A puffin at RSPB Bempton Cliffs yesterday.

#birds #ukbirding #ukwildlife #birdphotography #naturephotography

Puffin at rspb Bempton cliffs today.

#birds #ukbirding #ukwildlife #birdphotography #naturephotography

A tawny owl in Hartlepool this morning.

#birds #ukbirding #ukwildlife #birdphotography #naturephotography

If SEND reform doesn’t take on the culture of schools and education head-on it will continue to be a system that is still asking children to do all the adapting (or to be more resilient 🙄) and reforms will fail. Again.

What about schools themselves? The buildings, the noise, the timetables, the levels of homework, the uniforms, the sheer number of exams. The rigidity! If, as we are seeing, large numbers of children cannot survive in education, the problem is not the children - it’s the system.

The government needs to address the reasons why so many young people are harmed by their experience of education. Why so many children are out of school, and why distress and disengagement are so often framed as problem within the child or young person.

Doing more therapeutic work earlier with some children (while welcome and necessary) doesn’t fix a system that becomes rigid, punitive, and exclusionary, particularly at secondary level.

#SEND reforms that keep focusing on helping children fit into a system that isn’t working completely misses the opportunity to change the culture of education & schools.

The reason children need EHCPs for going to secondary school is that most secondaries are far less inclusive than primaries, and create academic & disciplinary environments that are wholly inappropriate for the needs of many children with SEN. Fix that, then we can talk about EHCPs. #r4today

Otter with a fish in Albert Park, Middlesbrough, this

#ukwildlife

A sign saying "I'm not interested in competing with anyone. I hope we all make it."

*taps sign*

I am so incredibly proud of Ted. His birding journey is documented in photos here… 2 years ago he took his camera to @rspb.bsky.social Saltholme after years of watching @bbcspringwatch.bsky.social and the rest, as they say, is history…

The Power of Poetry   with things falling apart and anarchy let loose,   it was only poetry, he found, which had any use,   so he reached for his copy   of The Complete Works of Yeats   and bludgeoned the President of the United States Brian Bilston

Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.

Amazing

I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.

My birding highlight of 2025 was seeing this immature white-tailed eagle in North Yorkshire in July after missing it three times in June.

Happy new year to all my followers.

#birds #ukbirding #ukwildlife #birdphotography #naturephotography

Two Christmas presents wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. One is long an thin, the other is clearly a chair. In the background is the Christmas tree.

Kids presented me with two Christmas presents this year. It was a big surprise, as I wasn’t expecting anything from them. It was an even bigger surprise to unwrap one of our dining room chairs and the bathroom blinds 😂 Merry Christmas 🎄

Thank you, merry Christmas x

A real Good Samaritan One act of kindness that befell Leeds writer Bernard Hare in 1982 changed him profoundly. Here he tells his story.

i post this story every christmas, and will keep doing so until it stops making me cry

merry christmas xx

Sending lots of love Jan. xx

Oh dear. That’s not good. I’ve had to try and avoid my usual podcasts (which is how I keep up to date) lately because I’ve been having a bit of a rough time. I’m not sure I want to check back in given the snippets I’ve heard on the news.

Yes, Pat! I love that you thought of me. Thank you

Tonight’s moon

A robin in the snow from Lockwood Beck earlier this week

#birds #ukbirding #ukwildlife #birdphotography #naturephotography

A robin in the snow at Lockwood Beck, North Yorkshire, this morning.

#birds #ukbirding #ukwildlife #birdphotography #naturephotography

I love that

I love that! All in!

Your handwriting is so pretty. I wish it was a font!

It’s really special 💚

They are gorgeous! We were at RSPB Saltholme yesterday. At the unveiling of this phoenix sculpture. We got a feather in memory of my Dad, Malcolm.