BTO Shropshire

An infographic for the distance walked by volunteers for the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) in Shropshire (190.2km) and the Wetland BBS (62.0km).

2025 has been a good year for our BBS coverage, but we can do better! 51 BBS and 7 Wetland BBS squares were surveyed, or 88% of our allocation, by 49 volunteers. A huge thank you to all of them.

There's always room for more! ➡️ www.bto.org/get-involved...
#ShropshireBirds @bbs-birds.bsky.social

Graph and image showing the best year of BBS coverage across the UK yet.

2025 has been a record year for BBS coverage! 4,054 visits to BBS squares have been made this year. This beats the 2018 record of 4,048. Thanks so much to all of the BBS volunteers across the UK who have contributed to this! @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social

In this week's Migration Blog we look at Little Auks, await the arrival of Woodcock and ask if this could be a Waxwing winter #ukbirding

www.bto.org/our-work/new...

Photo: Woodcock by Liz Cutting / BTO

🐦 With their red faces and tinkling calls, Goldfinches bring a splash of colour to our gardens. Once scarce, they’re now seen in around 60% of Garden BirdWatch gardens. Their increase is likely linked to changes in supplementary feeding as well other ecological factors.

#Birds #UKBirding

The latest BTO Migration Blog looks at the cryptic Jack Snipe as it arrives in Britain for the winter, as well as more arrivals of winter thrushes, Yellow-browed Warblers and the latest rare vagrants #ukbirding

www.bto.org/our-work/new...

Photo credit: Jack Snipe by Allan Drewitt / BTO

Should be an inspiring day in the presence of like-minded people!

Around a dozen of the #ShropshireBirds clan were at the 2025 conference so we're hoping to see even more Shropshire folk in Northampton 🙂

If there's demand we could try to organise car sharing or train buddies. DM if interested.

Impressive visible migration or VisMig from Tom at the Salop Observatory this morning 😮

Sometimes all you need is a little time, some good observation skills and a notebook. Or the #BirdTrack app, of course!

4 Whooper Swans flying SE past the obs, following other Midlands overshooters yesterday. Yeartick 128, smashing last year's record of 124

Just a few of the 10k Woodpigeons flying SW in 2hrs this morning

Great Egret high south, still exciting to see and still surprising to be an expected part of the year these days

A magical morning at #salopobs (even though I overslept 🤦🏻‍♂️) with 4 Whoopers SE (obs yeartick 128), a Great Egret high south, 10,060 Woodies, 20 Crossbills, double Gos 😍 ebird.org/checklist/S2... #loveautumn #vismig #ukbirding

Pleased to announce that two of these three sites have now been allocated to new WeBS surveyors, but we still have room for new team members who can identify and count wildfowl and waders on the monthly count date!

You can view the vacant sites map here: www.bto.org/get-involved...
#ShropshireBirds

The Mere at Ellesmere, showing a large water body (a mere is a lake formed by the melting of glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age) with mature trees lining the far bank. Hundreds of gulls are on the water or flying above, forming a visually striking scene. Totals when the image was taken (21 October 2025) were around 900 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Common Gulls, around 15 Herring Gulls, 5 Yellow-legged Gulls, and an amazing 9,380 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

A close-up of the gull roost, showing lots of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and one, much smaller, Black-headed Gull in the foreground.

We're here as volunteers to support the work of
@btobirds.bsky.social in #Shropshire. See our profile for contact info.

Our updated header pic shows what may be the largest Lesser Black-backed Gull roost in the country, at #Ellesmere. So impressive, people stop their cars to enjoy the spectacle!

A great example of VisMig - visible migration - from Tom. Autumn migration sees billions of birds head south to escape the northern winter, and sometimes all you need is a little time and to look up 🙂

The latest edition of Waterbirdnews should be arriving on your doormats this week. 🗞️

💻Or read it online here: bto.org/our-work/sci...

As always, thank you to all of our WeBS and GSMP counters for your amazing contributions.

#Ornithology #UKBirding

A Dartford Warbler perches on top of a gorse bush. Wording above reads: Heathland Birds Survey. Submit your data. The BTO logo is top right of the image.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Heathland Birds Survey! 🙌

All remaining survey returns are urgently required, before 30th November, to inform future conservation action. If you need any help submitting your records please email heathlandbirds@bto.org. Thank you!

