They're all stocking up before their benefits get cut off

Blurry cropped pic of Mealy Redpoll on feeder, with a Eurasian Siskin and 2 Greenfinches.

Blurry cropped pic of Mealy Redpoll on feeder, interacting with a Eurasian Siskin and 2 Greenfinches.

An old fashioned used-to-be Mealy/Common Redpoll in the garden today. Digi-binned.

Herring Gull peeping menacingly through the gap in a window

In Llandudno hotels you have to pay the bill by passing biscuits through the window to the rent collectors.

Huge fuckoff bumblebee, cuddly dense foxy orange thorax, black abdomen, white bum, sat on wooden bench.

I've never seen one before, but presume this monster is Queen of the Tree Bumblebee people. Found on our kitchen floor.

@tessaroo.bsky.social

Heath landscape, sheep and lamb sat in foreground with a Chough on the short grass behind them

Friday on the Great Orme, Llandudno. Sheep and Chough

Middle-distance image of Puffin sat on the sea

Puffin offshore today!

Not at all clear from the submission/publication data exactly where they came from :-( but working on it

Genetic Identification of Birds - The Aberdeen Wildlife DNA Lab Help Martin Collinson raise money to support University of Aberdeen Development Trust SCIO

3/2! Please consider supporting our bird DNA work at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/...

Phylogenetic tree, scrawled on, indicating the placement of Spurn and Sheringham birds in an 'eastern' clade.

But Black Red genetics still confuses me. There is more than one 'eastern clade' and it's not clear what these refer to. See attached gene tree, sorry for the mess. 2/2

Black Redstart poops from 'eastern' birds from Spurn (Nov 25) and Sheringham (Dec 25) have cytb sequences that clade with birds from west/central China and from Tyva (Russia). Distinct from western DNA. Consistent with subspp phoenicuroides/murinus. @birdguides.bsky.social
1/2

100% certain it is from the east, and it certainly looks blythi, but presumably there is gene flow where the 2 subspecies meet.

Blurry distant pic of male Pochard swimming right

Ring-necked Duck swimming right with a blurry male Wigeon in the foreground.

A Pochard at the other side (can you tell) or Loirston Loch was a very handy 10K radius year tick. Ring-necked Duck still here.

BREAKING: Anti-Guga Hunt Activists Chain Themselves to Roof of NatureScot HQ They say they'll stay there "for days if we have to."

They say they'll stay there "for days if we have to."

protectthewild.substack.com/p/breaking-a...

Still tidying. Behold school exercise book from age 13. Religious education - 40 pages of blood-curdling military history

Pen drawing of Red-breasted Nuthatch facing right on some sort of pine branch

Pen drawing of oddly-shaped Chimney Swift flying left with a Common Swift in background going right, both against a vaguely cloudy sky.

Pen drawing of a Lark Sparrow, landing in sparse grassy ground, wings outstretched in awkward Wallace-esque pose.

Rearranging bookshelves. Found 20s year-old Martin's pen drawings of rarities what I saw. 1990 Holkham Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1991 Waxham Lark Sparrow, and 1991 St Andrews Chimney Swift. #birding

From Facebook. Looks like a Golden Eagle on Holy Island yesterday. #birding

After losing last night

Pencil and pen drawing of Spurs player Archie Gray squatting in despair on the pitch after losing 3-1 to Crystal Palace. Writing says 'Bring Archie Home' and there is a Leeds United badge

We interrupt Bluesky to bring you this important message from the Disasters Emergency Committee #lufc #mot #thfc #coys

Full fat patch tick today when a Water Rail broke cover and ran across the reeds at Newtonhill Mill. #patchbirding

Ring-necked Duck on the Loch with a Tufty and 2 Wigeon

Slav Grebe with a cool orange reflection on the water

Ring-necked Duck still at Loirston Loch. Very handsome. And an arty pic of Slav Grebe at Inchgarth

Inchgarth Reservoir, Aberdeen, with a Slavonian Grebe and a Great Cormorant eyeing each other up on the water

Tanks on @inchgarthbirding.bsky.social 's lawn! Slavonian Grebe - pretty certain this is a 10K radius patch tick.

Dorsal view of a deceased Redpoll

His little face

A dead Redpoll in the garden. Much sadness. Breast bone was like a knife.

A drake Ring-necked Duck on the water with 4 Tufter Ducks

Blurry distant view of a European Shag on the far side of Loirston Loch

The weather remains bleak but views of Ring-necked Duck get better at Loirston Loch. A Shag too.

a medieval illustration of an anatomically accurate woodcock perched in the floral margins of a manuscript

the "medieval people didn't know how to draw animals" crowd has been real quiet ever since john siferwas dropped the Perfect Woodcock

It sounds awesome

Not much better but weather not really conducive to photography! 3rd for Loirston (last in 2005). Different bird to the one at Forfar which was still being reported today #birdingscotland

Mortality weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep.

A long-distance phonescoped photo of a male Ring-Necked Duck sleeping, watched by 2 male Tufted Duck

Prepare for Bird Photograph of the Year - found this male Ring-necked Duck having a kip at Loirston Loch. #patchbirding

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