Russ Boland

Watercolour of an immature White-billed Diver swimming to the right.

Quick for information post... Sorry if folk have messaged me etc and haven't heard back, I haven't felt like dealing with work and art at all due to illness still and not knowing what's going on. I will try to start getting back to people soon🙏

Get well soon! Stunning work, BTW!

Bumper Sociable Lapwing count offers hope for global population More than 5,000 Critically Endangered Sociable Lapwings were counted at a major migration stop-over in Turkmenistan in autumn 2025. The record high offers rare good news for the species and highlights the importance of key staging sites.

Counts carried out this autumn on the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan border have logged more than 5,000 Sociable Lapwings – one of the largest gatherings of this Critically Endangered species recorded in recent decades:

A few days in Toronto last week produced a couple of lifers. White-winged Scoter was one of 'em. Drawn from memory due to very blustery conditions. Trumpeter Swan the other. 100's of Long-tailed Ducks to sift thru, too, for #SuperSeabirdSunday Cheers

Not everyone relies on AI ...
So far this year, over 19,000 people in 139 countries have read at least one WaderTales blog.
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The most popular of this year's blogs is "Making full use of tracking data".
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m...
#ornithology

#Birding #Beljarica, #Belgrade, a spacious flood retention basin of seasonally inundated riparian forests of willow and poplar, had a great observation of Black Woodpeckers, Great White Egret, 📷 White-tailed Eagle, Mistle Thrush, Meadow Pipit, Water Pipit, Hawfinch

🌳 #ForlandLeveObaleDunava NR 🌳

Hilty’s Birds of Colombia field guide review Birds of Colombia (Lynx and BirdLife International Field Guides) by Steven L. Hilty “Sadly, a few specimens, salvaged from these shipments, were so rare that they have never been found in the wild”…

#Colombia 🇨🇴 is one of those countries my dreams are made of, and Hilty’s "#Birds of Colombia" is a stunning book with beautiful artwork, authoritative, if concise texts and easy to navigate maps. Highly recommended!
▶️ 10000birds.com/hiltys-birds...

#birding
#lynxnaturebooks
#birdbooks
#fieldguides

YouTube video by CiROCCO EU Project CiROCCO Serbia Use Case - Deliblato Sands

Those wild landscapes that I know, love and study: #birding #DeliblatoSands Reserve, 1hr east of #Belgrade

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM0e...

Earlier in the autumn a stunning Red-breasted Goose appeared along the north coast. It was a bit early to be considered a genuine vagrant, but it was a stunning looking bird. It was my first time to see the species anywhere, and I was glad to spend a bit of time sketching it.

Superb work as usual, Robert!

Late November #birding #DeliblatoSands Reserve, 1hr east of #Belgrade, #Serbia – 350 km2 of forest (40%), scrub (30%) and grassland (20%) in the largest inland dune system of Europe: Lesser Spotted, and Syrian Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Meadow Pipit, Hawfinch, Common Linnet, European Serin

Big gull studies for #SuperSeabirdSunday at Old Moor RSPB recently. Herrings (Inc a nice 'argentatus' candidate, Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls. At the site's quietest times there's always the larids to sketch! Cheers

#Birding #Morocco 510sp, 210 breeding in the country, 190sp/12days; regions: Atlas mountains #Ouarzazate (📷 #HôtelLeFintOuarzazate) and #BoumaleneDades; Sahara Erfoud temporary lake of #Merzouga & dunes of #ErgChebbi (📷 #MerzougaDesertGlamping); Agadir coast Souss & Massa estuaries; late Apr-May🌴🌴

A small selection of the Christmas cards that are available on my website. You can see the full range at www.robertvaughanillustrations.com

25 years ago! Where does the time go....
##fieldnotes #fieldsketches #birdart #notebooks

#Birding #Panama: the #CanopyCamp in #Darien lowland rainforest, safari-style tents with wooden floors, beds, fans &private bathrooms: 250sp/5days: Harpy, & Crested Eagle, White-eared Conebill, Red-billed Scythebill, Royal Flycatcher, Pied Puffbird; five-hour-drive from Panama City; Sep to early Nov

#Birding the saline desert of #LittleRann which floods every monsoon, #Dasada, #Gujarat, #India: 250sp 🦩🦩🦩, MacQueen’s Bustard, Indian Courser, Long-legged Buzzard, Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Sykes’s Nightjar, Pallid Scops Owl, Variable Wheatear; #RannRiders Lodge, 2.5hrs by road from Ahmedabad ✈️; Dec-Feb

Superb birding area!

