Juv Cuckoo along the shore this AM being mobbed by half a dozen Y Wags and looking not half like a Kestrel. Thanks to Aristotle for originally drawing attention to the similarity. #ukbirding
Not sure if it properly words as a trifecta, but anyway an early southbound Bar-tail took us up to three 'wits on the river yesterday. #BirdArt
Even later this year- Redshanks at the old post again with chicks hatched just last week. So the guard bird is having to hang out with the Starlings.. #ukbirding
Ed Keeble@edkeeble.bsky.social · last yr.A bit of late season chickery down on the roost- Redshanks hatched in last week, so after the first godwits are back. The gatepost has been there since at least 1900 so has hosted more than 125 years of yelping Redshanks. #UKbirding
A perky little group of Scaup fresh-in on the Stour this week. The quack vol of BWP tells me drakes transfer from Scandinavia to the IJselmeer in Netherlands in July to moult, so I fancy they are overshooters. #UKbirding
Busy week- more L3 limosa action down on the Stour today- these on a flash about 10Km inland upriver, one def and one prob, but I reckon both too advanced in moult to be the pristine bird below.
The White Falcon@markgolley.bsky.social · 3w agoCouldn't get enough of the juvenile limosa today ~ about as fresh as you can get. This one will begin its moult into 1st winter plumage soon & will be well advanced with new grey feathers by the time the first juvenile islandicas arrive into the UK in a few weeks time. Perfection 👌 #L3 #ukbirding
Nice reminder in the kitchen this morning that godwits aren’t the only thing with a long sticky out bit on their head.
How nice- not as exciting as a new c-ring combo, but after more than 50 years on and off watching godwits at Stutton Mill something interesting has popped up. If it sticks, will prob feed on Essex shore on the falling tide, back to Suffolk a couple of hours after low tide and into roost.#UKbirding
Been flogging around some hawkerish spots in the hot to check for Southern Migrant Hawkers last few days and returned to find one buzzing about my chimney just now.
Welcome back to Stour godwit ORW in a flock of adults fresh-in but postponing the moment when they have to crank up their salt glands and get back to estuary life: tip-off today (thanks Adam Gretton) that they are camped out on freshwater 10Km inland.
Hot up in the Brecks on SC duty this week- here's an adult hiding inside a thistle and a near-fledgie that just can't resist upping periscope for a look.
Briefly back on the paint- finished off this one from April of Pied Wags feeding on insects disturbed by the Brents like egrets in cattle #BirdArt
Brent RDNK sticking it out on the river until at least 28th May, not for the first time. Quite a thought that a heavily upholstered black goose has now experienced 30 degrees C in both the UK (2026) and Siberia (in the mad Arctic spring of 2021). #UKbirding
Incredible views of a migrating Common Quail as it flew past the ship in the English Channel! @sophieshrike.bsky.social
Every cloud has a silver lining- here's about half of flock of 175-200 Swifts lumped by the rain and cold onto a farm res. in the Brecks this afternoon. #UKbirding
Tackling the thorny question of when a footnote should go before the punctuation rather than after. Top answer is about birds, but not by a birder I suspect. #ornithology
greeted by a Ptarmigan on the veranda when we got back to the hut from today’s wadering in Iceland
Dragged out owling in Constable country and ironically my thermal makes Stratford st Mary church look like it was painted by Turner instead.
Time to call a halt on a paint of a juv Roughleg boinging up and down on thin thorn branch before I am tempted to tinker about with it. I miss these chaps more than any other mild winter no-show I can think of. #BirdArt
The usual parade of the faithful on the godwit front- here's Woofer still with some moult to go. Well over 90% of the c-ringed godwits since beginning of Feb have prev. history on the river. #UKbirding #Ornithology
Ed Keeble@edkeeble.bsky.social · last yr.Seasons are on the turn- about half the Knot flock has pushed off to Waddensee and the rest will be gone soon and first of the regular spring godwits is back- this one WfR aka "Woofer" ringed in Spain more than a decade ago and is sometimes back here as early as end of December. #UKbirding
Funny thing how often you see a pic of WB Diver with the tip of its lower mandible broken- my pet theory is that they stub it flushing flatfish but it is fair to say that this is unsubstantiated through personal observation.
John Malloy@johnmalloy.bsky.social · 5mo agoWhite-billed Diver, Blyth At last, some sunshine! A treat to view this distinctive bill damaged individual feeding with the Northern Eider this morning. Check out those feet 👣 #NEbirding #RarebirdsUK #Birdoftheday #Birdsoftheworld #loon @markarmstrong70.bsky.social
A quick skid of ink over some Knot feeding back-to-the wind on Thursday. Might need to invest in a thinner brush. #BirdArt
I can't keep up with this weather- filthy now but here's an Avocet on the Stour at teatime yesterday in clear and calm looking more than a bit @richardallenart.bsky.social #BirdArt
I've been trying to get this old Knot with faded flag read all season- finally brought it to book in the last of the light this eve as it pottered about in the godwit roost behind the Co-op. Turns out it is my old mucker LUP ringed as a 3CY+ in 2009. So now in at least its 20th year. #ornithology
First trip off patch up the Suffolk coast for ooh i dunno how long this AM- here's at Chinese Water Deer and a Tundra Bean Goose sticking their heads up at same moment. #BirdArt
Not sure if taking dodgy record shots is genetic, but just got some nifty pics from my non-birding daughter of Buller's Shearwaters knocking a heart-shaped hole into a baitball.
flat calm once again on the Stour - GND in the reflection of the clocktower
Just to share the joy of a drake Smew on patch at Alton- the last one a few years ago had felt like a last chance to see already. Not the full set of white head plumes on this chap, but pearls of water on its back when it upped from dive. #BirdArt
Great joy to have R N Grebe in the mighty Stour area this afternoon (ta @esbr-essex.bsky.social ) - here's a pencilling of its resting head shape. #BirdArt
Still tiddling about with GND images from earlier in the week- a happy thing is that they have black stripes down the quills of their axillaries (armpit feath'rs) like the splayed slats of an Adirondack chair #BirdArt
