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amythebirder.bsky.social
Amy
@amythebirder.bsky.social
1.8K followers 330 following 1.2K posts
Birder in the Solent. Ecologist/GIS, HOS Assistant Recorder. Loves nature & islands. Mostly wildlife & travel (🚲 🥾🚏) but also interested in public health, climate, more sustainable living etc. Views my own.
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Reposted by Amy
andyscollick.bsky.social
We are all one war, one hurricane, one military coup, one wildfire, one drought, one economic collapse away from becoming an "asylum seeker".
November 17, 2025 at 6:50 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
If only Fareham had more than 300m (yes, you read that right) of proper cycle path... Even a connected & complete network of shared paths would be something. And better buses...

It's been an enlightening 3 years car free realising how much I can in theory do without one. #BikeSky
Photo taken from a double decker bus. A pink hand rail is visible just under the window. The view shows big road with a bus lane and 3 of 4 (not quite sure) car lanes. On the left is a narrow verge, a pavement which could to be wider - Fareham has loads of narrow pavements - and a proper cycle path that is actually wide enough for two bicycles (!) and separated by kerbs. There are trees along the edges of the path & other side of the road and the tall council building in Fareham in the distance. A cyclist is just out of shot. There are people walking side by side showing how narrow the path is, and cars on the road. It is a weekend so most cars are queuing in Portsmouth or similar.
November 15, 2025 at 7:09 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Best at Lee-on-the Solent earlier was a Sandwich Tern in breeding plumage #HantsBirds #LowCarbonBirding
Terrible digiscoped photo of a Sandwich Tern in worn breeding plumage. It has a black cap, grey wings, appeared a bit dirty underneath (should be white) and worn dark primaries. Sat on a pals yellow and black buoy
November 15, 2025 at 3:25 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Lovely new artwork & poster for #Solent Seascape project at the Hard, Portsmouth! @wordsfromwez.bsky.social
Large poster on the Hard Interchange outside of the in Portsmouth. It is about the Solent Seascape Project and features artwork showing species found in the Solent including Common Terns, Seals, Seahorses, Brent Geese and Marsh Harrier. One side shows Hampshire with Portsmouth silhouetted including the Spinnaker Tower. Other side shows the hills of the isle of white. On the middle are islands and salt marshes and a bird hide with some birders
November 15, 2025 at 1:48 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Fareham VC11: 17/9 last night including 2 December Moths and Large Wainscot + Palpita vitrealis, 2 Rusty-dot Pearl, White-point the potential migrants @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Also many Redwings, Fieldfares and Song Thrushes overhead this morning ☺️ #TeamMoth #HantsBirds
December Moth on an egg carton with a blurred green background. It is a dark brown, fluffy moth with a pale slightly wavy line near the end of the wing.
November 13, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Amy
featherytravels.bsky.social
Cicerone Press have a sale on, which means 20% off my new #walking guidebook to the Small Isles. 💚

www.cicerone.co.uk/walking-rum-...

#Scotland #Hebrides
Walking Guidebook | Rum & Small Isles | Rum, Eigg, Muck & Canna
Discover the 'hidden gems' of the Hebrides with 25 routes for adventurous walkers from 2-25 miles with OS maps and GPX downloads.
www.cicerone.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:44 AM
amythebirder.bsky.social
The resident Goosander at Titchfield Haven has nearly finished moulting, and today had a companion at long last! #HantsBirds
Male Goosander in almost full breeding plumage with dark green head, green mantle and white wings. Still some grey feathers.
November 9, 2025 at 8:50 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
#WeBS count from Port Solent yielded 119 Brent, Mute Swan, 2 Great Crested Grebes, 2 Sandwich Terns, 3 GBB, 3 Herring, 12 BH and 29 Common Gulls.

Combined with bus trips with dipping Southsea Purple Sandpipers (tho 2 Black Redstart & Grey Plover good), walk to Eastney & errands #LowCarbonBirding
Marina with lots of white sailing boats (the ones with some space but not enormous ones). There are houses around the marina with access onto it. The water is calm and sky blue. Amy is stood on a pedestrian bridge which crosses a lock separating & linking the marina from the harbour. Part of the lock is visible Terrible digiscoped photo of Sandwich Terbs sat on small yellow buoys. They are mostly white with pale grey wings and partial black do. Black bill with yellow tip. The sea wall has vegetation growing on it Path leading to Southsea Castle and a narrow white and black lighthouse. The castle is round but not huge (or not anymore. Maybe it was bigger once) Grey hiking rucksack and tripod on floor between the seat and edge of bus. There is a handle under the window.
November 8, 2025 at 10:05 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Fareham VC11: Methinks the best moth this week is this micro which must've come through an open window on 5/11! Looks like Carpatolechia decorella? #TeamMoth
Small moth with a pale grey ground colour with darker black and brown markings. A cropped photo of the same moth.
November 6, 2025 at 7:35 AM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Fareham VC11: 16/8 in the moth trap last night including 2 Rusty-for Pearls and this Red-green Carpet #TeamMoth
Red-green Carpet on wood. It is a vaguely triangle shaped moth with green and reddish tones over a grey ish ground colour. It has light and dark stripes. They can look much brighter
November 6, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Reposted by Amy
tg42birder.bsky.social
A great website.

Full of crucial info and ideas for how to live in a way that gives us a fighting chance of avoiding catastrophe.

