David Shearan

That's brilliant Martin. I would love to do the same for the West Midlands and would like to ask you a few questions if I may. Can I do that here in comments or perhaps via direct messaging?

@angbirdnews.bsky.social we finished our holiday on Anglesey today with a final visit to Cors Ddyga. The highlights were a female Hen Harrier, a Great White Egret, a Bullfinch and 10 Black-tailed Godwit (our 85th species of the holiday) plus calling Water Rail and Cetti's Warbler.

@angbirdnews.bsky.social 1 Water Rail calling, 2 Cetti’s Warbler calling and a single Pochard at Llyn Cefni

And here are the two Chough seen on the descent from Carmel Head to Cemlyn

@angbirdnews.bsky.social some photos of species seen today.

@angbirdnews.bsky.social

Cemlyn today 10/10 2 Chough (photo to follow), 15 Turnstone, 1 Purple Sandpiper

Beddmanarch Bay today @angbirdnews.bsky.social 30 Ringed Plover, Osprey with damaged primaries

Inland Sea 15 Mute Swan, 4 Chough flyovers and 1 Mediterranean Gull all today 10/10

@angbirdnews.bsky.social Other bird sightings on days 1 and 2 of our trip.

Kingfisher at Maltraeth bridge 8/10 and another single on 9/10 at Traeth Coch by bridge near car park below Pentraeth.

2 Cetti’s Warbler and 2 Water Rail (all heard) at Cors Ddyga 8/10, 5 Jay at Pentraeth

Red Kite, 1 at Aberffraw, 1 at Cors Ddyga 8/10

TBC

Greekshank, medium-sized wader with long green legs, white front and grey back, standing in clear stony river with its long black beak pointing down intent on catching something to eat

Rock Pipit, a dark brown sparrow-sized bird with dark streaking on its offwhite chest and underparts. The bird is pecking around among the seaweed and stones searching for insects to eat.

Three Egyptian Geese in a wet grassy field.

A large flock of roosting Golden Plover on grassy bank alongside water-filled scrapes. The birds are distant but the golden brown of the birds can be easily seen in the evening sunlight.

@angbirdnews.bsky.social Two days into our Anglesey break and 66 species so far. Solitary Greenshanks at Maltraeth 8/10 and Treath Coch 9/10. 3 Egyptian Geese Cors Ddyga 8/10, Wigeon c. 75 at Maltraeth 8/10, 2 Pintail Maltraeth 8/10, 2 Gadwall Cors Ddyga 8/10

Wow. That is amazing. My wife and I are on Anglesey for four days from Wednesday. I don’t imagine it will hang around long enough for us but we can but hope

Three Brent geese on sandy beach at Penrhyn. Long heads and necks with white collars and pale bodies.

Fulmar settled down on untidy pile of big twigs in a hole on the cliff face at South Stacks. Slate grey back and pure white chest and head with a jet black eye. We watched this bird settle on the nest which had previously been used by ravens.

Typical upright stance of a Wheatear in side profile on a heather bank with foreground in focus and background blurred. Grey back, apricot throat and face with a white eye stripe. We saw several pairs at South Stacks as they moved between the tops of bushes, shrubs and rocks showing the distinctive white flash of rump as they flew away.

Highlights of our second day on Anglesey

3 Reed and 2 Sedge Warbler at RSPB Valley, pairs Pochard,2 Great Black-backed Gull, 1 Chough and single boom of a Bittern.

16 Pale-bellied Brent Geese at Penrhyn

Cors Ddyga (7-8pm) two different Bittern, booming constantly.

@angbirdnews.bsky.social

Around 50 of the c.150 Golden Plover, dumpy bids squatting down and most of them roosting with their head tucked into the feathers on their backs.

Male Eider duck on the sea, Black and white Sea duck with stiff short black taile, sloping forehead and greeny yellow patch on nape of the neck

Female Eider duck in the sea. The same sloping forehead as the male but colours completely different. Generally a grey appearance but on closer inspection they are variously coloured, grey, black and rufous brown, streaked on the neck but striped on the back and wings.