Red Knot pay the price for being fussy eaters! In a fascinating comparison of weight gained by Red Knot and Ruddy Turnstone during spring migration in Delaware Bay, on America’s east-coast flyway, Anna Tucker and colleagues show that Knot are f…

Each spring, shorebirds gather in Delaware Bay to feast on the eggs of horseshoe crabs. What happens when this food is not available?
Red Knot suffer more than flexible Ruddy Turnstones.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/r...
Blog from 15 Nov 2019 🎂
Paper by Anna Tucker et al
#ConservationScience🌎

White-tailed Eagles are becoming an increasingly regular sight in Donegal, and can almost be guaranteed at a few favoured locations. This was a rough study from a few years ago to help me age the birds I was seeing.

Latest watercolor effort - two Lapwings at the Northumberland coast. Worked up from various field sketches. Cheers #BirdArt

This adult Pink-footed Goose showed particularly well, sleeping in a roadside field with some Greylags.

It was a great opportunity to sketch the details of what is still a relatively scarce bird away from a few sites.

The 2 Taiga Beans remained distant, but gave an opportunity to focus on the structure, being quite distinct from the more regular Tundra.

Hopefully they remain for the winter now and I will be able to return for better views and more sketching.

I was glad to see the 2 Taiga Bean Geese last week at Dooey in West Donegal. Having managed brief views of 1 of the 9 Taiga's that had been at Inch, it was a great opportunity to be able to take in the structure and details.
A Pink-footed sleeping in a roadside field made for a much better subject.

#Birding tropical moist and dry deciduous forests of #Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, #India, 330sp: endemic Malabar Trogon, M. Grey Hornbill, M. Parakeet, White-bellied Woodpecker, Indian Pitta, the largest population of Asian Elephants; 📷 #KAAVSafariLodge @ #Kabini, 5hrs drive from #Bangalore ✈️; Oct-Mar

f you have ever reported a colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit, you have helped to establish connections that cross national and continental boundaries.
Here's how the Wash links to other sites.
Draw your local map using a ShinyApp:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h...
#UKbirding

A message of thanks and gratitude from the ABA's Executive Director, Wayne Klockner!

If you have ever reported a colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit, you have helped to establish connections that cross country and continental boundaries.
Here's how the Dee Estuary links to other sites.
Draw your local map using a ShinyApp:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h...
#ornithology

#Birding #SadiriLodge, 550sp, in the foothill rainforest @ 900m asl, inside the #Madidi NP (1250sp) in the #Amazonia #Bolivia, 2hrs drive from #Rurrenabaque: Military & Red-Bellied Macaws, Yungas & Cinnamon-faced Tyrannulets, Sharpbill; Sep-Nov when many sp breed
▶️ www.10000birds.com/birding-lodg...

Longevity record!
Last night, @washwader.bsky.social recaught this Black-tailed Godwit, first caught and ringed 29 years ago.
The metal ring was wearing thin (and was replaced) but the bird is still going strong.
Blog about longevity of waders:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w...
#ornithology

Prairie Provinces: Winter 2024–2025 - American Birding Association

The Prairie Provinces: Winter 2024–2025 Regional Report is out! Highlights include large numbers of Great Gray, Northern Hawk, and Northern Saw-whet owls, plus an extraordinary Sage Thrasher.

Read the report here: www.aba.org/prairie-prov...

Textbook bird, that. 🥰