I’ve threaded it to break it up a little… 1/17

#lowcarbonliving

www.tudelft.nl/sustainabili...
November 1, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Amy
edplowden.bsky.social
It is not true “England cannot effectively subsidise travel costs”. Retired people get free travel. By freezing the fuel duty escalator we are subsidising car drivers, which compounds inequality. See more here: bettertransport.org.uk/media/groups...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
No free bus passes for under 22s, says goverment
The Commons Transport Committee recommended scrapping bus fares for young people in August.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 2, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Reposted by Amy
mcollinsmorton.bsky.social
The ongoing pandemic of Covid-19 is both a problem of disease and a problem of morality. When most people are thoughtlessly unwilling to practice necessary safety measures for the common good, such as wearing respirator masks, it is clear that collective morality has utterly failed.

#COVID19
May 25, 2025 at 5:19 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Titchfield: 5 Glossy Ibis back on Bridge Street Flood, presumably for another winter. #HantsBirds
Birds in a large puddle. It is part of the Meon Valley floodplain and is great to see the 'Flood' holding some water again! Most of the birds are Black-headed Gulls - small ish gulls that are mostly white in winter but have pale grey mantle, black mark near eye and black primaries. They have dark red bill and legs. 5 are Glossy Ibis which look a bit like black Curlews. The drier parts of the field have some taller vegetation including patches of rushes
October 28, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Amy
astrokatie.com
When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.
June 19, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Amy
astrokatie.com
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Red Campion, Musk Mallow, Meadow Crane's-bill and Holly tree in Southampton today #WildflowerHour
Red Campion which has pink flowers Meadow Crane's-bill which is taller than nearby flowers and the flowers are purple Musk-mallow. Pale pink flowers Holly tree. Much bigger than holly I usually see. The higher leaves are smooth and not spikey like the lower leaves
October 26, 2025 at 8:19 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Yay, back to GMT and not being forced to pretend everything is an hour later than it really is 😌

Had people tell me I wouldn't to get up at sunrise in summer if it was GMT, but if you're awake at sunrise it doesn't matter what a clock says. It's the same time & same amount of light!
October 26, 2025 at 7:22 AM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Good to see the Black Restarts are back at Daedalus ☺️ Lovely afternoon searching, watching, and trying to figure out how many there are! #LowCarbonBirding #HantsBirds
Black Redstart on wood. It is mostly black ish but has browner wings with pale fringing. It has a darker face. Black Redstart on a pile of old bits of wood. It is Robin sized but 'slimmer' and black ish with a darker face. It has a red tail with a black vertical bar Two black redstarts on a fence. They are blackish / dark brown with some pale fringes on eings.
October 25, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Amy
edge25.bsky.social
A cold & relatively clear dawn on the Hants coast prompted a bit of vizmiggging at Brownwich with 848 birds of 10 spp moving west up to 10:00. 72 Redpolls was a good count for here. Also 250+ Brents offshore. #HantsBirds
October 25, 2025 at 10:50 AM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Beautiful start to the day at Titchfield Haven with decent vis mig including Redpolls, 5 Glossy Ibis, and an elusive Yellow-browed Warbler still at southern end of Canal Path (found by @frannobirder2024.bsky.social y'day) #PWC2025 #LowCarbonBirding
October 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Amy
hantsconnect.bsky.social
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You don’t need to be a professional – just willing to listen
zerosuicidealliance.com/suicide-awar...
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Take the FREE online suicide awareness training from the ZSA to gain basic suicide awareness and prevention skills.
zerosuicidealliance.com
September 10, 2025 at 11:39 AM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Brent Geese back in Portsmouth Harbour for #WeBS count! 31 in Paulsgrove Lake. Also 2 Sandwich Terns, 17 Turnstones, 105 Redshank, 5 Mute Swans, Great Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Grey Heron, 57 BH, 7 Common & 3 Herring Gulls. #LowCarbonBirding @webs-gsmp.bsky.social
Turnstones (looking like dark dots) on a pontoon in a harbour. There are moored boats in the distance and trees. Even more distant is a tiny part of the Isle of Wight is visible Dark-bellied Brent Geese - small ish black ish geese. They are near a seawall with vegetation behind it. Closer to the camera is a yellow buoy called Billy View from the Gosport ferry looking towards Portsmouth. The Spinnaker Tower is in view with a Wight Link ferry in front and some tall buildings. Also visible is HMS Warrior
October 18, 2025 at 6:54 PM
amythebirder.bsky.social
Another excellent Hampshire Bird Report by @hosbirding.bsky.social, and this year it is available digitally as well as in print! #HantsBirds
Screenshot of the digital Hampshire Bird Report 2025. The photo on the cover is a Roseate Tern (pale tern with white underparts, black cap and half red, half black bill)
October 17, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by Amy
btobirds.bsky.social
Congratulations to ‬Hampshire Ornithological Society, winner of the @marshawards.bsky.social for Local Ornithology! @hosbirding.bsky.social provides a range of engagement activities such as outings, ringing demonstrations, events, workshops and online sessions for participants of all ages.
An image of a group of people walking away from the camera down a path in a woodland features in a circular frame over a background of white, green and pale pink colouring. Wording top left reads: Winner The Marsh Award for Local Ornithology Hampshire Ornithological Society. The BTO logo and Marsh Charitable Trust logo are top right of the image.
October 16, 2025 at 6:03 PM