Naughty bird!! 😂 What chance it has some feral genes in its ancestry?
Birds, conifers and some green & pro-European politics. Strictly no DMs (any sent, won't be read).
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Naughty bird!! 😂 What chance it has some feral genes in its ancestry?
More than just a ring, looks like one of those data loggers?
It's seen the easy life of Feral Pigeons and wants to emulate them 😆
Question to Zach Polanski at the leadership announcement: "Q: How can you take on Nigel Farage when your policy on immigration is so different?" Everything wrong with British politics and media summed up so succinctly in a single absolutely unhinged question.
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social @jonathanpienews.bsky.social police have raided DoJ - arrested the wonderful Tim Crossland and Paddy. I feel sick to the core. I hope more take to the streets. When a government makes enemies of the best of humanity something is seriously rotten. Ffs.
Real police state stuff, pre-emptively arresting people in Defend Our Juries, because they are organising a peaceful protest.
Your daily Avian Hybrids story! Captive-bred ducks are genetically swamping wild Mallard populations in eastern North America avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2020/07/05/c... #ornithology
We need your help again. Coul Links is an extraordinary coastal dune habitat, home to rare and remarkable wildlife. But it is now threatened for a second time by plans for an 18-hole golf course that would cause irreparable damage. Your voice could help save it. 👇
A good report on a bad case of Teescide!
Telling it like it is, and cutting through.
The body of evidence showing that when centrist parties adopt the priorities and talking points of the far right, they torpedo themselves is vast and powerful. Yet Keir Starmer's Labour Party seems determined to ignore it. A few examples in 🧵: theconversation.com/how-should-l...
While defending the luddite argument in Discord, I stumbled into this IMO succinct explanation for opposing generative AI: At every step in the process, it impoverishes us.
Innovation makes useful things smaller and smaller. Overconsumption makes things bigger and bigger (and more dangerous with bigger costs & consequences). Bigger vehicles and larger homes for fewer people is not progress. HT @fietsprofessor for graphic
Are you young, highly educated and driven, and want to contribute to our stagnant economy with its aging population and low productivity? Well out you go
“The dense interconnectedness of the human family… means that in terms of our biology, there are no different races. We can all claim ancestry from across the world. Nevertheless, our politics is obsessed with distinctions based on national identity…” Gaia’s article more relevant than ever:
😢😢😢
I'm glad that @zackpolanski.bsky.social has become leader of the Green Party. I believe his style and emphasis meet the challenge of the moment.
Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared
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
IN PHASE 2 WE WILL: • Continue with the Brexit Labour idiocy of not rejoining anything. • Continue to be complicit in genocide. • Continue to lock people up who speak out against Israel and the genocide. • Continue to refuse to tax wealth properly.
Does this also work on duckduckgo? I'm finding that more and more of their search results lead to ai junk pages, so much so that it's getting hard to find real stuff like research papers, they are pushed down to page 3 or 4 of the results. Wish they had a setting 'Exclude results from AI sites'.
Apologies in advance if you know but if you add " -ai" to the end of any Google search it doesn't do that standard ai summary. Saves on the rubbish and a tiny wee bit "greener" on the energy use front
Sad times that the lead image for Willow Tit on one prominent search engine is hideously inaccurate AI slop #UKBirding #Ornithology @richardkbroughton.bsky.social
Can AI understand anything other than American English? 🤔 It certainly can't cope with UK English spellings!
1905, perhaps? Take a look at the captions to this plate from 'A popular handbook of the birds of the United States and Canada' 😱😂🤣 archive.org/details/popu...
Seriously, if Starmer is not up to this job - which he patently isn't - he should make way for someone who understands how politics works, how to connect with people, and what they actually want from politics. Clue: it's not Continuity Tory.
Yet another capitulation to Reform, when all the evidence shows that following the far right agenda is a disaster for centrist parties. Politics 101, which Starmer has once again entirely failed to grasp.
The average August global sea-surface temperature for 2025 was third hottest on record, behind only 2023 and 2024, and likely the third hottest in the last 120,000+ years.
Your 'doom quote' for today: "what can ‘too expensive’ mean when we are contemplating the inundation of the world’s most populous cities, dire food and water shortages, mass migrations, the sixth extinction?" www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645808...
Met Office stats confirm summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. The UK’s mean temp of 16.10°C surpasses the previous record of 15.76°C and pushes the summer of 1976 out of the top 5 warmest summers. www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
This is the best explanation I have seen yet for the Protect Our Kids phenomenon.
This incidentally is one of the reasons they are polling so poorly - they give people who are sympathetic to them little reason to support them.
The failure of the government and many Labour MPs to leave X after the 2024 riots suggests they just don't get the challenge they face or the power they have to fight back. Completely weak and callow.
The same goes for many scientific institutes, universities, conservation NGO's and charities. A notable laudable exception is the @btobirds.bsky.social
It is insane to me that the richest man in the world is using his global megaphone to call for millions of British people to be rounded up and deported (including my family) and somehow this isn’t even news.
