website too! It's up for pre-order here with publication set for January pelagicpublishing.com/products/pan...

I am going to try and see 6000 species over 2026! Exciting. Full story in the blog post below.

Great news that the National Trust hopes to buy Giant Hill, one of the most important butterfly sites in Dorset. Please support the appeal if you can. Our Branch have been monitoring the site for decades and helping to maintain species like the Duke of Burgundy www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

🚨BOOM! The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 70,000 signatures! Let’s get it to 100,000 this week. If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

The Day of the Grackle. Time for some midweek entertainment on the south coast where the Boat-tailed Grackle was doing its thing in Holbury. Part corvid, part wagtail, part peacock too with his swagger & strut. A bird made for Category S 😎 @linnetincley.bsky.social @edge25.bsky.social #ukbirding

Some neat fungi today in Romsey, Hampshire. A group of Collared Earthstars (Geastrum triplex) and some Common Bird’s Nests (Crucibulum laeve). #fungi

We visited plaine de Crau (S France) to catch Richard’s pipits last week and sample feathers for isotope tests. Numbers were low (~10), though more birds usually stop here at this time of year (up to 30/40) before they move south. Unclear if birds left early or had a poor breeding year.. #birds

Pink-footed Geese arriving at dawn, North Norfolk - framed ready for my exhibition this weekend. Painted in sub-zero conditions and ice crystals have left their own marks in the watercolour washes

A few changes to the birds listed on PSL - we've brought the list in line with www.avilist.org. This means that we've lumped Teal/Green-winged Teal, Carrion/Hooded Crow, Balearic/Yelkouan Shearwater, Sandwich/Cabot's Tern and Siberian/Stejneger's Stonechats.

Wow! Over 25,000 signatures the last 24 hours! Add your name! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

4 Northern Bald Ibis were killed with an air rifle in Extremadura in 2019. Covid caused issues with the police investigation, but they continues & last month the guilty party was sentenced, 1 year prison term, banned from hunting & fishing for 3 years & a 20,000Euro fine. @raptorpersuk.bsky.social

Singularly impressive bird-finding and rarity-documentation - a visibly-migrating Black-faced Bunting photographed this morning in the Netherlands 🪶 www.dutchbirding.nl/gallery/deta...

Quite a bit of visible migration today @flamboroughbird.bsky.social Thrushes flying low in the strong south westerly wind with cloud, coming off the sea and making landfall. A flock of 11 Snipe and several Woodcock. A marvellous sight.

I've been updating our collaborative #CootStudy database. I started the study 17 years ago & thanks to a network of bird ringers across Britain & Ireland we've now colour-marked 4,400 Coot & received over 13,000 re-sightings. Pretty cool for a bird you hardly see in flight! #Ornithology #BirdRinging

Warra week. Black-throated Thrush and Sibe Rubythroat! #OrkneyBirding

Good news on Dorset Cirl Buntings continues to arrive. Early data from the breeding season confirms they are continuing to re-establish a population in the county. Please submit any outstanding records now. 🙏 In winter our focus switches to feeding flocks - please send us all sightings. 🙏

#speciesaday no. 653 is Sombre Brocade (Dryobotodes tenebrosa). A migrant/recent colonist. I had my first and only one in the garden actinic on the 28th September. Like a big Brindled Green with no green. Feeds on Holm Oak. Established in a few places on the south coast. Spreading.

💥'Northern' Long-tailed Tit💥... 3 of these stunning birds seen in fading light this evening in West Yell. Cheers to Adrian for spreading the word!...... Genuinely one of my most wanted birds since I first picked up the original Collins Guide! 😍😎👍 #YellBirding #Shetland #RareBirdsUK

Red-eyed Vireo joins White's Thrush, Red-flanked Bluetail and others on the list of remotely-sensed UK vagrants #UKBirding.

Juvenile Hobby complete with ring at ARC Dungeness today.

After a dawn raid on the Point, this little beauty was cowering in the buckthorn on my birding walk back, not far south of the Breach at Spurn. Thomas Willoughby’s brilliant pic. Bird of a lifetime. A British tick as well 😂

Thanks Martine. Wow! It looks like a Steppe Grey Shrike!

