Thomas Miller
@tmbirding.bsky.social
Patch birding in Oxfordshire and further afield tmbirding.blogspot.com
Maybe this deserves its own blog rather than a series of bsky posts. But as an example, compare the unedited photos of recent Otmoor Black Kite with versions where I've asked ChatGPT to enhance, sharpen and denoise. The bird is the wrong way up in the lower AI enhanced shot! Total fakery 1/2
Looking at my feeds, surely at this point there needs to be a PSA to birders that using ChatGPT to enhance a photo is not equivalent to processing with Adobe/DXO AI denoisers... At least with the latter if it's a bad photo it just ends up as a blurred smudge, rather than falsifying a load of detail
A few (mostly landscape) images of the 2cy male Montagu's Harrier on the Oxfordshire downs yesterday evening. A Darvic-ringed bird hatched in England last year, and a long-awaited county tick for me after multiple previous dips #ukbirding
Easy to forget that normal birding exists with something like the Long-tailed Shrike appearing. But back to Farmoor today to see how YLG numbers are building up. Still very few, but lucked in on a juvenile Caspian Gull! By far the earliest ever in Oxfordshire (8th August previous record) #ukbirding
Always nice to see fresh juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls - one of four noted at @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social yesterday. Beautiful evening light #ukbirding
Moth numbers and variety noticeably down on an increasingly breezy night at the Obs; however, a LepiLED session by Thomas Miller in the nearby Crown Estate Field turned up a first for Portland in the form of a Reed Veneer Chilo phragmitella
The WISDOM OF CROWDS emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds! Excited to share our work published by @aaas.org in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia...
The wisdom of crowds emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds
Larger flocks of migrating songbirds orient more accurately toward their population’s migratory direction than smaller flocks.
doi.org
Review of Oxon Birding in May is now up. Top highlights include the 4th record of Black Kite for the county. An excellent find by @tmbirding.bsky.social and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social. And a brief Red-footed Falcon found by @benhall41.bsky.social. #UKBirding oxonbirding.blogspot.com/2026/06/may-...
May Review & Highlights
The Highlights Not to be outdone by the previous two months May delivered on the unexpected and continued the fine form of 2026. For inla...
oxonbirding.blogspot.com
Arrived just in time for the Red-necked Phalarope at Farmoor this afternoon. What a superb bird, I saw the spring female on Port Meadow in 2018 but it was a distant spinning speck compared to this. Another great find from Roger Wyatt and another great record for Oxfordshire this year #ukbirding
Well that was unexpected. Broad-billed Sandpiper at QE2 (Walton) this afternoon. Think was taken by a Peregrine a few minutes later. #surreybirds #rarebirdsUK. The definition of inland reservoir patch gold. Almost like the Enhanced Games!!
Beachy Head: Just found an eastern subalpine warbler in cow gap @BirdGuides maps.app.goo.gl/aAtoKB3eZM31h6…
Very pleased to pick up this Black Kite at Otmoor today whilst teaching Biology field course with @sheldonbirds.bsky.social. Not the most satisfying find, being a speck confirmed from photos as it headed north. Apparently also seen well by an independent observer 15mins earlier over the main reserve
Rather behind with my blogging, particularly on the South Africa series. So a quick one about the recent AGP and thoughts on Oxfordshire listing #ukbirding tmbirding.blogspot.com/2026/05/amer...
American Golden Plover and Portland weekend
American Golden Plover, Otmoor A universal rule of county birding is that whenever you leave the county, rare birds turn up. I'm often away ...
tmbirding.blogspot.com
In addition to my own blog, I've been tasked with rejuvenating Adam's original Port Meadow Birding blog. Have now done a few patch updates, quite an impressive list of sightings last month - want it to be more like a log book than my blog #ukbirding portmeadowbirding.blogspot.com/2026/05/apri...