That's an interesting one, 'g' is as in 'get', and adding 'h' as 'gh', softens the 'g' to a 'j' sound. Therefore, Genghis Khan... I was years old before I discovered he /wasn't/ pronounced 'Geng-jis' 😂 But again, important to remember, while Genghis Khan, Immanuel Kant. 😁
Spot on!! 😂😂😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣 It’s funny because it’s true.
There's a decent chance of seeing the aurora tonight - it may be visible as far south as the Midlands (perhaps even further south) 🌃
111 years ago today the last Passenger Pigeon on earth, which we called Martha, died in Cincinnati Zoo at around 12:30pm local time. The most abundant bird species Earth had ever seen had been driven to extinction. markavery.info/2025/09/01/p... #cincinatti #ohio #extinction #birds #martha
It's all those weird aspirated wheezing 'h' sounds at the end of their "pronunciation guide" syllables that baffle me. How to give people a bad sore throat in one easy lesson!
Haha. Despite having very very low expectations, I was somehow assuming that losing 63% of all insects in just 3 years, from 2021-2024, might become a talking point for UK environmentalists. Lolz. Haha. #DrWhoCares #CertainExtinction #Love #Peace #Happy #Holiday #Netflix #HBO #Family #Job
BREAKING: Our hearts Our new front page #ProtectJournalistsInGaza #LetReportersIntogaza Www.bylinetimes.com
Someone pointed out that more people turned up to the Snowdon Ultra Marathon than the multiple "protests" that happened at the same time, which means that running for 57km up a mountain was more popular than shouting at a hotel.
As noted elsewhere in this thread, Isaac from Crystal Clean Windows York Limited came over and cleaned the restaurants windows for free and helped remove the graffiti. That's patriotism! Trying to make your community better. Reaching out and helping others.
This is where the empty headed Flag shagging leads. Race hate.
Sometimes, you know, you've just got to scratch. #SuperSeabirdSunday
Great work, everyone. A+ 😡
The dog et it? 🤔😂
www.instagram.com/p/DN71fEHE_-...
I watched BBC News pester a Labour minister about Angela Rayner's homes again this morning, despite being given a clear and reasonable response yesterday that dragged her divorce settlement into the public gaze. Oh, if only they'd rag on Nigel Farage as determinedly, instead of throwing mud for him.
A good 6 hours and 6 minutes left to apply! Don't be shy.
Just remembered it's #SuperSeabirdSunday again - so here's a Cormorant from Gos Park NR this morning, and well, I guess this is a sort of 'honorary seabird' since it does eat fish 😁 #LowCarbonBirding #NEBirding #PWC2025 @steelyseabirder.bsky.social @mike-carr.bsky.social @nenature.bsky.social
The last 3 years have been the hottest in around 125,000 years. CO2 levels are their highest in MILLIONS of years. But most people have no idea this is happening, let alone what it means for our kids’ futures. Our politics & media have failed our children. We should be furious.
If you're visiting the USA for a conference, see this 👇 about what happened to a Canadian academic.
We mustn't let him deceive the electorate a second time. Read The Bear's article for some great talking points to have online and with friends and colleagues.
🧵 Farage is whipping up anger against the ECHR with false claims (see thread). As The Bear brilliantly writes: “The ECHR [is] the foundation that protects you from your own government.” That's why leaving the ECHR would be a Really Bad Idea. @eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk
New evidence that livestock grazing reduces risk of tick-borne diseases including borreliosis. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Congestion pricing is actually the perfect example here. Trump declared that “congestion pricing is dead” (and that he is the king) Hochul and the MTA told him to fuck off, and now, more than 6 months later, congestion pricing is still alive and working exactly as planned
Would be interesting if it did occur in Britain! But I've only ever seen small stands of club-rush; it is common enough, but not in large stands that I know of. This is typical, just 3 or 4 metres across and (my impression) not long-lived, not persisting for more than a few years in any one clump:
Danke! I guess that would explain its absence from Britain, despite its host plant being common here plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
And guess which one gets the most attention!
👍 Aye, true, I've found the CR website difficult to use too!
The Braconid wasps have found something bigger and better than tobacco hornworm to parasitize. #Entomology #waspsky #EntoSky
😂😂😂
Total f&%kery is going on with the 3-year running average of the global sea-surface temperature as temperatures continue to trend significantly above "accelerating warming." Zen kōan: What is the sound of one planet dying?
“The EU is continuously implementing major new policy rules on environmental protection. If the UK doesn’t keep up, it could find itself unintentionally out of step.”
#HamOrJam #PicnicWaspSurvey Offered ham (aka protein) and an apple (‘jam’ aka sweet) - It’s ‘jam’ for this wasp today! Pls submit your wasp food choices at your picnic! Help us reach 500 records for August! Read about it & submit data here: www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/au... @uclcber.bsky.social
And red-listed in both Sweden and Finland, according to the references cited in Swedish wikipedia 😢: sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corypha...
