Nigel Jones
@55birder.bsky.social
Birder, moth-er, woodcock ringer, pan-species lister, lerfer, occasional botanist and photographer. Living in Romsey, Hampshire
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We visited plaine de Crau (S France) to catch Richard’s pipits last week and sample feathers for isotope tests. Numbers were low (~10), though more birds usually stop here at this time of year (up to 30/40) before they move south. Unclear if birds left early or had a poor breeding year.. #birds
November 20, 2025 at 2:02 PM
We visited plaine de Crau (S France) to catch Richard’s pipits last week and sample feathers for isotope tests. Numbers were low (~10), though more birds usually stop here at this time of year (up to 30/40) before they move south. Unclear if birds left early or had a poor breeding year.. #birds
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Pink-footed Geese arriving at dawn, North Norfolk - framed ready for my exhibition this weekend. Painted in sub-zero conditions and ice crystals have left their own marks in the watercolour washes
November 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Pink-footed Geese arriving at dawn, North Norfolk - framed ready for my exhibition this weekend. Painted in sub-zero conditions and ice crystals have left their own marks in the watercolour washes
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A few changes to the birds listed on PSL - we've brought the list in line with www.avilist.org. This means that we've lumped Teal/Green-winged Teal, Carrion/Hooded Crow, Balearic/Yelkouan Shearwater, Sandwich/Cabot's Tern and Siberian/Stejneger's Stonechats.
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AviList is a collaborative global effort to produce a single current consensus taxonomy for the birds of the world, along with key information on taxonomy and nomenclature. The checklist is free for d...
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November 10, 2025 at 12:42 PM
A few changes to the birds listed on PSL - we've brought the list in line with www.avilist.org. This means that we've lumped Teal/Green-winged Teal, Carrion/Hooded Crow, Balearic/Yelkouan Shearwater, Sandwich/Cabot's Tern and Siberian/Stejneger's Stonechats.
Reposted by Nigel Jones
Reposted by Nigel Jones
Reposted by Nigel Jones
4 Northern Bald Ibis were killed with an air rifle in Extremadura in 2019. Covid caused issues with the police investigation, but they continues & last month the guilty party was sentenced, 1 year prison term, banned from hunting & fishing for 3 years & a 20,000Euro fine. @raptorpersuk.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 8:29 AM
4 Northern Bald Ibis were killed with an air rifle in Extremadura in 2019. Covid caused issues with the police investigation, but they continues & last month the guilty party was sentenced, 1 year prison term, banned from hunting & fishing for 3 years & a 20,000Euro fine. @raptorpersuk.bsky.social
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Singularly impressive bird-finding and rarity-documentation - a visibly-migrating Black-faced Bunting photographed this morning in the Netherlands 🪶
www.dutchbirding.nl/gallery/deta...
www.dutchbirding.nl/gallery/deta...
November 5, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Singularly impressive bird-finding and rarity-documentation - a visibly-migrating Black-faced Bunting photographed this morning in the Netherlands 🪶
www.dutchbirding.nl/gallery/deta...
www.dutchbirding.nl/gallery/deta...
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Quite a bit of visible migration today @flamboroughbird.bsky.social Thrushes flying low in the strong south westerly wind with cloud, coming off the sea and making landfall. A flock of 11 Snipe and several Woodcock. A marvellous sight.
November 3, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Quite a bit of visible migration today @flamboroughbird.bsky.social Thrushes flying low in the strong south westerly wind with cloud, coming off the sea and making landfall. A flock of 11 Snipe and several Woodcock. A marvellous sight.
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I've been updating our collaborative #CootStudy database. I started the study 17 years ago & thanks to a network of bird ringers across Britain & Ireland we've now colour-marked 4,400 Coot & received over 13,000 re-sightings. Pretty cool for a bird you hardly see in flight! #Ornithology #BirdRinging
November 2, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I've been updating our collaborative #CootStudy database. I started the study 17 years ago & thanks to a network of bird ringers across Britain & Ireland we've now colour-marked 4,400 Coot & received over 13,000 re-sightings. Pretty cool for a bird you hardly see in flight! #Ornithology #BirdRinging
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Warra week. Black-throated Thrush and Sibe Rubythroat!
