Balearic Shearwater, two Long-tailed Skuas, Sooty Shearwater best of the sea #Filey last 48hrs, with small numbers of passerines inc Lapland Bunting, Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests, a Redstart and this fresh-in Wheatear hopefully the harbingers of things to come later in the week. @nybirdnews.bsky.social

The road to nowhere... East Yorkshire at it's most East Yorkshire, with the bleak Holderness coast (un)welcoming a swathe of migrants breezing through for pastures new. An Osprey in-off, Swifts, Little Gulls, Arctic Skuas, dark-bellied Brents and more: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/09/road...

Impromptu lunch break #vismig / #seawatch at Skipsea 1150-1215 was a blast - 4 Little Gulls, Osprey in off and SW, Swifts, dark-bellied Brents, Arctic Skuas.... @nybirdnews.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social @yorkscoastnature.bsky.social

Another great @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social #MIGFEST draws to a close, and what a blast it was... as usual, Richard and I gave talks and led walks, but, as usual, the highlight was catching up with our wonderful wider community.... *Thanks to Oliver (and mum Liz) for letting us use this photo!

(1/2) My talk at @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social #Migfest this weekend has sold out BUT I'm happy to report I'm giving a free talk at @flamboroughbird.bsky.social's #Migweek in October - no charge but booking essential! Sat 11th Oct - ‘Migration Magic and Madness - when Filey became birding Nirvana’

A long and eventful day guiding out on the somewhat choppy but beautiful North Sea again today - two trips out off Staithes on the North Yorkshire coast for @yorkscoastnature.bsky.social blessed with Bottlenose Dolphins (top pic) and Minke Whales (lower), many too close to photograph!

A fine day patrolling coastal #Filey - totals included 17 Pied Flycatchers, 21 Whinchats, seven Redstarts and plenty more. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-... @nybirdnews.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social @northyorksbirds.bsky.social

Pterodroma sp north 2.3 miles off Staithes at 1420hrs per Rich B on our @yorkscoastnature.bsky.social pelagic @nybirdnews.bsky.social @northyorksbirds.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social

Yesterday morning I spent a few hours immersed in an avian feeding frenzy around #Filey Brigg, with many 1000s of birds enjoying the bounty. Among those were four Roseate Terns - and surprisingly, they were indulging in some cheeky kleptoparasitism: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/09/file...

Magic morning on #Filey Brigg - 4 Roseate Terns (2ad, 2j), 2 juv Black Terns, 3 Casps within masses of feeding seabirds - 1000s Gannets, 100s auks, gulls, 460 Common Terns, etc.... more to follow! @nybirdnews.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social

Introducing... SCHOOL OF BIRDING DEEP DIVES! Join Simon and I next September for the first (and second) of our special masterclasses - three full days in the field and three full classroom sessions (as well as full board, all transport and guiding), focusing purely on.... (1/2)

After our customary summer in New England, it was a joy to get back to work in the Old version this week, where flurries of godwits, Avocets and more welcomed me back to the industrial Humber estuary and all its wonders. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/nort... #Lincsbirds #UKbirding

Great to be back on the boat and amongst the whales the other day. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/09/stai... #UKcetaceans #UKWhales #Yorkshirewildlife #whalewatching

Finally a proper review that does this wonderful book justice - props to @joncartermd.bsky.social for actually reading it and for having great taste 👏😉

From New World Warblers to the Old World classics - a patch of messy, mature scrub between the industry and the Humber was stacked with migrants busily reducing the insect population on their way south. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/nort... #Lincsbirds #UKbirds #UKbirding

After our customary summer in New England, it was a joy to get back to work in the Old version this week, where flurries of godwits, Avocets and more welcomed me back to the industrial Humber estuary and all its wonders. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/nort... #Lincsbirds #UKbirding

Last post from the States - northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-... #BirdingUSA #Massbirds #masswildlife (Pics - Scarlet Tanager, Broad-winged Hawk)

Last knockings from the States - two icons, American Red Squirrel and Monarch. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-... #BirdingUSA #Massbirds #Masswildlife

Dropped into #Filey Dams just now - Spotted Redshank, Ruff and 2 Green Sands on the (v limited) mud @nybirdnews.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social

What are you doing for Hogmanay / New Year? Fancy joining me and Mike Dilger at the Grant Arms Hotel for a few days and nights of birds, wildlife, whisky, amazing food and celebrations, in one of Britain's most beautiful places? We'll be...(1/2) #GrantArmsHotel #BWWC #BirdingScotland

Last couple of posts from the US, this one purely vireos; Red-eyed, Blue-headed and Eastern Warbling-; the latter were the first I'd seen in years, and by sheer coincidence the AOS article announcing the split was published the same day! More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/stra...

Woah, top work Jono - can't wait to get back on the boat next week!

Sadly, we're about to leave New England and its often colourful locals - including these Blue-winged and Yellow Warblers, good enough to frequent the habitats around our base here at the in-laws in Western Mass. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/blue...

A traditional part of our summer trip to the US is a few days in the sticks - usually the Catskills - with the immediate fam. This year was no different, and last week we were back in Roscoe, NY; birding was supplementary, but quality as always. More: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/rosc...

Deserving of their own post - Black-and-white Warblers, the pin-striped hepcats of the woods. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/blac...