Any budding young naturalists/readers out there who would like 3 @gill-lewis.bsky.social books? I’d love to gift these to someone who would enjoy them. I’ll cover postage :)
Sand batteries are literally just silos of sand that retain heat exceptionally well -- so well that they can be tied to heat exchange systems to serve as proxy *electrical* batteries. Finland's new model can store enough power (100 MWh) to heat an entire town for a week. newatlas.com/energy/large...
If you want to understand how fascism absolutely has an English pedigree and could certainly take hold in England, I recommend reading Martin Pugh’s ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts!’ (2006) (the title deriving from the Daily Mail’s enthusiastic endorsement of Oswald Mosley in the 1930s)
I think the theory is, it's a wader, so therefore the lower leg is under water and not visible . . . doesn't always work like that 😂
Don’t trust the experts”? That’s not democracy, that’s recklessness. On a plane, I want a pilot. In a hospital, I want doctors and scientists who understand the evidence. Expertise isn’t religion or authoritarianism — it’s training, accountability, and data. Ignore it and we all pay the price.
🔴 Brexiteers hate the world they created They claim that Britain is broken, while still clutching the hammer. 📝 New post 👇🏻
The UK's environmental laws are not matching the EU's. Without stronger laws, our precious habitats and species are at risk. Read why this also risks our trade agreement with the EU ⤵️ @eastangliabylines.co.uk @jennyrhodes42.bsky.social
Never even heard of this before! Had to look it up; one site in Denmark, on Bornholm: www.naturbasen.dk/art/43993/co...
No, Lord Falconer. Labour should stop pandering to this nonsense. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
End SUVS * Tax them by weight * Insist that pass pedestrian impact tests * Impose fines for exceeding allocated parking spaces * Charge them higher for ULEZ entry * Charge them higher for residential parking permits * Stop them from entering narrow roads * Ban them from outside schools
It's only a single study, this issue is very uncertain with research coming quite thick & fast with a wide range of findings, more observational data is needed, but.... fuck. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
1% of the entire Iberian Peninsula has burnt this year. A record amount. An area half the size of Wales. 🤷♂️🙄 www.bbc.com/news/article...
Those who think nature has no inherent value, that it's just there to be exploited, also tend to see other people who are different to them in the same way: women, people of colour, Muslims, Jews, gays, trans, indigenous, Palestinians, even children... the list goes on and on. It's *all* connected.
Best bits of Iceland for waders. wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/08/27/i... New WaderTales blog - Number 150 🥳 Paper by Verónica Méndez et al #ConservationScience🌍
“Trump’s march towards authoritarianism is so steady that it’s easy to become inured to it: you can’t be in a state of shock permanently. And besides, sober-minded people are wary of sounding hyperbolic or hysterical: their instinct is to play down rather than scream at the top of their voice.”
2. We’ve also discovered that there was a very high representation of suspected domestic abusers among those rioting against asylum seekers last year. A small number of truly horrible men are responsible for all kinds of misery. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
1. Out of curiosity, I went through the feeds of some habitual tuna tormentors. I found they’re big on: - fox hunting - Reform UK - antagonism to asylum seekers. In other words, the same few antisocial (psychopathic?) men, turning up in all the bad places. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... 🧵
Our comment on the DOE CWG report is done. It tips the scales at 439 pages, approx. 3x longer than the DOE report. This is related to Brandolini's law: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. Example: refuting one sentence.
3. They are the kind of people we should contain and shun, in other words. Yet, astonishingly, the Labour Party is competing with Reform and the Conservatives to appease and attract such men, while dissing and burning its own base. We could reasonably ask what in the name of God is going on.
Both Spotted Flycatchers still in the same shrub as on 27 Aug in Exhibition Park this morning; also several Chiffchaff 👍 Yet again, no other migrants on the Town Moor. #LowCarbonBirding #NEBirding #PWC2025
"Analysis has found drivers in the tallest cars could not see children as old as nine when they were directly in front of the vehicle."
This could be a big win for conservation, its just a shame it takes the threat of imminent annihilation to kick start it. 'To defend against Russian tanks, Finland and Poland consider restoring wetlands' share.google/HVq4vHMR8Txw...
We need areas for ground nesting birds that are completely off limits to people and dogs. Until then, disturbance and incidents like this will just continue and increase. Putting up signs, trying to « educate » people etc won’t work and we are running out of time to save these birds.
Behind a simple misunderstanding lies a bigger challenge for coastal wildlife. www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/R...
Me too, much of the time! The two Spot Fly a couple of days ago was my first patch yeartick in over 3 months 😬 at least they're still there today!
Still awaiting a Northumbs /first/ record . . .
Reform should not only be held to account they should be mocked. Thoroughly mocked. They and their Toad of Toad Hall leader are a fucking laughing stock and deserve the same contempt they reserve for potential voters. It should be a matter of embarrassment to vote for them.
The fact that Reform were trying to run a person who had been dead for six months as their Croydon Mayoral candidate is proof if it were needed that they are not a serious party. It demonstrates abject incompetence and no vetting as well as utter contempt for the electorate.
How could they tell?