April 22nd-May 5th
Male Sparrowhawk What an exciting period of birding on the Meadow! Despite the continued anticyclonic conditions and northeasterlies, the fl...
portmeadowbirding.blogspot.com
Well that livened up a dull bank holiday Monday! Nothing quite like finding a local mega on your patch. Amazing to see so many familiar faces come and go. Another splendid evening at Broom GP. Kentish Plover, 4th May 2026 #BedsBiding
1/ A fantastic Oxon Big Day by Bike yesterday, with @sheldonbirds.bsky.social @tmbirding.bsky.social & Max Buckley. 115 species is 3 short of our record, weather was too good this year! Covered 175km by bike, 15km on foot: www.outofthebluesky.co/oxon-big-day... #UKbirding #BirdingByBike #BigDay
Similar conditions for #PWC2026 with the waders passing straight through - Barwit again early yesterday and this morning a Wood Sand flyover going high north calling. Everything crossed for Black Tern - no way that they'd hang around in this weather so have to be there at the right time #ukbirding
Just shows you don't need cloud and rain for a wader fall. Blasting easterly and not a cloud in the sky but somehow still a flock of 10 Greenshanks, a Barwit and a Whimbrel on the puddle this morning. The two singles departed southeast shortly after I arrived #ukbirding
Round up of some fantastic county birds in March, topped by an excellent Ring-billed Gull found by @tmbirding.bsky.social. April looks set to continue the great form the county is currently in, quite the start to 2026. oxonbirding.blogspot.com/2026/04/marc... #UKBirding
March Review
The Highlights After a period dominated by visitors from the East, March provided some much-needed variety with several rarities from the ...
oxonbirding.blogspot.com
Nice lunchtime visit to twitch @tombedford.bsky.social's urban Redstart, a male singing on Warneford Meadow just a few minutes walk from my house. Fabulous bird especially against the ominous grey sky #ukbirding
Now with updated images - realised how blown out most of the originals were now that I've processed them properly...
Thomas Miller@tmbirding.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe Port Meadow Ring-billed Gull blog post is now out, photos will be replaced in due course with better versions as I don't currently have the computer I usually use for image processing with me. Some identification pointers inside #ukbirding tmbirding.blogspot.com/2026/03/a-da...
The introduction and Part 1 of my South Africa blog are now published. Beware that this post is extremely long - so long, in fact, that I'm not sure how I'm going to find the time to keep this up for the rest of the trip tmbirding.blogspot.com/2026/03/sout... tmbirding.blogspot.com/2026/03/sout...
South Africa Part 1 - Johannesburg to Kruger
Birding Polokwane - one of the highlights of this leg This first blog post covers the part of our trip before we arrived in Kruger. I arrive...
tmbirding.blogspot.com
An amazing 3 minutes in the Lye Valley, Oxford this morning, as an OSPREY circled over the Churchill Hospital before flying north! 🤯 ebird.org/checklist/S3... An incredible new species for the Lye Valley area! @friendlyevalley.bsky.social @patchbirding.bsky.social @headingtonnews.bsky.social
eBird Checklist - 26 Mar 2026 - Lye Valley & Warneford Meadow - 39 species
Submitted by Tom Bedford.
ebird.org
Went with Max Buckley for another look at the Otmoor American Wigeon this morning and ended up finding a Green-winged Teal! Surely not many inland sites have had a day with "the double", so I'm very pleased with this! A self-found tick for me as well, hopefully it moves to Port Meadow now #ukbirding
Have added a new page to my blog to record Port Meadow daily sightings, collated mostly from eBird and WhatsApp groups, just to have it all in once place for spring migration. Will aim to backdate it to the beginning of the year when I have a spare evening tmbirding.blogspot.com/p/port-meado...
Port Meadow Sightings Log
Daily sightings from Port Meadow collated from various sources and not all seen by me 13/03/2026 Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, 3 Sheld...
tmbirding.blogspot.com
The Port Meadow Ring-billed Gull blog post is now out, photos will be replaced in due course with better versions as I don't currently have the computer I usually use for image processing with me. Some identification pointers inside #ukbirding tmbirding.blogspot.com/2026/03/a-da...
A day to remember
No words can describe watching this! Sunday 7th March. After a few days on patch with little to show for it, I must admit that something did...
tmbirding.blogspot.com
An appalling record shot in the gloom this evening of a very good find - @tmbirding.bsky.social pulled a first winter Ring-billed Gull out of the hat at Port Meadow. A really superb find and reward for much dedication. Fortunately there are some much better photos!
Apparently patch birding does all come good in the end. 1w Ring-billed Gull this evening and glad some people managed to connect after my rather garbled attempt at putting news out. Blog post to follow #ukbirding