Pemaquid Point, Maine with Katherine and the Mrs: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/pema... #BirdingUSA (pics - Common Eider, Laughing Gull)

Good times in mid-coast Maine with our dear friends Katherine, George and Indigo, including some productive local birding sessions (with thanks to Indi for sharing her bird ID knowledge!) - several posts to follow, the first dedicated to warblers: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/main...

Whale-watching off the coast of Maine with the Mrs and the bro-in-law - and there were a lot of whales to watch. Full post and video clips here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/whal... (pic - three Fin Whales surfacing together)

One for Eurasian birders, especially those with an eye on Nearctic vagrants - an educational (and cautionary) fresh juvenile Tennessee Warbler from my away-from-home patch on rural Western Mass: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/08/tenn... #BirdingUSA #WarblingUSA

Breakfast buddies here in Roscoe, NY #BirdingUSA #NYstatebirds

Live Free or Don't - a rare rainy day as we travelled through New Hampshire #NewHampshire #LiveFreeorDont

Chestnut-sided Warblers are one of the default songbirds here in our little corner of rural Western Massachusetts presently, and although the adults are looking a little skanky after seasonal family duties, juveniles are box-fresh and hoovering up bugs like it's 1999. More here: tinyurl.com/nhb82xx9

A Green Heron sheltering from the storm under the same trees as brother Ned and I in Cabot Woods, #Massachusetts last week

Afternoon stroll at the nearby Eaton Farm Preserve here in Lincoln County, Maine with George and Amity - surprisingly productive for the time of year (and day), with a good selection of passerines including this beautiful Black-and-white Warbler. #Mainebirds #Mainebirding #BirdingUSA

Afternoon stroll at the nearby Eaton Farm Preserve here in Lincoln County, Maine with George and Amity - surprisingly productive for the time of year (and day), with a good selection of passerines including this beautiful Black-and-white Warbler. #Mainebirds #Mainebirding #BirdingUSA

.... and then there were the Humpbacks, clearly very happy to mess around beside the boat. Full blogpost to follow.... #Massachusetts #whalewatching #gloucesterwhales

Just shy of 100°f here in Mass y'day, so we headed for the (very slightly) cooler coast, and a whale-watching trip out of Gloucester. A sublime 5 hours on a flat calm Atlantic, with multiple Fin (below) and Humpback Whales, pods of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, Basking (and other) Sharks and more.

Back in the USA for a few weeks with the 'murcan fam and happy to find the abandoned orchard just up the hill from the in-laws place in western Mass is still trespassable... it's a quiet time of year (and the heat is a factor) but still enjoyed 30-odd species within a hundred metres or so.

An always sought-after find on our YCN pelagics is Balearic Shearwater - a Critically Endangered species with a rapidly decreasing population in the western Med. This very dark bird from last year performed beautifully within a flock of Manxies. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/07/shea...

I've been lucky on our @yorkscoastnature.bsky.social Seabird and Whale Adventures, encountering all five target shearwater species - including this memorable session with a Cory's. More here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/07/shea... #Seabirds @nybirdnews.bsky.social #zeissbirding

With our @yorkscoastnature.bsky.social Seabird & Whale trips underway once again, a celebration of the shearwaters I've been fortunate to find from the deck of the boat - first up, Great Shearwater (as enjoyed by human and pinniped observers...) more here: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/07/shea...

Any plans for #Hogmanay? I'll be guest speaker / wildlife guide / quiz host / whisky acceptor at the wonderful Grant Arms Hotel - alongside a certain Mr M. Dilger (and my Mrs!) - over the New Year, and we're looking forward to seeing old friends and new! Contact grantarmshotel.com for more info!

Culling memory cards = random photo finds (plenty more to come....): this #Redwing during a deep frost at #Filey in Dec '22 looked like a Japanese painting. #northyorksbirds #ukbirds #ukbirding #thrushes #yorkshirebirds #yorkshire

A day on the coast, staring at the sea - a record day count of Whimbrels, plus Minke Whales, Bottlenose Dolphins and plenty more at #Filey: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/07/star... #ukbirds #ukbirding #seawatching #waders #shorebirds #birdmigration #yorksbirds #northyorksbirds

Jono and Hannah are helping York's Swifts and urgently need a bit of spare change. Do a good thing today here:

Lots of requests at Birdfair for a list of all my tours, so here you go! From migration magic in the autumn, to wader and wildfowl wonder in the winter, the multitudinal joys of spring and breeding seabird heaven in the summer - there's a lot of choice: northernrustic.blogspot.com/2025/07/upco...

For all its other distractions, #GlobalBirdfair is all about friendship. Catching up with so many good people in our community is a real refueller, and then there's the reminder that I have the absolute best close friends I could ask for - and I often even get to work with them. #birding

"Has the Albatross been seen?" "Sadly not for a few days now..." Culling old memory cards and found this from 2021 at #Bempton - not my best but surely my most caption-friendly photo of the BBA.... @rspb.bsky.social @bemptonbirder.bsky.social #Seabirds #Yorksbirds #Albatross

For all its other distractions, #GlobalBirdfair is all about friendship. Catching up with so many good people in our community is a real refueller, and then there's the reminder that I have the absolute best close friends I could ask for - and I often even get to work with them. #birding

Good times at #GlobalBirdfair this morning leading a #ZEISSBirding walk for lots of lovely people - Osprey, hunting Hobbies and much more to enjoy. #birdfair #ukbirding #zeiss #ukbirds