Highlights of our first day on Anglesey were:

3 Marsh Harrier, 1 Grasshopper Warbler (heard), c. 150 Golden Plover, 1 Snipe all at Cors Ddyga

Red Kite, Osprey over Maltraeth Cob

2 pairs of Eider, 3 Black Guillemot, 10 Sandwich Tern at Benllech

@angbirdnews.bsky.social

We start our 6 day holiday in Anglesey tomorrow. It looks as though there is plenty to see.

We aim to be out every day birdwatching and looking for butterflies.

@angbirdnews.bsky.social

Completed the first survey week on our local butterfly transect today.

We saw 16 individuals in four species. To put this into context we had only ever reported a single butterfly for week 1 across all previous four years.

What a great start to the year

A soaring Buzzard with wings outstretched and feet tucked back under the spread tail feathers.

My best ever attempt at a BIF (bird in flight). An overflying buzzard near to Sinker's Field at Whixall Moss today.

#shropshirebirds

Just under a week to go till the start of our butterfly transect for 2025

It’s encouraging that there have been so many sightings of our early butterflies. Could this year be a good one?

Have you observed any signs of their activity on the site yet?

Page from a notebook with February 2025 total showing columns of bird species in the garden, and a tally per species per week. The 16 species last week were Blackbird, Blue Tit, Brambling, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Nuthatch, Robin, Siskin, Starling, Wood Pigeon

Another week of BTO #gardenbirdwatch and 16 species again. It's only a small garden in North Shropshire but we frequently attract this number of species and these maximum counts.

Brambling and Nuthatch were welcome visitors this week.

Need vets on board, they push these treatments.

A call for toxic pesticides in pet medicines to be banned - Pesticide Action Network UK Analysis reveals that five chemicals deemed to be too environmentally-damaging to be used as pesticides on crops are still being routinely included in pet medicines.

There are organisations that care about this. What would it take to get public support for their work?

www.pan-uk.org/pet-meds-env...

Almost there, just needs another thirty of so! Well done everyone - people power!

Having managed Wild Woodbury #rewilding site for a few years, it was great to organise @bbcspringwatch.bsky.social to film there with thermal cameras for this years Winterwatch 🌱

A copy of “Building the cycling city” by Melissa and Chris Bruntlett in Shrewsbury Library, U.K.

Great to spot this in #Shrewsbury Library. 🥰

Highly recommended for all current (and potential future) #Shropshire Councillors

@modacitylife.com

5 years after herbicide use ended, Hoylake foreshore is thriving:

240+ plant species ✅
42k tonnes of sand captured annually, saving £45k ✅
Home to 2% of UK’s embryonic dunes ✅
Peat soils forming ✅

30ha of rare habitat = biodiversity, protection, carbon capture 🌱❤️

I wonder if Shropshire Council are watching this with interest? Could the #nwrr go the same way?
#shropshire

A single tiny white egg nestling in the brown plump oak buds. The background is deliberately blurred

I was inspired by your post and others to go out looking this morning on the site where our local #butterflytransect is here in North Shropshire.

It didn’t take too long to find one but getting a half-decent photo took longer.

Ground bird feeder table in a home made cage using chicken wire to stop the larger birds from devouring the food.

A page from an exercise book with the month and year as the heading, columns for each week starting on a Sunday and a first column that lists the species. Each week a tally is kept of the maximum number of each species seen in the garden. Last week there were a total of 18 species seen. 4 Blackbird, 4 Blue Tit, 2 Chaffinch, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Dunnock, 5 Goldfinch, 1 Great Tit, 8 Greenfinch, 3 House Sparrow, 3 Jackdaw, 10 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Robin, 1 Siskin, 10 Starling, 9 Wood Pigeon, 1 Wren, 1 Brambling, 1 Collared Dove

Another week of BTO #gardenwatch in our small garden in North Shropshire. This was one of the best ever weeks in terms of the number of species.

I added a new feeder this morning and so far Coal Tits and Robins have been taking advantage.

#shropshirebirds