Birder #WestrayBirding | Orkney Bird Recorder | #birdingScotland #ornithology 🪶 | #TeamMoth | #wildlife #art | 🎶 Punk, Post-punk| PUFC | MUFC | Pro-EU | ✊🏾🏳️🌈 ally Feeds - Birding Gear, Orkney Birding, UK Patch Birding and BirdWeather PUC.
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Can you believe this? The clown Onana wanted a pay rise to make up for the 25% cut in his salary cos #mufc didn’t qualify for the Champions League. FFS! He clearly doesn’t do irony does he? And we’ve signed Lemmens to compete for the #1 goalkeeper spot. Would’ve much preferred Martinez.
Great Whites have been increasingly regular up here in recent years. Even have it on the house list 🥱😆
👍🏼 I’d welcome a Little Egret! Still rare up here. 🤞🏼
In other news, this juv Marsh Harrier arrived at the loch by the house yday evening and was still winging around and causing mayhem this morning. Not annual on the isle but this is my second this year. So not even a #PWC2025 tick! The only other migrant I could muster was a Pied Fly #WestrayBirding
1/ Calling UK birders! 📢 We need your vital help to fill data gaps for bird populations outside the breeding season via the Winter Bird Survey ➡️www.bto.org/winbs #Ornithology #UKBirding
Congrats on your 10 years, Graham and for 150 wonderful Easter blog posts.
This month, WaderTales will be ten years old. I'm going to create a thread that highlights some of the research findings that have surprised me. Plenty of "Wow!" & "I didn't know that!" moments. Here's a link to the catalogue of 150 blogs wadertales.wordpress.com/about/ #ornithology
Looks like a schizochroic individual. Schizochroism is a form of leucism and is a regressive gene in females that weakens with each generation. I had Collared Doves with this in my fenland garden (previous house) for nearly 20 years. I’d watch as each generation got darker before going back to latte
Just in: Used Vortex Razor HD 85 spotting scope. Includes box & stay-on case, £999. Available from our Glandford shop or online here: www.cleyspy.co.uk/product/used... #Birding #BirdingGear #UKBirding
Looks a fair brute and all. The feel of the image just says it all.
Aye, I’ve found YBWs in most clumps or isolated sycamores around the isle over the years. It’s the only real tree that grows here barring two tiny stands of pines. Other cover is all willow. I’m just hoping this’ll prove to be a magnet for scarce migrants in both autumn and spring 🤞🏼
Aye, timing couldn’t be better. Today’s recce was to get my bearings and viewing angles in my mind. The sooner I know it intimately the easier it will be to cover. Here’s hoping, Steph!
#TeamMoth
I say there was nothing in Westray’s sycamore wood. I meant no birds (although there was a Pied Fly along the approach track to the wood). In the clearing I disturbed a moth which when it landed revealed itself to be a Rush Veneer. Recent days south winds doing their thing. Wind down so traps out 🤞🏼
I’ve never sought access. Just bided my time getting on with folk on the isle. At the weekend the owner asked if I’d like access. Sorted. Under the sycamores there’s no understory. A carpet of bluebells in spring. Nettles and ferns now. Nowt in it today. But always the morrow 🤞🏼 #WestrayBirding
This is the only real woodland we have on #Westray. About a tenth of an acre of sycamore copse by a farm and private house. It’s all contained within two walled gardens of the big house so is private. I’ve only ever been in on organised visits. Until today 🙂 #WestrayBirding
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
😬
Remember this one?
👍🏼 Yeah, I should’ve done something after last autumn when it occurred to me I hadn’t heard any of the circa a dozen YBWs I found. I must have missed a few more by not picking them up on call 😒
Just tried it in Duck Duck Go (my default) and couldn’t see any difference so perhaps they already on the willow tit search (did scroll down far tho). I use only Google scholar for research papers.
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
Some really nice waders on North Ronaldsay today! I was really pleased that the juv Buff-breasted Sandpiper stuck around overnight meaning everyone saw it. Also nice to have better views of the juv Dotterel and AGP. #BirdingScotland #OrkneyBirding
Brilliant, thanks Jared. I know I’m needing them - not hearing Mipits and Yellow-broweds - and this has maybe given me me the kick up the arse I need. #BirdingGear
If you’re on that there Facebook thing, then here’s a link to the Orkney’s exciting birding roundup for August. #OrkneyBirding www.facebook.com/share/p/1CbH...
Fuck Nazis.
Duck Duck Go all the way for me 😉 It returned a photo at top of search used by Wiki.
