Male Redstart on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, yesterday 😍

#DataVis using QGIS in this case helps highlight outliers and errors/typos easily missed in spreadsheets and by thresholds based on counts & dates. Once visualised/mapped, these can be followed up. All of these records have the same site name - notice anything about the grid refs? #Ecology

I am so moved by the Ravens: their obvious affection for one another, how they raise a family, how they just soar & tumble having fun. I am biased but I can’t think of another species of bird so complex & interesting! Listen to their little chortles this morning How can you not love them! 😁

I was pleased to see this exciting project taking shape on the Kennet floodplain in Hungerford. Nature restoration. wetland creation and public education. Project by the venerable Town & Manor of Hungerford, in partnership with ARK @riverkennet.bsky.social #naturerecovery #conservation

Berkshire Ornithological Club@berksbirdclub.bsky.social · 3w ago

BOC Committee at the proposed Kennet Wetland Reserve: a 40 acre site in #Hungerford, earmarked for wetland restoration by the Town and Manor of Hungerford. They've got planning consent and need to raise £800k for the 1st phase. See project website (townandmanor.co.uk/wetland-rese...) #berksbirds

I'll be on the stand most of the day. If you're around, come and have a chat about birds. #berksbirds

Berkshire Ornithological Club@berksbirdclub.bsky.social · 3w ago

BOC will be at this year's Earley Green Fair on Sat 1st August, 10-3. Our still will have lots of information about Berkshire's birds and BOC's activities. Come and meet some of us for a chat, see the wide range of other stalls and activities, or enjoy a walk round Maiden Erlegh Lake. #berksbirds

Are you at the Great Yorkshire Show this week? Come and have a chat about all things nature-friendly farming! 🐑 Find us at Stand 260 near the sheep pens and judging rings.

On a 21% turnout, Reform hold by five (5) votes. An 11.2% increase in Labour's vote, didn't quite persuade enough people to fmtrun out, or enough Greens or Lib Dems to vote tactically. But the 4.9% decline in support for Reform UK Ltd is at least a consolation.

Election Maps UK@electionmaps.uk · last mo.

High Fell (Gateshead) Council By-Election Result: ➡️ RFM: 40.1% (-4.9) 🌹 LAB: 39.7% (+11.2) 🔶 LDM: 7.0% (-2.2) 🌳 CON: 5.6% (New) 🌍 GRN: 5.0% (-8.7) 🧑‍🔧 TUSC: 2.6% (-1.0) Reform HOLD. Changes w/ 2026.

In deepest, hottest, Berkshire watching Kestrels and Whitethroats with young gasping, in the third heatwave of this record-breaking summer. Yet more evidence of the accelerating #climatecrisis, which is demonstrably caused by human activity. We must act, individually and collectively. #berksbirds

I've never seen Dotterels on their British breeding grounds. Looks like I probably never will. www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen...

This is a brilliant essay, which, in my view, accurately describes the predicament of the post-Boomer generations, and the vast infrastructure of lies designed to disguise it. "Degeneracy is a symptom. The disease is rent." 🧵 henryfudgeofficial.substack.com/p/degeneracy...

Degeneracy is a Symptom

On Conspicuous Despair, the Ponzi stage of being alive, and why your grandparents are wrong about you.

henryfudgeofficial.substack.com

Adult Grey Partridge with eight young scurried out of a wheatfield and across the farmyard outside my studio window. First I've seen here this year. #berksbirds

Shaping up to be the most extraordinary run of warm months as recorded on the @unirdg-met.bsky.social field station.

Two MPs have been murderered in the last 10 years but Nigel Farage claims AGAIN to be the most attacked politician in modern times

Very strong “fraudulent timeshare salesman who pocketed millions tracked down in his Costa Del Sol hideaway by Roger Cook” vibes here

Make EVERY Vote Count

WE HAVE AVOCET NEWS!!! An Avocet spotted at RSPB Middleton Lakes has been confirmed as the oldest ever recorded in the UK. At 36 years old, it's lived more than five times longer than the species' average lifespan. First ringed in 1990, it's still out there doing Avocet things. Go on Avocet. 😍

I'll be pleased if the Mexico game is brought forward to earlier on Sunday. I get that there's some excitement about the football but I wasn't going to lose sleep to watch. The last time I went to a professional match Martin Chivers, Martin Peters, Pat Jennings and Alan Gilzean were on the pitch.

I’m not saying the debate in the U.K. has moved to the right, but Ed Miliband is basically seen as Pol Pot for aiming for a climate target first agreed to by…I think Theresa May’s government? Definitely Johnson’s. And this chat is going on during the middle of a record-breaking heatwave

I'm at the end of three days in East Anglia visiting an old birding friend from our schooldays (we didn't call it birding in the Seventies). 97 species including Spotshank, Cattle Egret, Crane, Spoonbill and Hobby. We visited Fen Drayton Lakes, Welney WWT and Snettisham RSPB. #ukbirding

This is great. He's getting absolutely hammered on this and every answer he invents is worse than the one which preceded it

Prashant 🌊@prasshant.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Credit where credit is due, Finally Sally Nugent asked Nigel Farage real questions about £5m on BBC breakfast. His answer literally is "No one cares". WTAF. (I've speeded it up to 1.3x to fit within the BlueSky video limit)

Londoners, there is a webpage for you to see where your nearest "cool spaces" are when the extreme heat hits - places with water, air-conditioning & shade. Have a look and spread the word, especially to those who may need this but might not think to look for it: apps.london.gov.uk/cool-spaces/

Well, it turns out all those Russian bots don't get a vote.

Andy Burnham is now MP for an important constituency of Willow Tits! Key areas of Amberswood Common and the Flashes of Wigan & Leigh NNR are in Makerfield, where our study was based. There's dozens of Willow Tit territories there, and likely hundreds in the wider area. doi.org/10.1080/0006...

The Major Oak has stood at the heart of Sherwood Forest for over a thousand years. This spring, it failed to come into leaf and experts now believe it has died. But its story isn’t over. Its ancient trunk & branches will continue to support life for years to come: www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen...

My first Hobby in the parish this year puts me on 84 species in this landlocked County parish with only a small brook and a couple of small ponds, mixed arable land and forestry. Best specialties include Nightjar, Woodcock, Lapwing. Still looking for a SpotFly for my parish year-list. #berksbirds

Really important that this story gets out there. Classic Kremlin disinfomation and smear campaign and lots of people even on this site fell for it. inews.co.uk/news/starmer...

Starmer was targeted by sex worker conspiracy straight from Putin's playbook

It was a conspiracy shared by a handful of social media accounts and ultimately ended up in Russian state media

inews.co.uk

Sign the open letter seeking an inquiry into Russian Interference in our politics and public discourse. I am fed up of Russian bots and hacked accounts spreading division and disinformation to destabilise society. secure.hopenothate.org.uk/page/193695/...

Russia set Britain on fire. Demand an inquiry.

The men who tried to set fire to Kier Starmer’s house were taking orders from Russia. Our research shows this was not an isolated plot. It was part of a wider Russian operation on British soil. Add yo...

secure.hopenothate.org.uk

A recently finished woodland inspired drawing.

Available in my shop now if anybody’s interested. claireleach.com/shop

Claire Leach@claireleach.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A recent watercolour dabble.

It's World Swift Day! ❤️ Swifts raise their chicks high in eaves or nestboxes, returning to the same site year after year. When the young fledge, they launch into open air... & just keep going! They’ll remain airborne for the next two or three years, until it’s time to breed themselves.