Tawny Mining Bees are one of the few solitary bees I can actually ID. Aiming to get better at them this year!

The flowering Gorse this spring is absolutely off the charts. It's a "superbloom" apparently, thanks to the warm, dry weather in early spring. Every bush laden with yellow as far as the eye can see.

The early spring sun has got the Long-tailed Tits in my corner of Derbyshire busy making their nests ☀️

The first Dipper in our area of lowland Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire for 25 years. She's a young female, who must have been come down from the uplands in search of better foraging due to the recent high waters. She's been around for a week & has made herself quite at home on the local stream!

Squeezed in about an hour and a half ringing in the local orchard this morning before work. Very glad I did when this cracking male Blackbird showed up wearing a Norwegian ring!

Awesome bit of evolution in action: Frogs turning darker as a response to extreme radiation levels in Chernobyl.

Despite being the most common Owl in the UK by a LONG way - they're tricky to get in the nets. Despite ringing plenty of Barn and Little Owls, this is only the second Tawny in 2 years. Nice to get one in our mission to collect more data on the adult owls of the area.

Despite the wind and rain, it's always a good day when I get to add another Moorhen from my patch to the national colour ringing scheme. This one was an absolute monster. Pretty much off the scale of measurements stated in the books when it comes to some of its biometrics!

We've had good success ringing owls recently! The vast majority of owls ringed in the UK are as chicks in nest boxes, with comparatively little effort going into collecting data on adults. We've been doing our bit by targeting adults to help gather more info on what they're up to as adults!

Autumn x Winter collab going hard.

Collected a few windfall apples from the allotments in the hope I can tempt some winter thrushes into the garden over the next few weeks...

To fellow new birding Blue Skyers fleeing Twitter, this is an excellent list to get you started:

Stunning Firecrest was the unexpected highlight from this morning's ringing session. A scarce bird in these parts & looks to only be the 10th one ringed in our north Derbyshire/South Yorkshire area in the last 20 years. (Nails not mine!)

A fantastic nocturnal ringing session this week on local farmland. 2 x Barn Owl 2 x Redwing 1 x Little Owl 1 x Jack Snipe Also watched Tawny Owl trying to hunt Little Owl for the second time in a week!

It just is the best season, isn't it? 🍂

There's a misconception that many British birders make - that male Blackbirds with dark beaks must be from the Continent. However, this one was already wearing a ring that I'd put on it in the same Derbyshire orchard as a fresh juvenile in the summer!