That sounds fantastic 👍Good luck for the rest of the trip!

The White-tailed Eagle over Hartlepool on 2nd April was a male IOW scheme bird G834 fledged in Dorset 2025.
The WTE over Saltholme on 7th April was also an IOW scheme bird, a female G772 fledged on the IOW in 2025

A hoary bat with a buff coloured face, cinnamon coloured fur with frosted tips - looking a lot like the moth pictured in this thread.

I challenge your Buff Tip Moth with a buff-tipped bat who would eat your Buff Tip Moth! (honestly hadn't thought of their faces mimicking the ends of sticks but maybe that's the trick).🦇

Annoying, collateral damage can happen easily when gardening.

Purple crucifer flowers of Honesty, Lunaria annua.

Honesty (Lunaria annua) growing in a corner of an old cemetery near our house in Durham. #cabbagefamily #wildflowerhour

A bright red moth with four white spots and white antennae

Last night was an excellent moth night. Look at this!!

Genus Hyperthaema. 🌱

#moth #insect #macrophotography

#OnThisDay 1930: the BBC's news announcer said, "there is no news" and piano music was played for the remainder of the 15 minute segment.

More days like this please

Holly Blue butterfly resting.

The first Holly Blue of the year! I noticed it behind our garden fence in Durham this morning when returning from a dog walk. #Butterflies #UKbutterflies #invertebrates 🦋

Eastern Imperial Eagle in Skagen! Only the second adult to ever be seen in Denmark. The last adult was in 1990!

Songbirds reveal the dark side of making new brain cells as adults A new study in songbirds might help explain why humans don’t generate many new brain cells, called neurons, as adults

Songbirds reveal the dark side of making new brain cells as adults

@krcallaway.bsky.social on new work from @bbscott.bsky.social's lab in @sciam.bsky.social

www.scientificamerican.com/article/song...

What is a species anyway? Seeing “species as individuals” helps to understand taxonomic disagreements.

Your daily Avian Hybrids story!

What is a species anyway?
avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2022/09/07/w...

#ornithology

Thanks, Andy! A lucky break.

New citizen science initiative launched 🎉

Anyone in the UK can join in by registering their garden and recording the wildlife they see using established apps (FIT Count, iRecord Butterflies or iRecord)

More info: ngs.org.uk/the-big-brit...
Register today: esurveyor.ceh.ac.uk/national-gar...

Moth photos are breaking the internet and it’s not even June yet😝.

A bit scruffy!

Me too.

Firecrest on a Holly branch

Firecrest

Firecrest calling and stretching its leg to scratch itself.

A distant silhouette of an Osprey carrying a large fish.

A few pics of the Firecrest at Tunstall Res today when it briefly paused on a branch while it was actively feeding and constantly calling. Also, a distant Osprey carrying a large fish that it caught near the angler’s parking area. #NEbirding @teesbirds.bsky.social 🪶

Back-of-camera photo of a Firecrest in a Holly tree.

A pleasant surprise to find a Firecrest at Tunstall Reservoir, Wolsingham, when looking for spring migrants there! The bird was feeding in a Holly 11:35-11:35am but I lost view after a short rain shower. #NEbirding @teesbirds.bsky.social

It was the same for me. More rain than anticipated. Rain guard protected egg boxes, but the sheet was completely soaked. Nevertheless, almost all moths arrived late, only the Streamer was eager to get in early doors.

Side profile of a Purple Thorn (Selenia tetralunaria) moth.

Head-on view of a Purple Thorn moth.

Purple Thorn was a year tick last night. A typically quiet April night with only 17 moths of 9 sp, though the 2nd Streamer and 4th Oak Nycteoline for the year also visited our garden. Durham, VC66. #TeamMoth @teesbirds.bsky.social

An English Bluebell with multiple flowers

The number of ‘bells’ an English Bluebell has reflects its age

It is dependent on the increasing size of the bulb, root system & leaves capable of managing the weight, nutrients & water

Individuals plants can live over 15 years. Established colonies can be a thousand years old

Crowned Woodnymph, El Valle de Anton, Panama.

March 2026.

📸 Canon R5M2/RF100-500/RF1.4
processed via @lightroom.adobe.com

#birdsoftheworld #birdoftheday #birdwatching #panamabirding #Birdsseenin2026

That’s a good challenge, the next few morning dog walks are already pencilled for paths that have plenty of Stitchworts along (😉) but with some luck, suitable dead wood may be found, too.

Yet another one we in the barren north can only dream of; the only VC66 records are from 1912 (i.e. thanks for the heads-up!).

Snake’s-head Fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris, growing on a grassland.

Snake’s-head Fritillary at Saltholme RSBP reserve - a striking lily, though in our neck of woods these are most likely introduced or escaped plants. #wildflowerhour

A singing Phylloscopus warbler, possibly an Iberian Chiffchaff. This photo shows yellowish hue on the side of the breast and undertail coverts. Base of the lower mandible is yellow. While I was there, the bird sang sometimes the classical 3-part song of Iberian Chiffchaff, but often left some elements away or jumbled them. It never included any Willow Warbler or collybita Chiffchaff phrases in its song.

Another shot of the Phylloscopus taken underneath.

Side profile of the Phylloscopus warbler

Front view of the Phylloscopus.

Some photos from this morning of the interesting Phylloscopus, possibly an Iberian Chiffchaff, that @locustella.bsky.social found yesterday at Hardwick Park. #NEbirding @teesbirds.bsky.social 🪶

Had a quick look at the Tiira database of Finnish birds. In recent years there has been still only one or two summer records per year of singing YBWs holding territories, though slightly more frequently than earlier. So perhaps not colonising Hamsterley Forest in my lifetime.

Great, another new warbler song I need to learn, along with Blyth's Reed Warbler since it bred in the UK! How long until someone finds Yellow-browed Warblers feeding fledglings in Britain?

Streaming service…

Spoonbill live-stream launched at Holkham A new live-streaming camera at Holkham NNR, Norfolk, will offer round-the-clock views of breeding Eurasian Spoonbills and other wetland species.

A new wildlife camera focusing on breeding Eurasian Spoonbills has been launched at Holkham NNR in Norfolk: