My earliest ever Northern Wheatear, 8/3/26, beating the previous record of 19/3/2012! And in my home village too! Great find, Guy M. It was even singing a bit! @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #birds 🐦🪶
Best self-find of the year for me, this Red-necked Grebe at Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire, 1/3/26, while dipping the reported Kittiwake. Very nice consolation! #birds 🪶🐦 the bird swam pleasingly close to the dam @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social
Glaucous Gull, Waxham, Norfolk, 28/2/26: I tracked this bird down and it let me get closer and closer (down to about 30-40 metres in the end) and so gave great views. #birds 🪶🐦
I'm 6th in the UK eBird list last time I checked! 170 species so far and 145 in February alone, 22/2/26. Yorks and S East Anglia provided a good few species these past few days, though I dipped on Dipper. Staggering views of Iceland Gull in Leeds and a cheeky Scaup twitch in Sheffield. #birds 🪶🐦
After finishing the week in Yorkshire, I was "out east" today in Essex and Suffolk. Stunning views of singing Dartford Warblers in warmish sunshine at Westleton Heath, and I made someone's day by pointing out a bittern - a lifer for them. 22/2/26 #birds 🪶🐦
A good Norfolk Sunday in decent weather: highlights were the E Black Redstart (again!!!), Slavonian Grebe, Scaup and Fulmar. 8/2/26 #birds 🪶🐦
A good afternoon in E Anglia, with top views of the Hume's Warbler, a Woodcock, Treecreeper, Purple Sandpiper, a "self-found" Little Gull (I didn't know it was there) and Sanderling. No Iceland Gull for me though, 7/2/26. #birds 🪶🐦
Willow Tit
Willow Tit
Up to 150 species for 2026, and my quest to get my record # of species per month every month this year doing ok. 145 species in Jan beats prev recd of 136 and 70 on day 1 of February, including, at Carsington Water, my first Willow Tits since 2020. Target for Feb: 139... #birds 🪶🐦
Overcame a staggering headache to get to the mega-rare-for-the-UK Killdeer in Hampshire, which also gave a chance to see a Little Gull and to revisit the Great-tailed Grackle nearby. Nice to see Fieldfare in the garden today. 24/1/26 #birds 🐦🪶
A slow start to the bird photography year so far, but I've seen a lot of species by today (17/1/26): 125 which is my best start to a year ever. Highlights so far in 2026: Snow Goose, Tawny Owl, Greater Scaup, Black-winged Kite. #birds 🐦🪶
Top birds of 2025 for me... overseas: Greater Painted Snipe, Long Valley, Hong Kong 6/4/25; UK: Pechora Pipit, South Shields, 21/9/25. #birds 🪶🐦ok so the pipit might be a bit prosaic, but, like the Song Sparrow, these are birds I only expected to turn up on the "islands" so great to get to them.
Top birds 2025 also-rans. Nice views... Snow Bunting in Leics; Bonelli's Eagle in Oman; E Black Redstart in Norfolk; Alpine Accentor in the Pyrenees. #birds 🪶🐦
Top birds 2025 also-rans. Nice surprises: self-found Wryneck in the Pyrenees, Gtr Painted Snipe in HK, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in HK; Wire-tailed Swallow in Oman. #birds 🪶🐦
Top birds also-rans: grip backs Arabian Warbler, Black-crowned Tchagra, Black-faced Bunting, Pallas's Gull #birds 🪶🐦
Top 2025 birds 2 & 3. UK 3: Lesser Crested Tern; UK 2: Song Sparrow; Overseas 3: Corsican Finch; Overseas 2: Citril Finch (would have been first if in better plumage) after sooo many attempts! #birds 🐦🪶
2025 was a year of "grip backs" (starred), so such birds feature a lot in this list and in the also-rans. Top 5 birds of 2025: 5 and 4 (UK and overseas). UK 5: Purple Sandpiper (photogenic!); UK 4: Booted Eagle*; Overseas 5: Powerful Owl*, Sydney suburbs; Overseas 4: Tawny Frogmouth*. #birds 🐦🪶
Last bird of 2025 was the first Barn Owl I had seen in months by the road into my village (and I come home in the dark often). A welcome sight. #birds 🪶🐦had thought it would be the 2 woodcock I saw on the outskirts of Brandon after a lovely walk at Lynford Arboretum seeing crossbills et al.
Good visit to Norfolk today, 30/12/25, for the Black-winged Kite with @jonheath.bsky.social and a nameless friend, good views, then a bit of a seawatch at Sheringham with the E Black Redstart as an incentive, finishing with some nice wild swans. #birds 🪶🐦
Unexpected bonus of being near Ellesmere for the past few days was to see this female Lesser Scaup at the Mere, 29/12/25. My third of the year, first for the county. #birds 🪶🐦
Christmas birds have been pretty good: two good year ticks (Tundra Bean Goose and Snow Goose) and a charming Eastern Black Redstart, 25 and 26/12/25. #birds 🪶🐦
Reidentification news: the not countable Boat-tailed Grackle in Holbury, Hants has been reidentified through DNA as a not countable Great-tailed Grackle. My American friends: could we have worked this out without DNA? #birds 🪶🐦
A day out at the seaside, 19/12/25. Bracing and beautiful, the long shingle Suffolk beaches produced numerous great species, but none better than my favourite wader, the Purple Sandpiper; supporting cast included 40+ Snow Buntings, Med Gulls, Kittiwakes and Turnstones. #birds 🪶🐦
Not much birding this weekend, meaning that the Red-necked Grebe, seen briefly and fairly distantly at Fen Drayton RSPB, Cambridgeshire, was the so-called highlight! A bit of video is the best I can do... 14/12/25. @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #birds 🪶🐦
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRgE...
Weather in Norfolk was poor today, meaning that birding was pretty limited and pretty gloomy. The highlight was this Siberian Chiffchaff, among a number of flocks of numerous species, at Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 7/12/25. #birds 🪶🐦
6/12/25 - a great day for me in terms of UK ticks: 2020 (Ring-billed Gull and Sociable Plover) and now, in 2025, this Lesser Crested Tern, at Dawlish Warren, Devon. #birds 🪶🐦
A quiet couple of weeks but managed to get 90 minutes of birding at Cley today, 29/11/25 and so nabbled my best UK views of Water Pipit, plus close-up of Jack and Common Snipe. #birds 🪶🐦
Stand-out bird today was the Hume's Leaf Warbler at Holme NOA, Norfolk, 16/11/25. Great views, in view most of the time, calling occasionally. Managed a video and some decent pics.
#birds 🪶🐦https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbp4JioG74
Friend @jonnycaribou69.bsky.social and I caught up with this untickable but amazingly bold Boat-tailed Grackle at Holbury, Hampshire today, 15/11/25. Yes, I know I'm just adding to the zillions of pics but I want you to know that I saw it too #FOMO #birds 🪶🐦
90 minutes at Ferry Meadows, Cambs, 9/11/25, gave @jonnycaribou69.bsky.social and me good views of YB Warbler, Whooper Swan and a very confident Great White Egret. Then to Titchwell RSPB for a good afternoon that brought us 79 species. #birds 🪶
American Golden Plover (left)
Lesser Scaup
decent views but no photos of the Dusky Warbler at Aylestone today, but the Lesser Scaup at Ditchford showed consistently well, while the American Golden Plover at Eyebrook finally gave itself up to @jonnycaribou69.bsky.social and me, hearing its distinctive call, 7/11/25. #birds 🪶