Steve Dudley
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stevedudley.bsky.social
Steve Dudley
@stevedudley.bsky.social
Birder #WestrayBirding | Orkney Bird Recorder | #birdingScotland #ornithology 🪶 | #TeamMoth | #wildlife #art | 🎶 Punk, Post-punk| PUFC | MUFC | Pro-EU | ✊🏾🏳️‍🌈 ally

Feeds - Birding Gear, Orkney Birding, UK Patch Birding and BirdWeather PUC.
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I've long been a gear geek - optics, tripods, clothing - I'm obsessed with it all. I've helped design optics, jackets and more and I love to share and hear others' views on their birding gear. So, I've set up this Feed, Birding Gear, for just that. Tag your posts #BirdingGear to contribute!
Reposted by Steve Dudley
I mean, the line, from the IEA's Chair Linda Edwards, is just a flat lie. The Charity Commission has all the savage of a dead sheep, when it comes to Tufton Street anyway, but as I explain they got by its standards a bollocking.

www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/regulat...
Regulator issues guidance to think tank and closes case
www.civilsociety.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
Coming soon!
November 9, 2025 at 4:47 PM
😂👏🏼
Handmade by the artist. Comes in gift box with numbered and signed card of authenticity. Available for preorder for short time only👇👇👇👇
coldwarsteve.bigcartel.com/product/patr...
November 11, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
The perfect greenwashing tool

- Actually exists somewhere else
- Expensive enough to justify a shitload of subsidies
- Lengthy enough in timeline to always be 'around the corner' perpetually
November 11, 2025 at 1:29 PM
The majority of the BBC’s output isn’t news. Yet we have to suffer the BBC’s conservative/right bias daily across all their media platforms. And every radio slot has to have its say. Get rid of BBC News and let the BBC focus on education and entertainment. There’s plenty other news outlets for us.
Personally I'd be pleased to see BBC News disappear entirely. To argue, as many do, that British politics or our news environment would be so much worse without the BBC you have to explain why British politics and news environment is so very bad with the BBC.
November 11, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Shameful that the British public are subsidising the barbaric blood sports of the elite. Time all blood sports were banned in UK.
Sickening. Protect the Wild and Grantham Against Bloodsports have uncovered that hunts have received over £2.4 million in taxpayer funding since the hunting ban through subsidies, Covid grants, and tax breaks.The investigation exposes how deeply the hunting industry relies on public money to survive
November 11, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
Protect the Wild and Grantham Against Bloodsports have uncovered that hunts have received over £2.4 million in taxpayer funding since the hunting ban through subsidies, Covid grants, and tax breaks. The investigation exposes how deeply the hunting industry relies on public money to survive
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
In case you miss it, in my reply in thread on Red Kites used screengrab from a Spanish welfare-based org. Where they feel Swifts already taking a bit of a pounding from climate change - (in their top 3 spp).

🤔Part of why really shouldn't just be 'bricking it' when talking about threats to Swifts🤔
then 2) translation via Google, a lead site (as per NE blog) - animal welfare heavy-org it seems.. that does at least have a bit on "cambio climático"..

🤔 IMHO work on if this is some sort of sink-hole death-trap (my phrase, think a fair translation 😉) for any relocated birds ongoing it seems.

2/2
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
We’re seeing – and you’ve probably noticed it too – a new rise in Christian Nationalism. Make no mistake: these groups deny the legitimacy of same-sex marriage, twist Bible verses to excuse bigotry, take inspiration (and funding) from the US, and are working to roll back hard-won gay rights.
November 11, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
🧵/ How far does the public support net zero?

Support: 60%
Oppose: 25%

Net support by party
Green: +81
Lib Dem: +67
Lab: +64
Con: +11
Reform: -44

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
November 11, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
Encountering this godwit always makes me think about the changes we have both seen in the 29 years since we first met, especially the planting of non-native trees all over Iceland wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/06/18/i...
Longevity record!
Last night, @washwader.bsky.social recaught this Black-tailed Godwit, first caught and ringed 29 years ago.
The metal ring was wearing thin (and was replaced) but the bird is still going strong.
Blog about longevity of waders:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w...
#ornithology
November 9, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
This is - GENUINELY - a reasonable, non-reactionary response to Zack Polanski wearing a white poppy....from the Daily Express. The Daily Express. The Daily Express.

I don't know what's happening.
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2131...
Meaning of a white poppy and white poppy symbolism as Zack Polanski wears one
Green party leader Zack Polanski was seen sporting a white poppy alongside a red one for Remembrance Sunday today - but what does a white poppy mean?
www.express.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
Once upon a time in the Arctic, a long long time ago, there was this magical substance called ice ...
November 10, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Some #BirdingGear benefits going down for WOS members. Neat.
WOS members: Have you used your 15% discount from Kowa Optics? Just log into our online portal and click on "Member Benefits."
Wilson Ornithological Society - Home
wilson.wildapricot.org
November 10, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
Pizza, Pretzel, Donut, Dog
November 10, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
November 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
For a limited time only, get the incredible Kowa TSN-55A travel scope, complete with Kowa stay-on case for just £1999.
Order yours here: www.cleyspy.co.uk/product/kowa...
#UKBirding #BirdingGear
November 10, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
There's much more to ringing than just longevity records but they're always amazing when they come along. A 29 year old Black-tailed Godwit! We wonder how much mileage it has clocked up in that time?
Longevity record!
Last night, @washwader.bsky.social recaught this Black-tailed Godwit, first caught and ringed 29 years ago.
The metal ring was wearing thin (and was replaced) but the bird is still going strong.
Blog about longevity of waders:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w...
#ornithology
November 10, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
There’s still time to #SaveCoulLinks.

A year ago, we gave evidence about the irreparable damage a golf course would do to this incredible place.

Its fate is in the hands of Scottish Ministers. Nearly 18,000 of you have asked them to stand up for nature.
November 10, 2025 at 1:11 PM
A new study reveals a complex geographic mosaic of cuckoo-host coevolution. #ornithology 🪶
How common cuckoos adapt to multiple hosts
Genomic data reveal the complexity of egg mimicry evolution in cuckoos
www.science.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
In case you missed it: We are accepting applications for our Burtt Undergraduate Mentoring Grants now through February 1! Please help us spread the word about this #ornithology opportunity. wilsonsociety.org/awards/jed-b...
November 10, 2025 at 1:02 PM
FFS 🤦🏻‍♂️ BBC is a real basket case.
November 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
NEW on #theBOUblog from Roni Ostreiher

To leave or to stay home? Sex-dependent dispersal decisions in a cooperative desert bird

bou.org.uk/blog-ostr...

Based on this IBIS paper doi.org/10.1111/ibi....

#ornithology 🪶
November 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
Excellent, excellent column this by Martin Wolf - capturing a neglected truth, which is this government is an 'Old Labour' one, not in the way it was useful for Blair and Corbyn to caricature, but in the 'how those governments actually governed (and mostly lost):
The disturbing victory of Old Labour over New Labour
In education, labour and housing we risk going back towards what we know will not work
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Steve Dudley
This is a superbly written article. Labour are dead, up the greens
November 10, 2025 at 1:17 PM