Following many attempts at getting close to multiple Clouded Yellows the last 3 days in NW Norfolk, finally one deigned to nectar long enough to get some photos at Ringstead Common - love those eyeballs! Bonus of a bee ✅️, with a Gold-tailed Melitta, appropriately enough on Clustered Bellflower🙂.

"Everything starts with an E" - Continental Black-tailed Godwit E12 giving some great views at Titchwell late afternoon, plus the Curlew Sand and an ad YL Gull. A few hours at Ringstead Common produced 'just' 15+ Hummingbird Hawkmoth, but several Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady, plus 2 Raven.

What a day in NW Norfolk today; first, the birds, with great views of the White-rumped Sandpiper at Snettisham, plus Lt Stint, 3 Spotted Redshank, Cattle Egret. Early evening visit to Titchwell produced the moulting Curlew Sandpiper and a presumed 2s Arctic Tern🙂

The grassy meadow by Old Hunstanton GC/dunes produced 15+ HHawkmoth, 10+ Clouded Yellow and our first Marbled Clover. On to Ringstead Down, and incredible views of our first Queen of Spain Fritillary!! Constantly on view, defending a small section of the main track; Clouded Yellow and 5+ HHawkmoth.

Seeing the terrible scenes at Westleton/Dunwich, why the f@ck are disposable bbqs still allowed to be sold? Let's face it, anyone buying one in this drought, and taking it to the bone-dry countryside to use, is likely to be thick as pig shit, so don't give them the option!

“Artificial intelligence labs are in a new arms race to buy up millions of rare books, slicing them open, scanning the pages and pulping the remains — sparking concerns that the last remaining copies of out-of-print texts are being destroyed on an industrial scale.”

Social Media Lab@socialmedialab.ca · last wk.

This aught to be illegal ... "AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books" www.news.com.au/technology/o...

#Northantsbirds A slow walk round Summerleys this morning, with anything decent confined to the Scrape as the Trust were working by the main lake. The 2 Garganey showed well from the hide, with a juv LRP & Gt Egret. Still a few Wasp Spider about, incl this whopper, plus a ✅️Hook-banded Meadow Fly.

Visited the most famous bramble patch in England this morning🙂, with excellent views of the Long-tailed Shrike, perched up on view for the 2 hours we were there, dropping down onto several Grasshoppers and Bees. Many thanks to the volunteers manning the car park👍. Bonus Hornet Robberfly✅️

Humans eh? Surely the most stupid creature on the planet...🤪

#Northantsbirds Not even a Common Sand at Summerleys early evening, but a noticeable increase in both Coot and Gadwall; thoughts of a Garganey hiding among the latter miraculously bore fruit with an eclipse drake on the Scrape, though it was among Lapwings and not Gadwall😆

Countless hours spent listening to 60s and 70s music featuring the amazing sound and groove of either a Hammond or Farfisa organ, and today, at Emmaus Village charity shop near Carlton, Beds, we found this lovely (and working) Farfisa; so tempted to buy it at £150, but resisted temptation!

Well, colour me shocked that organised religion is just a front for a money-obssessed collection of grifters...🤡👹

Guy Shrubsole@guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 3w ago

Appalling: Church of England votes against plan to rewild 30% of its land by 2030 @wildcard.land have run a noble campaign trying to get the CofE to see sense But this demonstrates exactly why Ministers can't rely on landowners to voluntarily support 30by30: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

After a long day of Papay Tours and boat trips, finally caught up with the Blue-cheeked bee-eater at about 10pm, coming in to roost in the willows at Hundland. A first for Orkney, a magical bird and a treat for the Papay Tour guests and visiting birders too! #Papay #Orkney #rarebirds

#Northantsbirds Egret nesting season seems to have finished at Kinewell Lake, with just 4 juv Cattle present, on two different islands, won't be long before they appear at Stanwick/Thrapston/Summerleys🙂. One juv had an adult-like yellow bill - other juvs over the years have occasionally shown this.

#Northantsbirds With our climate beginning it's slow collapse this week, no birding til early today, thankfully the 2 female-type Garganey were still at Summerleys, an extremely belated FOY; 3 Great Egret best of the rest. Common Terns seem to have abandoned Eddies Is and have relocated to Marys.

Make the 6-fingered knuckledraggers have their meeting - outside, hottest part of the day, no shade or water, each Reform councillor to speak for minimum of 60 minutes on why climate change is a hoax, while that blazing sun frys their last few remaining brain cells.

