Martin George

We still have vacant sites in Shropshire! It’s an interesting survey, and just one visit a month from December to February. Check the link for more info, or send us a DM with your preferred area.
#ShropshireBirds

Remarkable. Not just the latest Gwent record, but the latest ever in Wales by more than a month (26 October 2017 on @skomerisland.bsky.social was the previous latest).

#BirdingWales

What do birders miss in the mountains? I’ll raise my hand as a keen birdwatcher who rarely goes high into Eryri in autumn or winter. I tell myself this is because there are few birds on the higher slopes outside the breeding season...

Nice one @bardseyben.bsky.social, finding #NorthWales' first Shorelark away from the coast. How many have birders already missed?

Plus sightings in @northwaleslive.bsky.social BirdNotes and a blatant plug for my Birds in the Mountains event in May. #birdingwales

www.birdnotes.wales/blog/what-do...

A phone-scoped image of a mixed flock of Shoveler, Teal, Wigeon, Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank on the edge of a small island.

A Great White Egret and its reflection.

Start of the day: RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands looking across to the industrial chimneys of Deeside in mid-morning sunlight.

End of the day: RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands looking across to the industrial chimneys of Deeside as the sun approaches the horizon, about 50 minutes before sunset.

Enjoyed some bird therapy today at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate on the Wirral Peninsula near Chester.

58 species in total, with highlights being Pintail, masses of Shelduck (44 on one pool), an unusually showy Cetti's Warbler, plus Marsh Harriers and a Short-eared Owl. I needed that!

Well, if I hadn't hung up my bins already, this would deffo make me..

That was weird wasn't it?! Insult by patronising compliment. He's probably the product of a long line of first cousin marriages 😄

Thank you, it was all of those things. Bloody cold, too, I need to buy some waterproof gloves so that my scope steadying hand doesn’t freeze up!

A flooded, tree-lined track.

A circular image showing part of a flock of Fieldfares among the bare branches of a tree.

A flood in a field with distant trees partially reflected in the water. It was raining too hard for a perfect reflection!

A vegetation-rich drainage ditch leading to the tall trees of a small wood.

Late afternoon had a Hen Harrier/Merlin feel to it so I walked down to our Wetland Bird Survey site and... Not so much as a Kestrel or Sparrowhawk, even the Mallards had gone elsewhere!

The day was saved by around 220 Fieldfare and eight Reed Buntings going into roost.

#ShropshireBirding

Contents page of the 2024 Welsh Bird Report, above a photo taken by Andy Davis of a Buzzard plucking a carcass, one of the breast feathers floating off to the right of the image.

Screenshot of the contents page of the 2025 Bird Report

The day that the @birdsinwales.bsky.social 2024 Welsh Bird Report goes to the printers, and work starts on the 2025 edition...

Frightening, and frighteningly like a good proportion of Range Rover drivers I encounter.

She's remarkably detached from her surroundings, it's her perception that this is something that was done to her rather than a consequence of her poor driving.

The UK Is Naming Roads After Birds It's Losing New analysis from the RSPB reveals an ironic trend of new housing developments using names of some of the UK's most threatened birds

The UK Is Naming Roads After Birds It's Losing

New analysis from the RSPB reveals an ironic trend of new housing developments using names of some of the UK's most threatened birds.

www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/T...

Our new paper is out today in Journal of the Royal Society Interface (link below). All about eggshell roughness: "Scratching beyond the surface: examining macroecological patterns in avian eggshell texture". Congrats first author Marie Attard, and thank you @leverhulme.ac.uk for the funding.

Dartford Warbler (orange underparts and dark Bluey grey upper parts, long tail) on a woody stem surrounded by straw coloured grass

Stock Doves (grey doves similar to Woodpigeons except smaller & lack of white around neck) on the short grass meadow. Some are in flight. In front are wooden fence posts and behind is water with a reedbed

Dartford Warbler with 4+ Stonechats on East Meadows, Titchfield Haven. Hundreds of Stock Doves too! #LowCarbonBirding #PWC2025

Driver’s near miss after bald eagle drops cat through car windshield The bizarre incident was captured on a 911 call

Unexpected headline of the week 🙂
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Corncrake on a cruise ship

Even consummate migrants like Corncrakes can end up being ship-assisted, although presumably being adopted by a family and fed prawns is a rarer occurrence.... #UKBirding #Ornithology
www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/2563328...

The great thing about these hybrid #ornithology events which post to platforms like Bsky, is that you can read thru the presentations at leisure and they remain here for you to go back to later. And you share away! All content available on the event tag 👇🏼 Enjoy. I just did.

Nice work, Rhys, that’s a quality find!

ICYMI @pilning.bsky.social (although you don’t miss much!) 🙂

We may need to refer to this next May, @saloplarus.bsky.social 🙂

Best practice guidance for recreational and professional drones near colonial breeding birds | journals.plos.org/pl... | PLOS One | #ornithology 🪶

That would be a very popular location for murmuration watching! 🤞

Very impressive! Heading out to sea towards France, presumably?

ICYMI @saloplarus.bsky.social

Inland diver hat trick
##UKBIRDING

Wild victims of bird flu on the rise As ‘flockdown’ rules require keepers of birds to introduce strict biosecurity measures in Wales, increased deaths of wild birds have raised fears that it could be the worst winter yet for bird...

Wild victims of bird flu increase - will it be the worst winter yet in Europe? @btobirds.bsky.social reminds birders we can play a role in monitoring #HPAI

Plus the week's #NorthWales sightings in @northwaleslive.bsky.social BirdNotes. 📷 Tony Pope. #BirdingWales

www.birdnotes.wales/blog/wild-vi...

You’re very welcome, they were a delight. I’m glad you have some too!

Brilliant aren't they?!

Up to five there, according to one report!

It doesn't look like it in the pic, but that's a mix of Phrag, Typha and Carex that's been flattened by the Starlings! You can't normally see the mere from that position.

It has breeding Reed and Sedge Warblers, a small Reed Bunting roost in winter, and two Water Rails today 🙂

A short movie clip of the Starling murmuration at Crose Mere this evening (15:55 to 16:20). The corvid roost was most active from around 16:30 until around 17:15.

A wetland flanked by trees leading to a large water body - Crose Mere in North Shropshire - with trees and the setting sun beyond.

Some of the many Starlings flying over the woodland roost site.

We have a decent Starling roost back on the Crose Mere local patch, with around 5,000 birds putting on a nice display this evening before dropping into the woods at Sweat Mere, just before the massive corvid roost gets active. I'll add a short movie clip to this thread.
#ShropshireBirding

Nature not a blocker to housing growth, inquiry finds Commons committee report challenges ‘lazy narrative’ used by ministers that scapegoats wildlife and the environment Nature is not a blocker to housing growth, an inquiry by MPs has found, in direct conflict with claims made by ministers. Toby Perkins, the Labour chair of the environmental audit committee, said nature was being scapegoated, and that rather than being a block to growth, it was necessary for building resilient towns and neighbourhoods. Continue reading...

Nature not a blocker to housing growth, inquiry finds