Wonderfully autumnal this afternoon with wind, rain and a big sea as 5 Arctic Skuas and 31 Manxies raced south past the Fylde coast #lancsbirding #ukbirding #seawatching
Tom Lowe
@saloplarus.bsky.social
Gulls, Geese, Goshawks, Aurora, Astronomy and everything else in the sky. #lookup #salopobs - the unofficial bird observatory in the heart of Shropshire 😏
Today's highlights included incoming Whimbrel, another juv YLG on the Wyre, and a GBBG family eating a shark alive (looks like a Starry Smooth-hound 🦈) #lancsbirding #ukbirding
Small Mottled Willows back up to 17 last night, along with 2 Rusty-dots and 2 locally-oddly-scarce Wax Moths #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40 @migrantmothuk.bsky.social
Great weekend at #salopobs complete with a delicious autumnal chill this morning. Spotted Fly family doing well, 130+ House Sparrows in the garden of which 80% juvs, 150+ Swallows, Hummers, voles... #loveautumn #ukbirding
My favourite picture I've taken today. Could watch these all day 🦏 #blackrhino @chesterzoo.bsky.social @chesterzoosci.bsky.social
The locally scarce Lesser Wax Moth was this morning's #salopmoths highlight amongst 5 RDPs, 3 SMWs and 3 Silver Ys, and the always fancy Oak Longhorn #teammoth
A couple of orange things saved a disappointing first roost of the year at #ChelmarshResr - a stonking adult Cattle Egret and the nearly full Moon rising over the Severn Valley #shropshirebirding #ukbirding
Er, we did it again... the 4th Ni Moth of this crazy year was clinging to the power cable of the MV this morning, alongside 5 Silver Ys, 6 SMWs and 2 RDPs #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40 @migrantmothuk.bsky.social
Had fun watching a hunting pack of sinensis at The Mere, Ellesmere this week, and picking out a lone carbo from the throng. Gular pouch maths 🤓 #shropshirebirding #ukbirding
Stepped outside after tea to find my first Small Ranunculus resting on the house. Yet another species with just a handful of county records a year 🤯 #salopmoths #teammoth
A fifth Pine Hawk this morning, and by far the smartest - to put it into context, there were just 15 Shropshire records up to the end of 2024! Mad year. Also our 3rd Lychnis, 2 SMWs, 2 RDPs #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40
Annual highlight late last night when this juv YLG dropped in next to me on the Wyre Estuary in #lancsbirding. Always nice
The 4th Pine Hawk of the year this morning (after our first in over 12yrs in July 2025), 31 SMWs, 4 Rush Veneers and a RDP. Some of these migrants are so smart, surely locally bred following the hot May arrivals #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40 @migrantmothuk.bsky.social
Pleased to add another dot to the Shropshire dragonfly map with the discovery of the northernmost Small Red-eyed Damselfies today, alongside yet another Lesser Emperor record in this record-breaking summer #ukdragonflies
Finally found time to catch up with this year's profusion of Clouded Yellows this afternoon, even managed a phonepic. Been years since I last saw one #ukbutterlies
Only 😏 26 SMWs, 8 Silver Ys, 2 RDPs and a Rush Veneer on the migrant front this morning, so plenty of time for some more colourful characters #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40 @migrantmothuk.bsky.social
The migrant moths keep coming, with our third Ni Moth of the year this morning, after the 2nd and 3rd for the county in May! Also 32 SMWs and yet another Pine Hawk. Times they are a changin' #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40 @migrantmothuk.bsky.social
Some things I found on a Scottish moor today: a sadly downed Swift, a fogbound juvenile Cuckoo, thousands of Magpie Moths, and a raptor drumstick... oh, and 4 more ubiquitous Quail #scottishbirding #teammoth
Swift nest boxes at the back our church, flight paths - Om1mk2 and 12-100f4. @rspb.bsky.social @omsystem.bsky.social @shropshirewildlife.bsky.social
10 singing Quail on my East Yorks Wolds survey site this week, working out at 3 per square mile. And there are miles and miles of the same rolling cereal/arable habitat. Just how many Quail are out there?! #yorkshirebirding #ukbirding
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
Almost exactly 11 years ago I had my first migrant Small Mottled Willow, at the time about the 5th for Shropshire. This morning I had 22! And you can't knock a Vapourer #salopmoths #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social
Nice to have an excuse to stay up into the darkest part of a summer night as the days start to shorten and the Milky Way returns to view... #milkyway #astrophotography #winteriscoming
As well as the county scarcities in this morning's mothtrap were an over-friendly Shark, 5 SMWs, a Rush Veneer and 3 of the always entertaining Eared Leafhoppers #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40
A great night for mothy wanderers, especially those escaping dried out wetlands. Twin-spotted Wainscot might be just the third for Shropshire, and 8 Dusky Sallows is a great edge-of-range count #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40
Another night, another glimpse of #noctilucentclouds between the chimney pots here in Lancashire. Worth a look to your NNW if your skies are clear... #lookup
Nice little #noctilucentclouds display before dawn today, between the rooftops from my airbnb #lookup