Red Kite & Peregrine.

(1/) This week, we focus on two species of birds of prey that feature in the Upland Birds Wild Bird Indicator for the UK. Whereas Red Kite increased by 579% between 1994 and 2023, Peregrine declined by 82% during the same time period. @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social

Male and female Crossbills at the top of a conifer tree

Male and female Crossbills at the top of a conifer tree

Male Crossbill at the top of a conifer tree

Female Crossbill at the top of a conifer tree

Crossbills at Haughmond Hill, Shrewsbury #photography #birds #Nature #wildlife #ukwildlife #shropshirebirds #birdphotography

For info @webs-gsmp.bsky.social

Love Bluesky but miss the option to tag people, and the Bluesky handles use up so many characters!

A graphic promoting the Wetland Bird Survey along the River Severn in Shrewsbury from Coton Hill to the weir, showing maps of the site and an image of a male and female Goosander. Photo: BTO/Edmund Fellowes

A graphic promoting the Wetland Bird Survey at Priorslee Flash, Telford, showing maps of the site and an image of a male Tufted Duck. Photo: BTO/Edmund Fellowes

A graphic promoting the Wetland Bird Survey at Priorslee Lake, Telford, showing maps of the site and an image of a summer plumage Black-headed Gull. Photo: BTO/Edmund Fellowes

We have several vacant Wetland Bird Survey sites across Shropshire (three examples shown) and you only need basic wildfowl ID skills to join the team and start #YourWeBSJourney 🙂

For more info and to see all of the vacant sites go to www.bto.org/get-involved...

#ShropshireBirds
#WeBSSiteInsight

Definitely! 🙂

Both of the winter thrush species (Fieldfare and Redwing) are back in Shropshire now, and today the first Bramblings of the winter were photographed .

Please record any winter visitors you see in the @birdtrack.bsky.social app or website 🙂

An excellent choice, Julian is a very worthy winner of this award.

Congratulations from your readers just across the border @penrhynbirder.bsky.social!

YouTube video by BTOvideo BTO Bird ID - Common sparrows & Reed Bunting

Little Brown Jobs (LBJs) can present a challenge for many Garden BirdWatchers when it comes to ID.

Sparrows, Dunnocks and winter-plumage Reed Buntings can all seem similar at first glance. Watch our helpful Bird ID video for advice on how to tell them all apart.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKjt...

Coot and trend graph.

(1/) After we covered Moorhen last week, this week, we are covering the closely related Coot this week! This feisty and sometimes aggressive species declined by 19% across the UK 1995–2023. @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social #Ornithology

A "Brownhead" Goosander

Here are Ed Wilson's sightings from Priorslee Lake and The Flash, Telford, Shropshire

#shropshirebirding

Photo: A "Brownhead" Goosander

friendsofpriorsleelake.blogspot.com/2025/10/13-o...

A nice #WeBS bonus for our County Bird Recorder at Cound Fishery (adjacent to Venus Pool Nature Reserve) this morning.

You never know what you might find on a @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count! We have several vacant sites in Shropshire at the moment. Tempted?!

Five Pink-footed Geese fly through the sky.

If you're heading to the North West Bird Watching Festival this weekend, come and say hi! We're looking forward to chatting birds and BTO surveys. 🦢 #lancsbirding
@wwtworldwide.bsky.social

Find out more ➡️ www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-cent...

📷 Pink-footed Geese by Chris Knights/BTO

These courses are excellent, bringing training produced and delivered by expert birders into your home.

This one will help you get gull roost ready and equipped to visit the big roosts at Chelmarsh Reservoir and Ellesmere with confidence. Eight species possible in the autumn! 🙂

#ShropshireBirding

Four adult Mute Swans are flying across a grey sky. Above is the heading 'October WeBS Core Count TODAY!' and below is the WeBS logo and the web address 'www.bto.org/webs'.

Today is the October WeBS Priority Core Count day! Time to get out and count our birds!

David White & James Heywood from the BBS Team have returned from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme Conference that took place today! If you would like to find out more about taking part in the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey on a BBS square, take a look here: www.bto.org/get-involved...

We currently have several vacant WeBS sites in Shropshire, including large, easy to access and count wetlands such as Priorslee Lake. Check the map on the WeBS pages or DM for more info.