#OrkneyBirding
#OrkneyBirding
October 28, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Warra week. Black-throated Thrush and Sibe Rubythroat!
#OrkneyBirding
#OrkneyBirding
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Good news on Dorset Cirl Buntings continues to arrive. Early data from the breeding season confirms they are continuing to re-establish a population in the county. Please submit any outstanding records now. 🙏 In winter our focus switches to feeding flocks - please send us all sightings. 🙏
October 24, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Good news on Dorset Cirl Buntings continues to arrive. Early data from the breeding season confirms they are continuing to re-establish a population in the county. Please submit any outstanding records now. 🙏 In winter our focus switches to feeding flocks - please send us all sightings. 🙏
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#speciesaday no. 653 is Sombre Brocade (Dryobotodes tenebrosa). A migrant/recent colonist. I had my first and only one in the garden actinic on the 28th September. Like a big Brindled Green with no green. Feeds on Holm Oak. Established in a few places on the south coast. Spreading.
October 23, 2025 at 6:14 AM
#speciesaday no. 653 is Sombre Brocade (Dryobotodes tenebrosa). A migrant/recent colonist. I had my first and only one in the garden actinic on the 28th September. Like a big Brindled Green with no green. Feeds on Holm Oak. Established in a few places on the south coast. Spreading.
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💥'Northern' Long-tailed Tit💥... 3 of these stunning birds seen in fading light this evening in West Yell. Cheers to Adrian for spreading the word!...... Genuinely one of my most wanted birds since I first picked up the original Collins Guide! 😍😎👍 #YellBirding #Shetland #RareBirdsUK
October 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
💥'Northern' Long-tailed Tit💥... 3 of these stunning birds seen in fading light this evening in West Yell. Cheers to Adrian for spreading the word!...... Genuinely one of my most wanted birds since I first picked up the original Collins Guide! 😍😎👍 #YellBirding #Shetland #RareBirdsUK
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Red-eyed Vireo joins White's Thrush, Red-flanked Bluetail and others on the list of remotely-sensed UK vagrants #UKBirding.
Finally got a decent bird on my trail camera. Red-eyed Vireo 12th October nr Port of Ness, Isle of Lewis
#BirdingScotland
#UKBirding
#RareBirdsUK
#birds
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🦉
#BirdingScotland
#UKBirding
#RareBirdsUK
#birds
🪶
🦉
October 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Red-eyed Vireo joins White's Thrush, Red-flanked Bluetail and others on the list of remotely-sensed UK vagrants #UKBirding.
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Juvenile Hobby complete with ring at ARC Dungeness today.
October 19, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Juvenile Hobby complete with ring at ARC Dungeness today.
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After a dawn raid on the Point, this little beauty was cowering in the buckthorn on my birding walk back, not far south of the Breach at Spurn. Thomas Willoughby’s brilliant pic. Bird of a lifetime. A British tick as well 😂
October 20, 2025 at 12:28 PM
After a dawn raid on the Point, this little beauty was cowering in the buckthorn on my birding walk back, not far south of the Breach at Spurn. Thomas Willoughby’s brilliant pic. Bird of a lifetime. A British tick as well 😂
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Thanks Martine. Wow! It looks like a Steppe Grey Shrike!
Walking a bit of the coast path on Mullion Cliff, Cornwall this afternoon spotted this stunning Shrike. Checking the ID I think it may be a first winter Lesser Grey Shrike but I’m not certain. Any thoughts birders? @runnelstone.bsky.social @cbwps.org.uk #birds
October 19, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Thanks Martine. Wow! It looks like a Steppe Grey Shrike!