Siberian Thrush ageing confusion resolved! Papay’s 2022 bird (accepted as an adult) was a first-winter male. Morals of the story: adult males should always have striking head patterns and juvenile wing feathers can be very blue! Thanks to @stervander.com for revisiting the specimen. #birdingScotland

Have finally calmed down enough to edit this short digiscoped video of the White-throated Needletail above Scarborough Castle on Friday. For obvious reasons it is a little bit shaky #YorkshireBirding

...also on the ringing front: we've received notification of a fantastic recovery of a Firecrest ringed here last October that was controlled a few days ago by a ringer in the Czech Republic - the first movement of a UK-ringed Firecrest to the Czech Republic or indeed to anywhere in central Europe

We’ve received news of an amazing yet sad ringing recovery from the Stour Ringing Group who have only just found out themselves of an adult Curlew that was ringed by their group in the harbour, Feb 1987 which was shot in NW Russia, April 2015, 2486km away c28 years [email protected]

Frustratingly 100% brief and solo views of Hudsonian Whimbrel from Tor Ness The bird flew N. low over the wave cut platform and by the time I had raised my bins I had <30 seconds on the bird. Uniform upper-parts with strong cap and dark lores extending behind eye. @northronbirdobs.bsky.social

Yellow-browed Bunting trapped, ringed and released at the Swannery. It's flown to the hedge which runs alongside the Swannery grounds and the bird may be viewable from the permissive path heading west from Grove Lane.

UK is well on course for losing Willow Tit, Spotted Flycatcher & Wood Warbler as breeding species in our lifetime. Wood Warbler already virtually gone from England. I think Willow Tit would be first extinction of a resident bird since Capercaillie in 1700s or White-tailed Eagle in 1918. #ornithology

Coming to the UK this autumn? The 3 WP records of Dark-sided Flycatcher make a triangle with a blank area with the Northern Isles at its centre that needs filling! All 3 records between 1-6 Oct; all since 2012. Interestingly mainland USA 1st record in California 4 days ago ebird.org/checklist/S2...

Much improved overnight mothing on a calm night at the Obs although the feeling was that most of the migrant catch involved things surfacing after recent inclement weather rather than new arrivals; 9 Convolvulus Hawks the pick of the catch, 285 Rush Veneers their highest total of the year.

Photo from Mark Cutts

One of the @ldvnnr.bsky.social reintroduced Corncrakes has pinged our MOTUS Tower! On 24th August at 21:32 it was picked up migrating over Spurn for 6 minutes! Amazingly, the same bird was detected just 90 minutes later at Weybourne, Norfolk! More info here www.facebook.com/share/p/1Arw...

Today, it not only rained heavily, but it rained Curlew Sandpipers! At least 93 juveniles at Ardivichar, with 40+ at Northbay! A flock of around 100 in Northbay arrived in torrential rain but was unsure if Ardivichar birds were also involved? #BirdingScotland #BirdingHebrides ##BirdingOuterHebrides

A flock of 34 Glossy Ibises flying over a family party of Zitting Cisticolas on the Suffolk coast is pretty indicative of the direction of future UK avifaunal community shifts under #ClimateChange #UKBirding #Ornithology

...you get the idea

Pygmy Cormorant is probably the most overdue Category A first for Britain and future colonist britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti... and currently sits on Category F on the basis of a fossil which *might* signal historic breeding here onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #UKbirding #Ornithology

Aquatic Warbler ringed in Lower Piddle Valley this AM near Wareham, Poole Harbour @dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social

Passenger for @alanlewiswildlife.bsky.social at Freshwater Bay the night's show-stopper migrant moth. Only modest increases in numbers at the Obs with no stand-out rares; small arrival/emergence of Western Conifer Seedbugs of interest

Striped Hawkmoth to actinic in Romsey, Hampshire (VC11) 22.08.25. #teammoth #mothsmatter @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Amongst all the local-breds some small signs of new moth migration last night incl singles of Passenger (seventh for Portland) and Olive Spinner oleastrella (second for Portland, first for the Obs) at the Obs; 2 Striped Hawks and a Convolvulus Hawk amongst the routines.

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...

The amazing eye of a Thornback Ray (Raja clavata). #fish #fishing