Paul French
@nomadbirder.bsky.social
Birder, purveyor of aerial bird identification wizardry & secretary of British Birds Rarities Committee
Up to over 9kg of blackberries now!! That would cost the best part of £80 from Tesco, so get yourselves some great wildlife habitat and some amazing free fruit!!
Paul French@nomadbirder.bsky.social · 4w agoThere are 2 main bramble patches in the garden, and this year seems to be a resplendent one! Nearly 6kg of fruit so far, a lot more to come, and there will still be a load left for birds and mice. If you have space for a bramble patch, please consider it! #wildlifegardening
There are 2 main bramble patches in the garden, and this year seems to be a resplendent one! Nearly 6kg of fruit so far, a lot more to come, and there will still be a load left for birds and mice. If you have space for a bramble patch, please consider it! #wildlifegardening
Buff-breasted Sandpiper brings up the #300 for my Spurn list, a nice little milestone. Probably be another 40 yrs at my current pace before I reach 350!!
I hear that the Argentinian football team are in line for the next FIFA Peace Prize.
Saturday giveaway time! I picked a copy of the (still brilliant) Macmillan Guide to Bird Identification at Cley village fete & like the last time, I want to give this copy to a really keen young birder (18 or under). Drop me a DM - or reply here - & Lynnette will pick a name from a hat. #ukbirding
BB 2000 Ltd is seeking two voluntary board members: a Treasurer and an HR specialist. ~1–2 hrs/week. Interest in birding desirable. For more information and contact details, see: britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti... 📸 David Tipling
🚨 Exciting news! The Swiss Ornithological Institute is starting a collaborative program that offers multi-sensor geolocators and analytical support for bird migration research, focusing on underrepresented species & regions. Interested? geopressure.org/GeoCollabForm/ Please share!
We all know Spurn is the bees knees for swifts, but we sometimes get a big movement over Easington too, and I'm not sure these birds actually make it down to Spurn, as they're heading due west over us. We've clicked over 2000 today, most since 1630hrs. And still they come!! @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social
Not sure when the last Marsh Tit was at Spurn. The Birds of Spurn lists a record in 2010 as the latest, and I can't recall one since moving here in 2016. In any case, it's a bit of a local mega. Today's juvenile was already sporting a ring, so we should be getting some interesting info soon.
There's been an interesting development on Fetlar. I seem to have woken up in the 18th century.
Currently up in Shetland doing some seabird surveys, spending the first week on Foula being awed by the monstrous cliffs and overall imposing vibes of the place. A few migrants were also seen, the highlight being this lovely Black-headed Bunting.
The Great Glen skua portal opened up today, amazing to see Long-tailed Skuas thermalling over Loch Linnhe like giant Bee-eaters up to 1000m before whizzing northeast towards Inverness! 🪶 #ornithology #highlandbirds
Spring waders really are superb! This alpina Dunlin is bound for the European arctic somewhere, while the leucorhoa Northern Wheatear is bound for Greenland. I wasn't expecting to find a Nearctic passerine on patch today, but I'll take it! Just two of many globetrotters on the Outstrays today.
This Cuckoo at Outstrays was battling against the wind today, and doing rather well.
The rapid erosion of Easington continues. I took the first 2 pics in November, the last 2 today. The gravel path is gone, the fence is gone, but most annoyingly the plastic tree guards are just being left to fall into the sea. The sooner everyone just stops using plastic tree guards the better.
As well as rares, there are many, many common birds that give me a lot of pleasure. One of my favourite things are Dunlin in May, and the Warren at Spurn is a great place to look for all sorts of variation. Most of them at the moment seem to be schinzii, but a few alpina present too.
With only 10 post-1950 records, Desert Wheatear is surprisingly rare in Yorkshire. The most recent was 2017, but the last one at Spurn was 1962! So today's bird at Grimston was well worth the short trek up the coast.
Search is full of ads and wrong answers. Every other email is an ad. Prime Video charges you and shows ads. Paramount? Ads. Peacock? YouTube? Hulu? Ads followed by more ads. Netflix full of ads. 🧵
Post 2 about Cape Verde, and thought I'd get another rarity out of the way, but this time a local mega rather than a WP one. This reiseri Eastern Olivaceous Wblr seems to be the 2nd record for Cape Verde. Was nice to see while waiting for the Red-billed Quelea to show up! ebird.org/checklist/S3...
Frampton Marsh yesterday. Among the brent horde were two Pale-bellieds plus this presumed hybrid Pale x Dark-bellied, paired with a Pale-bellied. Appearance changed wigh angles of course, but consistently showed inbetween features.
We are pleased to announce that copies of ‘The Birds of Fair Isle’ are now on sale at The SOC, Waterston House, Aberlady, East Lothian at £85. @scottishbirding.bsky.social
Cape Verde really is an outpost of the Palearctic. It has a suite of endemic breeding birds, including some quality seabirds, and we were there to enjoy some pioneering pelagics in March. It also attracts some monster WP rares, and my first port of call was this wondrously-winged Willet on Boa Vista
🚨 Just a friendly reminder to users of the Mapper App housemartinconservation.com/house-martin... to re-synch it to the latest version before logging your first entries this year. It's good practice to re-synch regularly so you don't get caught out! 🚨 If you haven't already downloaded, please do! 😊
Decision relating to the #BritishList The subspecies Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus vetula has been added to the British List bou.org.uk/british-l... The British List remains at 636 species #ornithology
Decision relating to the #BritishList Pied Crow Corvus albus has not been added to Category A or Category D bou.org.uk/british-l... The British List remains at 636 species #ornithology
Honored to have had the chance to visit Oxford last week (after a few days in Liverpool beforehand!). I really enjoyed meeting so many great people and sharing ideas on bird migration. I hope you enjoyed the presentation, and stay tuned for upcoming results on vagrants and bird migration! 🪶
Jørgen Søraker@jorgensoraker.bsky.social · 6mo agoWonderful seminar today by @pauldufour80.bsky.social on how vagrancy in birds can help us understand aspects of bird migration! Particularly interesting to see the altitude Richard’s Pipits reach each night during migration (27:50) Now also on YouTube! m.youtube.com/watch?v=UD1h...
Naff boc shots, but the Willet on Boa Vista showed nicely today. All gearing up nicely for the pelagics off Fogo next week, hopefully some quality sea-birding here on Cape Verde to come...
Ross’s Gull Prints pre-order! - Original SOLD- A4, limited edition of only 25! £25 plus p+p. They are made to order, so will take around 3/4 weeks- msg to order. Reference photo credit to Sarah Jane, Gill Fisher and @runnelstone.bsky.social #birds #ukbirding #cornwallbirding #watercolourart
Getting there. Need a few adjustments, and text adding on a computer, but here are 5 Chiffchaffs and one Willow Warbler. #birds #ukbirding #sciart #birdart