At the weekend, a mate sent me some images of a Corn Bunting he’d run thru ChatGPT. One looked like a pipit 🤯 and the ‘best’ Corn Bunting-like one looked more like a 1CY Yellow-breasted! He sent me the original and I returned it within minutes tweaked in Topaz still looking like a Corn Bunting 😂
Sad times that the lead image for Willow Tit on one prominent search engine is hideously inaccurate AI slop #UKBirding #Ornithology @richardkbroughton.bsky.social
No sign of the Buff-breasted Sand today as some sheep decided to run at it after George found it! But great compensation in the form of the lovely juv Dotterel. Other highlights from today being Wryneck, Green Sand and Rosefinch. #OrkneyBirding #BirdingScotland
Pectoral Sandpiper above the North Wick this afternoon, plus a surprise reappearance by the Greenish Warbler in the willows outside Hundland #BirdingOrkney Refound here the day after being seen at Fowl Craig but not seen since. Couple of Pied Flycatchers, my first of the year here #PWC2025
Wigeon have been dribbling in this last week but 54 dropping out of the sky was the largest flock to date. Some Barwits are still looking dandy and this male Hen Harrier has been around for most of the month. #WestrayBirding
Overnight rain finally brought migrants (six year ticks!) but they took some finding in increasingly windy conditions. Most things were either tail-ending away from me or like this Redpoll trying, to find anywhere out of the wind. Pied Fly early doors before the wind got up. #WestrayBirding
I once asked a friend who was the treasurer of a large investment bank and now the chief operating officer of a large hedge fund whether hedge funds are a net good for society. He told me that they benefit no one but the people that are running them. I think the same of conservative politicians.
@papaybirder.bsky.social we need to get ourselves together and try something out here. I’m sure I could get a boat out from Pierowall.
😭😡
A humanist is a non-religious person who shapes their own life in the here and now, because they believe it's the only life they have. #thatshumanism
🔴 Brexiteers hate the world they created They claim that Britain is broken, while still clutching the hammer. 📝 New post 👇🏻
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.
Makes absolutely no sense does it. You think they’d be highly visible and make it as easy as possible for us to report ‘their’ birds 🙄
The biggest lake in the UK is being steadily poisoned The rescue plan demanded by residents & fishermen, whose lives are being blighted, is being blocked by a powerful farming lobby www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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)
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...
RW media: We're here outside an asylum hotel, where trouble may be about to start. RW protesters: Hey, look! There's a whole bunch of media types hanging around outside that hotel. Let's go and give them a proper show. RW media: We're here outside an asylum hotel, where trouble has started. etc.
#PatchBirding
Anyone else got a #LocalPatch like this? I do. Yesterday I barely raised my bins, there were just no birds! 🤷🏽♂️ #Lowcarbonbirding
A vagrant Woodchat aside, I’ve seen one passerine migrant this month. A Wood Warbler. The isle is utterly dead otherwise.
I mean HP can go to hell but "growing up" is over rated and we need to keep those things that bring us joy. I play computer games, build model trains, Lego, the list goes on... Have fun for goodness sake.
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... 🧵
Attacks on renewables, MAGA hats, inexperienced councillors, ‘DOGE units’ & shambolic organisation - a great piece on how Reform-led councils are faring 100 days on from the local elections: www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...
#gaza #bbcbias
Asking again why we have this 24-hour rolling coverage (and cosplay serious political and policy analysis) of a party that has 4 MPs. Why don’t we have the same for the Greens, for example, or Plaid Cymru? They both have 4 MPs www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...
“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.”
Another day, another RefUK councillor exposed as a racist liar. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Glad someone appreciated it, Wylie 😉
A run of the mill #WestrayBirding day with few migrants - a Wheatear, Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine was about it. This Painted Lady was the highlight. #butterflies #butterfly
Nah, it wont be in Westray, North Ron will bag it 🙄😂
I'm selling my Swarovski NL Pure 8x42 binoculars if anyone is interested. Excellent condition, hardly been used outdoors. Full details on the page linked below, will post (UK only) at cost if required. Any reposts much appreciated, thanks. #UKBirding #BirdingGear lros.org.uk/for-sale-wan...
"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...
"These [models] show the tipping point that makes an Amoc [Atlantic meridional overturning circulation] shutdown inevitable is likely to be passed within a few decades."
New interview with Greta Thunberg in Barcelona yesterday by Middle East Eye. The climate activist and arguably the leading humanitarian voice of our age is about to set sail along with dozens of ships from dozens of nations to bring urgent food and medical aid to millions of people in Gaza
What a bird... #RepostaWryneck
I wonder how many cyclists are happy about Shimano sponsoring this horror. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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.
How could they tell?
All Vortex Optics products include the protection of their unparalleled VIP Warranty. They will repair or replace your product in the event it becomes damaged or defective—at no charge to you. If they can't repair your product, they'll replace it! www.cleyspy.co.uk?post_type=pr... #BirdingGear
I can understand that but it’s not something that’s ever really bothered me as the cases I’ve always used on my iPhones are so easy to slip on and off single handed when the phone is still in my pocket. But it will be a bonus when I eventually switch to the Hawke adaptor.