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Siberian Thrush ageing confusion resolved! Papay’s 2022 bird (accepted as an adult) was a first-winter male. Morals of the story: adult males should always have striking head patterns and juvenile wing feathers can be very blue! Thanks to @stervander.com for revisiting the specimen. #birdingScotland
October 19, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Siberian Thrush ageing confusion resolved! Papay’s 2022 bird (accepted as an adult) was a first-winter male. Morals of the story: adult males should always have striking head patterns and juvenile wing feathers can be very blue! Thanks to @stervander.com for revisiting the specimen. #birdingScotland
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Have finally calmed down enough to edit this short digiscoped video of the White-throated Needletail above Scarborough Castle on Friday. For obvious reasons it is a little bit shaky #YorkshireBirding
October 12, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Have finally calmed down enough to edit this short digiscoped video of the White-throated Needletail above Scarborough Castle on Friday. For obvious reasons it is a little bit shaky #YorkshireBirding
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...also on the ringing front: we've received notification of a fantastic recovery of a Firecrest ringed here last October that was controlled a few days ago by a ringer in the Czech Republic - the first movement of a UK-ringed Firecrest to the Czech Republic or indeed to anywhere in central Europe
October 7, 2025 at 9:55 PM
...also on the ringing front: we've received notification of a fantastic recovery of a Firecrest ringed here last October that was controlled a few days ago by a ringer in the Czech Republic - the first movement of a UK-ringed Firecrest to the Czech Republic or indeed to anywhere in central Europe
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We’ve received news of an amazing yet sad ringing recovery from the Stour Ringing Group who have only just found out themselves of an adult Curlew that was ringed by their group in the harbour, Feb 1987 which was shot in NW Russia, April 2015, 2486km away c28 years later!@dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social
October 4, 2025 at 5:36 PM
We’ve received news of an amazing yet sad ringing recovery from the Stour Ringing Group who have only just found out themselves of an adult Curlew that was ringed by their group in the harbour, Feb 1987 which was shot in NW Russia, April 2015, 2486km away c28 years later!@dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social
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Frustratingly 100% brief and solo views of Hudsonian Whimbrel from Tor Ness The bird flew N. low over the wave cut platform and by the time I had raised my bins I had <30 seconds on the bird. Uniform upper-parts with strong cap and dark lores extending behind eye. @northronbirdobs.bsky.social
October 2, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Frustratingly 100% brief and solo views of Hudsonian Whimbrel from Tor Ness The bird flew N. low over the wave cut platform and by the time I had raised my bins I had <30 seconds on the bird. Uniform upper-parts with strong cap and dark lores extending behind eye. @northronbirdobs.bsky.social
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Yellow-browed Bunting trapped, ringed and released at the Swannery. It's flown to the hedge which runs alongside the Swannery grounds and the bird may be viewable from the permissive path heading west from Grove Lane.
September 29, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Yellow-browed Bunting trapped, ringed and released at the Swannery. It's flown to the hedge which runs alongside the Swannery grounds and the bird may be viewable from the permissive path heading west from Grove Lane.
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UK is well on course for losing Willow Tit, Spotted Flycatcher & Wood Warbler as breeding species in our lifetime. Wood Warbler already virtually gone from England. I think Willow Tit would be first extinction of a resident bird since Capercaillie in 1700s or White-tailed Eagle in 1918. #ornithology
3. The Woodland indicator has shown worrying recent short-term declines, but shows signs of stabilising. Favourable climatic conditions may explain this, favouring species like Blackcap. Nightingale too is shows a recent increase. But Willow Tit and migrants like Spotted Flycatcher are in decline.
September 24, 2025 at 12:28 PM
UK is well on course for losing Willow Tit, Spotted Flycatcher & Wood Warbler as breeding species in our lifetime. Wood Warbler already virtually gone from England. I think Willow Tit would be first extinction of a resident bird since Capercaillie in 1700s or White-tailed Eagle in 1918. #ornithology
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Coming to the UK this autumn? The 3 WP records of Dark-sided Flycatcher make a triangle with a blank area with the Northern Isles at its centre that needs filling! All 3 records between 1-6 Oct; all since 2012. Interestingly mainland USA 1st record in California 4 days ago
ebird.org/checklist/S2...
ebird.org/checklist/S2...
September 21, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Coming to the UK this autumn? The 3 WP records of Dark-sided Flycatcher make a triangle with a blank area with the Northern Isles at its centre that needs filling! All 3 records between 1-6 Oct; all since 2012. Interestingly mainland USA 1st record in California 4 days ago
ebird.org/checklist/S2...
ebird.org/checklist/S2...