Arto Maatta

Good luck, hope you reach 100! I have neglected my 10 km circle this year (apart from dog walks). Need to put more effort next year.

Do you have 10 minutes to help an @edinburghnapier.bsky.social MSc student complete her final research project?

Please consider letting us know your opinions towards herring gulls, by completing this short questionnaire tinyurl.com/tfntmfbk

Thank you!

Looks like quite a few counties have moved to iRecord.

Sadly MapMate is not compatible with MacOS (at least it wasn’t last time I checked). Would make life easier to be able to use it on my laptop.

I have usually done my records over the Christmas holidays, but the luxury of free time these days means that I have started earlier this autumn.

The version I have does not have the drop-down boxes, so I end up doing a lot of copy-pasting!

Looks like the same spreadsheet layout that we have up here in Durham, but you are well ahead of me - I have so far managed to write down the records until mid-June.

I have active lists on Excel for Durham, Yorkshire, Northumberland & Cleveland (Teesmouth Bird Club) and, in addition, eBird keeps up automatically lists for me for all the counties and admin areas where I have logged observations 🤓.

That must be awfully stressing 😣. Hope all will be fine at the end.

Thanks! Lucky break that I could have the sun behind my back.

Snow Bunting on dry seaweed.

Snow Bunting tilting its head and facing the camera

Snow Bunting standing on large rocks.

Snow Bunting at Church Point, Newbigging today. #NEbirding 🪶

A female-type plumage Long-tailed Duck swimming on a lake.

One of the four Long-tailed Ducks at Druridge Bay CP this morning. #NEbirding 🪶

How the first animals evolved – a new clue from a tiny relative Meet the choanoflagellates - the microscopic cousins of animals.

I've written a piece about great new article by @thibautbrunet.bsky.social, Chantal Combredet & Mylan Ansel. (www.cell.com/cell-reports... )

theconversation.com/how-the-firs...

December Moth on tree bark.

Streak moth on green cloth

Mottled Umber

Three new year ✅ last night among 16 of 10 sp - December Moth (5 of them), Streak & Mottled Umber. Also Merveille, 2 Spruce Carpets and R-g Carpet. Durham, VC66. @teesbirds.bsky.social #TeamMoth

A 1st winter male SIBERIAN RUBYTHROAT caught on North Ronaldsay!!!

#RareBirdsUK
#BirdingScotland
#OrkneyBirding

#NEbirding

That’s really annoying!!

The sun reflected on the ocean and a stretch of glistening rock-strewn beach on the Northumberland coast near Whitley Bay.

The Northumberland coast can be breathtaking, and today was one of those days.

Near Saint Mary's Lighthouse by Whitley Bay.

Why Wikipedia editors have deleted entries from the “List of unusual deaths”: “hippos are extremely dangerous and very aggressive and there is nothing unusual about hippos killing people” “the man was working on the toilet, making his death inherently less strange than if he had been using it” “no longer an unusual or unique occurrence” regarding impalement by beach umbrella “being hit by multiple motorcycles in a race is not an unusual death” “fatalities involving objects or animals being launched into oncoming traffic are considered commonplace” regarding a Canadian couple’s fatal collision with a “flying bear”

recently discovered that wikipedia volunteers have a hilariously high bar for what constitutes "unusual death"

A Trumpeter Swan's breath from a honk is visible in the brisk Fall air.

I’m now suddenly getting an irrational craving for Leijona Tervalakritsi pastilles 😂.

Not much doing moth-wise at the mo, so here's something for your amusement from a few years ago when I first got interested in trapping and realised many moth names were also good names for Heavy Metal bands, my other passion. 😀🤘 #TeamMoth

74 Ways Characters Die in Shakespeare’s Plays Shown in a Handy Infographic: From Snakebites to Lack of Sleep In the graduate department where I once taught freshmen and sophomores the rudiments of college English, it became common practice  to include Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus on many an Intro to Lit sy...

74 Ways Characters Die in Shakespeare’s Plays Shown in a Handy Infographic: From Snakebites to Lack of Sleep

Good news that water levels are up in your neck of woods! Still very dry compared to previous years on farmland around my dog walking routes near home up here. Do you use thermal imaging to find out Jack’s on your patch?

Humans outperform Merlin Sound ID in field-based point-count surveys Abstract. Point counts are integral to bird population monitoring, and multiple methods have been developed to improve their reliability. These methods inc

Humans outperform Merlin Sound ID in field-based point-count surveys url: academic.oup.com/condor/artic...

Lost wallet - if any birding friends hear of a wallet being found at St Margaret's Bay/Pines Garden/South Forereland (Kent) yesterday, it's mine! Last used at the beach cafe. Cards stopped but don't want the hassle of getting a replacement driving licence, etc.

Congrats! They seem to be following you 😆.

Great Grey Owl. On this date I ticked the owl with the fluffiest paws of death imaginable. Stunning #birds 🪶! 😍😎 #owls #SuperbOwl #birding #finland #birdwatching

Cheers, Andy!

Pallas’s Warbler and on a twig.

It was great that the Pallas’s Warbler at Trow Quarry was still present today as I was under the weather yesterday. Jack Snipe at Saltholme and Firecrest in Hartlepool completed today’s birding. #NEbirding @teesbirds.bsky.social