At last! Commonest rare not seen. Star bird. Pechora Pipit baby! Pic Matt Mellor.

Couldn't get any closer! Pulp at Route du Rock, St Malo, France.
Oh yeh!

Excellent start to the ringing season at Clopton, South Cambridgeshire- 500 warblers from 6 visits with record numbers of Sedge & Reed Warblers. Willow, Grasshopper, Garden and Lesser Whitethroat increasing and first passage Redstart yesterday. @CambsBirdClub

A few days at Lake Neusiedl, Austria seeing my longtime friend Harry Vilkaitis. Great birding!

Nice few hours at Buckton over the weekend with Pete Middleton, 600+ passerines in the stubbles including Lap Bunt, 130+ Corn Bunts, 100 Yellowhammer, 350 Linnet, Water Rail, Stonechat, Fieldfare, Peregrine etc.

Great short break to the Netherlands, saw the Spectacled Eider and waterbirds galore.

A bit of night-time ringing recently.

Love getting recoveries, Sedge Warbler I ringed at Clopton, Cambs on 11 Aug 24 - retrapped 11 days later in France. Amazingly whilst I was at another site near Nantes (only a few km away) catching passage Sedge Warblers in a reedbed on the same day - so close!

Two days in the motherland

Family trip to the Natural History Museum today to see the Birds - brilliant & bizzare exhibition.

Dusk today, dawn last month.

Pallas's Warbler, Buckton Oct 2022, 2nd ever ringed here, such a beauty.

Never forgotten, just read the words on the right. Be more Roy.

Perfect day at @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social Little Auks, Hume's Warbler, Thrush arrivals in snow flurries, Shorelarks and productive team mtg.

Nearly end game at Clopton (South Cambs), so close to 2000 birds caught and ringed since mid-July. 2024 being the first experimental autumn here, on what is a small patch of scrub on an 80m SW-leading escarpment in otherwise arable desert. Its a lovely site and seeing 52 dawns has been ace.

and ended just now with a Thrush roost (20 new Redwings this week) at Clopton. Clopton autumn ringing total is 50 birds off 2000.

An interesting week! Started with catching a Woodcock at Clopton with Ed & Deurdon last Saturday, moved to twitching a Scarlet Tanager in Halifax on Monday, then the small matter of a Radio4 interview at BBC Broadcasting House with Heather on Tuesday

Two from the past