Martin George

Glad you had a nice break, you deserve no less 🙂 People tell the Balearics are lovely.

I've met birders who say things like "It's wonderful, once you escape the trackie-bottom and back-to-front baseball cap wearing hordes at the airport!"

Thank you very much!

Majorca sounds nice. Did the sun shine on you?! 😎

I bumped into Anna at her day job last week (not on a shout), it was good to see her after what’s probably ten years. I was impressed she recognised me. She was probably thinking “Who on Earth am I talking to?” 😆

Wow, Deb! I hope you were all able to dodge those lethal beaks?!

Were any of the birds found in Shropshire, please? If they were I will follow up discreetly through the approved channel 🙂

Seabird given hand with winter migration after surprising Oswestry ju-jitsu class Kerry Mackay contacted Manx Shearwater Rescue after she found the seabird poking its head in at her son’s jiu-jitsu class.

A Manx Shearwater was found grounded on an Oswestry industrial estate on 9 September and was safely released from Ynyslas beach the following day 😮

#ShropshireBirds

www.bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk/news/2552177...

A composite shot from back in 2018 of salmon leaping at #Shrewsbury weir. #Shropshire

Great images, Ian! This one and the Kestrel 🙂

Two Grey Herons fighting

Two Grey Herons having words at Venus Pool nature reserve #ShropshireBirding

It does!!

Ah, sorry, Rhys, I thought I saw that you'd gone for it. No, I didn't get the chance either, sadly. Work got in the way, as usual!

Excellent, Rhys, they have such a dashing profile.

Did you manage to get an pics of the Oswestry YBW?

Some of us think the excellent BTO News magazine is worth the membership fee on its own, but then there's early access to highly regarded online training, and your gateway to the wonderful world of field ornithology, from simple garden surveys to ones requiring higher skills. Come and grow with us!

The view from Haughmond Hill across green fields with standard trees and hedgerows to Shropshire's famous Wrekin Hill.

The view from Haughmond Hill towards the Stretton Gap and the hogback hills of The Lawley and Caer Caradoc, under a blue sky with some white fair weather clouds. The foreground vegetation is fading from green to brown as autumn slowly takes hold of the trees and shrubs.

A map of the Shropshire region for BTO surveying. It looks unfamiliar because it is based on whole 10km squares rather than the precise geographical county outline. The orange areas contain currently available squares. For more info go to https://app.bto.org/bbs/public/request-square.jsp?s=WINBS

Enjoyed a very quiet first visit to Haughmond Hill near Shrewsbury for the Winter Bird Survey, an addition to @bbs-birds.bsky.social for this winter. Just 24 species seen, but that does include a few Crossbills.

Some sites are still available, see www.bto.org/get-involved...

#ShropshireBirds

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Follow, share & spread the word, together, we can give nature a voice! 🕊️ #BirdsOfBritain #CitizenScience

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Every ring tells a story and every story guides conservation. 🌍💚

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Beauty! Well done, Tom 🙂

ICYMI @iansheppard.bsky.social 🙂

A footpath fingerpost sign against a landscape of a tilled arable field and hedges with mature trees.

The "Annscroft oaks", a striking clump of 13 oaks in farmland near the village of Annscroft, about 4 miles south of Shrewsbury, with a young crop of possibly oil seed rape in the foreground.

The "Annscroft oaks", a striking clump of 13 oaks in farmland near the village of Annscroft, about 4 miles south of Shrewsbury, with a newly tilled arable field and small stream in the foreground.

A mild frost on the windscreen this morning, constant calls of migrating Skylarks and Meadow Pipits from above on a walk around the "Annscroft oaks", no Swallows for the first day since April.

Checks calendar... Ah, autumn equinox! Just waiting for the first Redwings now. Two or three weeks to go.

The view over the Severn Valley and the Wrekin from salopobs. Clear sky and misty

Happy #AutumnEquinox 🍂 Stunning frosty, misty morning at #salopobs, coldest September morning for about 5 years! ❄️ #loveautumn

If you've been inspired by Tom Lowe's* posts about the huge Ellesmere gull roost, which has held seven species this weekend including Shropshire's third ever Sabine's Gull, here's a great opportunity to develop the necessary field skills.

* @saloplarus.bsky.social #ShropshireBirding

Antony Passage harbour breakwater at high tide looking across the Lynher Estuary towards Jupiter Point and the former mine countermeasures ship HMS Brecon (now a seamanship training vessel for HMS Raleigh).

The Lynher Estuary's junction with the Hamoaze (River Tamar) with Devonport Dockyard in the distance. The Lynher fills a tree-lined valley.

Forder Railway Viaduct reflected in a calm Forder Creek and framed by trees.

A flooded footpath at high tide beside the tree-lined Forder Creek with several moored pleasure craft.

More close views of a diving Osprey near Saltash this evening, spooking around 80 roosting Redshank at the Antony Passage mill pond. Also of note were around 30 Sandwich Terns feeding off Jupiter Point.

The footpath beside Forder Creek was wellie-buckle deep and mullet strewn 🙂
#CornwallBirding

Three Ringed Plover on the sandy edge of a rocky shoreline.

A male Eider on a seaweed-draped rock rising above the sea.

Three Sandwich Terns perched on seaweed-draped rocks.

Three Eider, three Ringed Plover and five Sandwich Terns were the highlights at Hannafore Point, West Looe at lunchtime today.
#CornwallBirding

I'm glad you added that clarification, Tom!

What a day for me to be out of county! 🤦‍♂️

No pressure, obviously, but it would be nice to bang the larid drum on the Facebook group if you get the chance. It saddens me how little interest there seems to be in that amazing roost.

Outstanding, Tom! 🤜🤛

Juvenile Sabine's Gull between two Black-heads

Juvenile Sabine's Gull in front of roosting Lesser Black-backed Gulls and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. Doesn't get much better than that!

All too brief wing stretch showing that distinctive tricolour Sabine's upperwing

To the meres tonight hoping for storm-driven waifs, and hit the jackpot with a juv 💥SABINE'S💥 on The Mere, #Ellesmere 🤩 Just the 3rd modern #shropshirebirding record! It stayed to roost alongside an adult #CaspianGull, 10 YLGs & 5,400 LBBGs #happydays #loveautumn #ukbirding

😄😄

Great work, Tom. Glossy Ibis has to be next, surely! 😄🙂

I hope you get lucky soon, Ian. Preferably a textbook pirouetting one! 🤞

Briefly back on the old home patch, @saloplarus.bsky.social It's a bit more exciting than the Shropshire one!

A Grey Phalarope with a Bar-tailed Godwit behind it.

A Grey Phalarope wading in muddy shallows.

Three Dunlin in a wader scrape or pool, with marginal vegetation in the foreground.

Two Grey Phalaropes at South Huish Marsh this evening, originally found by John Hurrell. Also present six Bar-tailed Godwit and three Dunlin.

#DevonBirds