I'm running a birding walk around Leeds Uni campus Friday 1pm, as part of our Bioblitz program. Hoping to add some butterflies in the forecast sunshine.
More info from link reposted below.
Willow warbler still singing in the park, joining multiple Chiffchaff & Blackcap in the park & along the Beck.
Unusually this time of year Black-headed, Lesser black-backed & Herring gulls - boosting the week list to 31 spp.
In the sun, Orange tip, GV white, Speckled wood & Holly blue.
#ukbirding
Last week the RSPB announced updated guidelines around feeding garden birds. Please click on the link below to read the statement on our website and follow the links for more information. #Leeds #RSPB
group.rspb.org.uk/leeds/news-b...
A Peacock butterfly, from a sunny lunchtime on Leeds Uni campus last week. @universityofleeds.bsky.social
A nice record ahead of the Campus Bioblitz on Friday 24th April - walks around campus to record as many species as possible.
sustainability.leeds.ac.uk/latest/events/
A male Wheatear standing on a mossy rock, looking over its shoulder. Grey over the back with jet black wing-tips and a black "mask" through its face.
Wheatear male in the #YorkshireDales yesterday (pic). Lots around but not all of them up in moorland territories yet.
Merlin chasing Meadow pipits before they've had chance to do much about making more mipits too.
Still Fieldfare and Golden plover, in wintery weather.
#Yorkshirebirding
Click on the link below to read the report about our coach trip to Upper Teesdale which took place on Saturday 28th March. Photos courtesy of Geoff. #Leeds #RSPB
group.rspb.org.uk/leeds/news-b...
I’ve subscribed to BB just to read this! Well worth my money. I was born in ’66 when the author first visited. Changes since the Williamson 1968 FSC paper I was already going to use as the subject of a "Nature Notes" article for Wharfedale Nats - “shifting baselines” over my 60 years.
Last event in the Wharfedale Nats winter calendar was my Grassington walk at the w/e.
Fittingly, Whooper swans (38) flew over plus Golden plover and Fieldfare still.
Curlew singing all day, Lapwing displaying but missed out on Redshank and Snipe. Wheatear plus mipits & Skylarks.
#Yorkshirebirding
Very pleased with Sand martin, Swallow, Goosander pair and Common sandpiper firsts for the year for me, in the #YorkshireDales this morning.
Oh, ok, a duck in a tree. Mandarin checking out nesting sites, after successfully breeding along the Beck last year. Blackcap and a few more Chiffchaff but still only half-hearted song.
A Coal tit - not many recently.
One Redwing, the last of the winter?
31 spp for the week.
#patchbirding #Leeds
Recce in the #YorkshireDales for a Wharfedale Naturalists walk above Grassington in two weeks.
Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Golden plover all the waders I hoped to find. Bonus flock of Fieldfare and Starling. 🤞they're still there April 4th.
#Yorkshirebirding #ukbirding
Singing Chiffchaff this week, unusually in the park before (the better habitat?) in the woods along the Beck. Female Blackcap in the park too. Pr of Mandarin ducks back on the Beck.
Pied wagtails gone but a few Redwing still on both patches.
36 spp for the birding in the city week. 🎉
#patchbirding
Still wintery in the #YorkshireDales y'day. Looking up Littondale to Pen-y-ghent.
Not much on the tops - a few mipits & Curlew. Redshank, Oystercatcher & Lapwing in wet fields and river-banks. Dipper, Pied & Grey wagtails in Upper Wharfedale.
#ukbirding @yorkshiredales.org.uk @nationaltrust.org.uk
Please don't forget that our next indoor meeting is taking place THIS WEDNESDAY starting at 7:30pm. The speakers are Pauline Hogg and Phill Brady who will be taking about 'Wildlife and Rural Crime - What constitutes Wildlife and Rural Crime and what can I do if I come across it'. #Leeds #RSPB
Wow, great find!
Some of 100-150 Curlew on wet grassland the last 2 weeks. Already Curlew singing higher up in the #YorkshireDales, but these lingering.
I love that people walking along the canal stop to tell me how good it is to have the Curlew back.
Barnoldswick, Leeds-Liverpool canal.
#Lancsbirding #ukbirding
First frog-spawn of the year but then no more as a Grey heron patrolled the pond all week, catching the frogs.
Redwing, Siskin plus Pink-footed geese flying over. Finishing the week with the first Chiffchaff of the year.
34 spp from birding-in-the-city this week. ✔️
#ukbirding #patchbirding
Records from my Meanwood Beck patch – a stream running through a corridor of suburban woodland in Leeds, UK.
Aiming for 2 complete lists each week = 100 per year. 100+ lists each year 2019 - 2025 so survey effort doesn’t explain the 2025 absence of Dipper.
#citizenscience #BirdTrack
No Dipper in a while on my Meanwood Beck patch. Graphs of no. of records per yr. None in 2025, after a breeding attempt in 2022 – unsuccessful after a flood?
Effects of heavy rain bad for Kingfisher too? – few records in 2025.
Grey wagtail, Mallard & Heron less affected by heavy rain?
#ukbirding
Another respectable week of birding-in-the-city last week with 27 species. ✔️
Singing Chaffinch & noisier Wrens. Some Redwing but fewer in the park than usually late winter.
Grey wagtail & Heron along the Beck plus 2 pairs of Mallard, but no Dipper or Kingfisher for a while. 😟
#patchbirding #Leeds
Better weather so much better birding-in-the-city last week. A bumper 36 spp. 🎉
Little egret (2nd record) plus Herring gull & Siskin.
Collecting sets of birds - Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Nuthatch Great spot and Jay in the woods. Grey wag, Moorhen, Mallard and Grey heron along the Beck.
#patchbirding
Last BTO Winter Bird Survey visit in Leeds city centre this week.
A few Common gull in flight & a small flock of Goldfinch providing the only evidence of winter this visit.
Woodpigeon, Feral pigeon, Magpie, Jackdaw & Carrion crow again the most abundant birds, as in spring.
@bbs-birds.bsky.social
My vote would be Blackbird, not quite properly tuned up for spring yet.
Oops, our bad - 7:30pm as on the poster.
Quality & quantity #patchbirding in the city after a week of rain.
Mallard pr arrived on the inland sea in the park. Patch peak counts of Carrion crow, Herring gull & Stock dove. Lots of Starling, BH gulls feeding too.
The torrent along the beck flushed away almost everything.
#Leeds #ukbirding
Really looking forward to this talk 👇
Loving my 2025 @birdtrack.bsky.social stats.
100+ complete lists from birding-in-the-city patches in Leeds. My biggest day (43spp) was a long walk in the hills in the #YorkshireDales. Best bird on a Skye beach during a storm - happy days.
For 2026 - aim for 5+ lists from more places.
#ukbirding
Then the fantastic range of sometimes wonderfully niche books we have now.
A selection from my bookshelf.
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Picture of a male Hen harrier standing on a rock with pink heather flowers and hills in the background. Mostly a pale grey bird but black wing tips, white belly and yellow legs. Looking straight out of the picture with head tilted a little, as if asking "what are you looking at?".
…to the early 20th C and Landsborough Thomson ~1910 “Birds of Britain and their nests”. British birds ✔️ but only male birds presented ❌. Some great art but this Hen harrier looking quizzical to me - perhaps drawn from a taxidermy bird?
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