Dr Charlie Gardner@charliejgardner.bsky.social · last mo.

Reform UK councillors have introduced a motion to rescind King's Lynn and West Norfolk's climate emergency declaration and deprioritise decarbonisation efforts The council were going to vote on it on Thursday But the meeting has been postponed due to extreme heat

#Northantsbirds Kinewell Lake today, and not often the local breeding birds are upstaged, but finding a Red-tipped Clearwing was a definite highlight! A female Mandarin returned for the Summer, as they have for the last several years; where do they go to at other times of the year??

#Northantsbirds With such a quiet last few weeks locally, I lost some of my birding mojo, and todays visit to Summerleys did little to get it back, until we got to Wader Bay, where an adult Mediterranean was preening on the shore; another scan revealed a 1s Little Gull(my first June record I think)🙂

#Northantsbirds Looks like an excellent breeding season for our Nene Valley Cattle Egrets, a visit today revealed 3 different broods of 3,4 and 4 juveniles, all at different ages. Max of 9 adults at any one time. As in previous years, the Cattle Egret have nested later than the Littles.

#Northantsbirds Summerleys this evening started with a Red Kite taking another Lapwing chick from off the Scrape, and finished with an adult YL Gull in Wader Bay. In between, an LRP, Great Egret, rattling Lesser Whitethroat and at 2 fully-fledged Redshank doing their best 'Wood Sand' impression🙂

After 2 aborted attempts, finally got to see the Black-winged Kite near Sea Palling today; always distant, and, when it did fly, it simply dropped off its favoured bush and out of sight - hoping for proper flight views tomorrow. No sign of Montys at Horsey, but plenty of Seals, and 2 Lsr Emporer.

#Northantsbirds June 1st tomorrow, so ends one of the most disappointing Springs for many years personally (with the exception of the Wood Sandpipers, which were freaking amazing!) Didn't see/find a single Sanderling or Turnstone, nor even an Arctic Tern🤪. Missing the Savi's was the cherry on top!

Hello old friend. 7th “yearly” pilgrimage to see the American Black Tern, again paired with a male Arctic Tern. @markarmstrong70.bsky.social 📸 Canon R5M2/RF100-500/RF1.4 #NEbirding #Birdsoftheworld #Birdoftheday #BirdsSeenIn2026

#Northantsbirds An uneventful visit to NW South today, Hobby and 3 drake Pochard present. Sadly, someone has been on the main island (must've waded/swam across?), with remains of a fire and littered bottles and cans left - no doubt the nesting LRPs deserted; another reason I hate the general public🤬

#Northantsbirds Too warm for us today, so headed for Kinewell Lake as it's pretty shaded round most of the Lake. As expected, rather quiet, a handful of Tufted Duck and Gadwall present; biggest surprise was a Common Sandpiper (any wader is a bonus here!). Several juv Little Egret joined by 2 Cattle🙂

#Northantsbirds As it's been such a poor May locally, here's a reminder of a lovely blast-from-the-past🙂; I remember it moving between Aldwincle Lake and Town Lake regularly, resulting in lots of running back to cars, speeding up and down the A605, and u-turns in the road at the Titchmarsh junction!

#Northantsbirds Whilst the long-staying Whimbrel and a new-in Ruff were nice to see at Summerleys today, it's been a rather quiet week. A couple of oddities provided a distraction - a presumed albino Egyptian Goose, and a Black-headed Gull x Gonzo from the Muppets hybrid; that is some bill😮🙂!

#Northantsbirds Hobby was the theme of our day, with 2 at Kinewell Lake, followed by another duo at NW South that put on a real display, hawking insects along the river. Not much else about, so a few pics from Summerleys this week - B-n Grebes, Whimbrel, Tundra Ringed Plover, Sand Martin.

#Northantsbirds As well as 4 'Tundra' Ringed Plover at NW South today, a check through the Gulls at the W end threw up this - small-headed, dinky, slim and very long-winged LBB type. Heat haze and distance didn't help, but appeared to have an all-dark bill; compare size/shape with ad LBB on left.

Tawny Owl this morning at Ravensthorpe Reservoir. Above the path just ahead of me: don’t think I’ve ever had a better view of this species. Spent an enjoyable couple of minutes in its company. #northantsbirds