greeted by a Ptarmigan on the veranda when we got back to the hut from today’s wadering in Iceland

that's a beauty

Dragged out owling in Constable country and ironically my thermal makes Stratford st Mary church look like it was painted by Turner instead.

Time to call a halt on a paint of a juv Roughleg boinging up and down on thin thorn branch before I am tempted to tinker about with it. I miss these chaps more than any other mild winter no-show I can think of. #BirdArt

The usual parade of the faithful on the godwit front- here's Woofer still with some moult to go. Well over 90% of the c-ringed godwits since beginning of Feb have prev. history on the river. #UKbirding #Ornithology

A bit of vismig from 200+ years ago here in NE Essex. I was thinking it would be nice to time travel back there but then I saw that even then, they had to get up at 5AM to partake of it.

I thought they were called Swingos?

Funny thing how often you see a pic of WB Diver with the tip of its lower mandible broken- my pet theory is that they stub it flushing flatfish but it is fair to say that this is unsubstantiated through personal observation.

A quick skid of ink over some Knot feeding back-to-the wind on Thursday. Might need to invest in a thinner brush. #BirdArt

Looks to be on the flooded grazing marsh at North Warren RSPB

That’s intriguing- I’m expecting our north-east Essex Knot to be heading back to you next week!

Rickman- how nice to see that oldie!

I can't keep up with this weather- filthy now but here's an Avocet on the Stour at teatime yesterday in clear and calm looking more than a bit
@richardallenart.bsky.social #BirdArt

The Knot down here on Stour haven’t moulted that far yet- just a few of them with some orange on the breast. The orange on face and the dark in some of the the tertials and in mantle on this one make it look like the odd bird we get which show some breeding type plumage over the winter.

I've been trying to get this old Knot with faded flag read all season- finally brought it to book in the last of the light this eve as it pottered about in the godwit roost behind the Co-op. Turns out it is my old mucker LUP ringed as a 3CY+ in 2009. So now in at least its 20th year. #ornithology

First trip off patch up the Suffolk coast for ooh i dunno how long this AM- here's at Chinese Water Deer and a Tundra Bean Goose sticking their heads up at same moment. #BirdArt

Not sure if taking dodgy record shots is genetic, but just got some nifty pics from my non-birding daughter of Buller's Shearwaters knocking a heart-shaped hole into a baitball.

flat calm once again on the Stour - GND in the reflection of the clocktower

Just to share the joy of a drake Smew on patch at Alton- the last one a few years ago had felt like a last chance to see already. Not the full set of white head plumes on this chap, but pearls of water on its back when it upped from dive. #BirdArt

keep going!

Great joy to have R N Grebe in the mighty Stour area this afternoon (ta @esbr-essex.bsky.social ) - here's a pencilling of its resting head shape. #BirdArt

Are able to send to his email? Ed

Bang on- there was a batch of orange rings a while ago that are prone to fading - I have passed it on to Pete

Gorgeous- they have that lovely smoooth look of real Waxwings

Still tiddling about with GND images from earlier in the week- a happy thing is that they have black stripes down the quills of their axillaries (armpit feath'rs) like the splayed slats of an Adirondack chair #BirdArt

That’s very kind of you!

Lovely Barn Owl asleep in the sun this morning with tail fanned and primaries resting on the deck #BirdArt

A wild Sunday PM ride through BOU 58. Adrenalin levels still subsiding after changing Eurasian Hoopoe to Common Hoopoe in the mighty Stour area collective list. Now for the grand re-ordering- looks like Ruddy Duck grabs top spot on all our lists, even if re-badged as Cat C6.

Not a field sketch that's for sure, but just pencilling out a top nice thing from the Stour today- wind lifting the nape of a Black-throated Diver enough to make a white crescent from the underlay. #BirdArt

Not sure if vid. works on repeat, but anyway this should be one of the juv GNDs on the Stour this week losing its rag with a fish way too big to swallow and hammering it with its beak. #BirdArt