I use the Phoneskope case type with my iPhone 13 mini. Have tried lollipops but can’t stand them. When I change my phone I’ll go for a Hawke model so the adapter will fit any phone going forward.
Long gone are my long distance birding hikes, but I love my gear and I’m always looking out for anything that I think will benefit my #WestrayBirding. Whether you’re a long hike birder or not, I’m sure you’ll find something helpful from this guy who really knows how outdoor kit. #BirdingGear
That's quite an image.
14 years for red paint if you're an activist. Zero arrests for red paint when it's used to intimidate immigrants in our communities. Prof Richard Murphy re-examines the idea of two-tier policing. @eastangliabylines.co.uk @richardjmurphy.bsky.social
Tracking waders - what are we learning? wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m... If you have tracked waders/shorebirds, please archive the data, so that full use can be made of the information collected by your birds. #ornithology
"The warblers are telling us what they need; we just need to listen and watch." #ornithology
EARLY VIEW in IBIS British Ornithologists' Union – Early Professional Award 2025 - Oliver Padget | doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... #ornithology 🪶
⏰ DEADLINE APPROACHING Don't miss your chance to submit an abstract for #BOU2026 Birds and people | 31 March - 2 April 2026 | Uni of Nottingham & Zoom Talk, poster & Bluesky abstracts accepted Deadline 1 September bou.org.uk/event/bir... #ornithology 🪶
⏰ CLOSING SOON! BOU Conference Support Officer vacancy Help the BOU deliver our exciting conference programme & receive an annual honorarium + free conference places in return ⏰ Deadline: Friday 29 August Apply now! bou.org.uk/about-the... #ornithology 🪶
Remember: WOS members receive a 15% discount on purchases from Kowa Optics! (Why oh why is there no binoculars emoji?!)
1/ New study! Camera footage showing nest predation on natural nests was collated and analysed from across the UK to increase understanding of nest predation events. Discover the findings ⬇️ and read the study ➡️ http://www.bto.org/n... #Ornithology
1/10 We are thrilled to announce that our new paper on conservation genomics of the Balearic shearwater has just been published online at @pnas.org! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Teenage waders? Shorebirds - particulalry larger species - may not breed until they are 2, 3 or 4. But what do these 'teenagers do' - and how does this impact upon their conservation? wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/t... 🎂5️⃣ #ornithology
Handling fee from memory was about £19. We have a feed for BirdWeather too which you might find interesting.
Hiya Dylan, if you use the Orkney Birding # it gets picked up by several feeds inc Birding Scotland. One tag fits all 😉
#OrkneyBirding
If RFK Jr. will not resign, he must be impeached and removed, for the sake of the nation's health and safety.
Iceland is a haven for waders. Golden Plover is the commonest breeder. ▪️Icelandic population ... c 400,000 pairs Compared to ▪️Irish population ... < 200 pairs ▪️UK population ... c 41,000 pairs More in blog based on paper by Verónica Méndez et al wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/08/27/i... #ornithology
New nonprofit climate group forms, aims to resurrect climate.gov, National Climate Assessment and other lost data www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/c...
Kudos to whoever made this
Exactly this. We have to understand which species we can’t help and those we can and prioritise accordingly. It’s the folly of conserve everything at all costs mantra that conservation has followed for decades and failed many species. And wasted precious resources doing so.
Climate change will outpace conservation.
Another day, another pop at immigrants from Starmer. That's 21 anti-immigrant tweets from him so far in August, far more than on any other topic. (Nothing at all about the positives of immigration.) x.com/keir_starmer...
🤣 Exactly this! During games me and brother message each other (he’s an unhappy Hammer and I’m a follower of Manchester DisUnited) and I said to him that the best outcome United could hope for is the pitch floods and the game abandoned! 🤣
Thatcher and her Tory govt were complicit in the coverup of the Hillsborough disaster, so I don’t expect any of them to pay attention to the legal rulings that unearthed their illegal coverup?
There are literally dozens of landmark cases where Brits relied on the ECHR: ⚠️Gay soldiers ⚠️Children beaten in schools ⚠️Women punished for fleeing domestic abuse ⚠️Journalists fined for protecting sources ⚠️Activists sued by McDonald All defended by the ECHR when Britain failed them.
It bothers me that today I had to point out… To former Tory MP @PhilipDaviesUK That the Hillsborough families invoked the ECHR in their fight for justice Because he, like so many, either doesn’t know …or is being disingenuous about the vital protections the ECHR affords us.
The truth about Reform UK is very simple. The only changes they will make are for the worse. Immigration is just the lie they like to use. Really they are here like Donald Trump to turn the UK into a fascist state and everyone into slaves.
"Flag on Devon roundabout updates with rainbow and peace symbol" Would be terrible if this sort of thing were to start happening. ~AA www.devonlive.com/news/devon-n...