David Bradnum
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dbradnum.bsky.social
David Bradnum
@dbradnum.bsky.social
Keen birder based in Colchester, Essex - originally from Norfolk and often out on the Suffolk coast. EBird fan (and local reviewer). Data nerd!
Reposted by David Bradnum
www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/3005980

This is news to me. The regular Northumberland wintering Black Scoter spends the summer off Varanger, Norway.
October 16, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by David Bradnum
WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Descriptions and/or photos are required for a number of Essex rarities from 2024. The full list can be found at ebws.org.uk/2024descript...

If you saw any of these, please submit a description - there's a video on the link that explains more.

Thank you

#essexbirding
October 16, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by David Bradnum
Sunday 7th anyone visiting wigborough Church Arctic warbler please note we are keeping the church side of carpark clear for churchgoers from 10.30am.extra parking been arranged opposite first entrance(gate is open please park in there only)noParking on vergeFrontGates )
#Essexbirdnews #EssexBirding
September 6, 2025 at 7:53 PM
A superb bird and a brilliant way to end the week. Echo the congrats to Chris and Sean, excellent find.
A fantastic mad rush to locally twitch the Arctic Warbler in Essex at Great Wigborough church this evening. Initially a no show, i felt a dip coming on and then refound by Stuart. Well done on the finders @snixon66.bsky.social and @chrispoole050.bsky.social. 👍 My 2nd for Essex #essexBirding
September 5, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by David Bradnum
Another birding paper! 🐦 Where do the Nearctic landbirds that show up in Europe each autumn come from? We usually assume they come from NE populations, pushed off course by bad weather - but is that the whole story? #ornithology 1/3

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
May 5, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by David Bradnum
Based on plumage variation, we are confident there were 9+ red-footed falcons at Carlton Marshes over the last three days. 2 adult male 3 females seen hunting dragons together, with at least 4 sub-adult males.
May 4, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Interesting to see the origin of this bird - a little disappointing but unsurprising that it's of captive origin... #suffolkbirding
Thanks to Chris Batty for pointing out that the mobile Dalton-in-Furness White Stork appears to be up to its old tricks at this time of year. Interestingly it appears to have gone over Scarborough on more or less the same date two years running. Things may get simpler if it's ever caught!
April 15, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Calling all #ukbirding County Recorders interested in cleaning and extracting data from eBird. I have updated the app I developed with @ollie333.bsky.social, and moved it over to a new hosting platform. You can now find it here: dbradnum-ebirdcountyrecordcleaner.share.connect.posit.cloud
eBird County Data Cleaner
dbradnum-ebirdcountyrecordcleaner.share.connect.posit.cloud
February 9, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Excellent birding at Abberton in long-awaited sunshine today: Black-throated Diver, drake Lesser and 4 Greater Scaup, drake and redhead Smew, 4 Bewicks Swan, 9 Med Gull, 10 Black necked and single Slav Grebe, and a somewhat Lesser Scaupy female Aythya hybrid! #essexBirding
December 30, 2024 at 3:56 PM
Shore Lark still present on Stone Pt, East Mersea and showing well at times in spite of dogs.... #EssexBirding
December 21, 2024 at 10:09 AM
At Abberton, from LDLH causeway then flew towards Lodge Lane area
December 15, 2024 at 10:03 AM
A rather grey and dreary day weather-wise, but brightened first by a superb (unusually vocal) Pallas's Warbler at the Naze, and then by finding a drake Lesser Scaup below Abberton church - perhaps one of the 5 birds from previous winter? Also 3 Bewicks and a female Greater Scaup there. #essexBirding
December 1, 2024 at 5:35 PM
Cool bit of data visualisation showing communities and clusters in the 13 million Bluesky users - joelgustafson.com/posts/2024-1...

Sounds like the full graph will only load in full Chrome browser (rather than on a phone)... But if you do, there is already a clear UK Birding cluster!
Visualizing 13 million BlueSky users | Joel Gustafson
joelgustafson.com
November 27, 2024 at 8:04 PM
Interesting #birdHybrid reported recently from Rainham Marshes #EssexBirding #londonBirding, looks good to me for Mallard x Gadwall as suggested - though welcome informed opinion from others on this? ebird.org/checklist/S2...
eBird Checklist - 25 Nov 2024 - Rainham Marshes RSPB Reserve--Essex section - 55 species (+1 other taxa)
Submitted by Caroline Quinn.
ebird.org
November 26, 2024 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by David Bradnum
I'm sorry for the current SkyFeed outage, I'm pretty sure it's caused by @fly.io which I use for smart caching of feeds. It usually works great. See https://status.flyio.net/ for status
November 26, 2024 at 12:44 AM
Reposted by David Bradnum
🧵 How to get connected in Bluesky without upsetting anyone - Some thoughts on hashtags & feeds related to UK wildlife.
Long thread!
Hashtags do as you'd expect. Feeds usually use hashtags, but are much more powerful: multiple selection criteria, incl. user lists, hashtags, +ve & -ve keywords, etc
November 24, 2024 at 5:39 PM
About 80 species seen with 10 miles of home today, highlights a ringtail Hen Harrier and 8 field-stalking Gt White Egrets at Copt Hall, a smart adult Caspian Gull and a scruffy juv Spoonbill at Abberton, and swirling waders and a calling Redpoll at Fingringhoe. #essexBirding
November 17, 2024 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by David Bradnum
Just a reminder to Norfolk birders joining bluesky there's a Norfolk birding feed you can add to your feeds, if you use #NorfolkBirding it will also be picked up by the national UK birding feed too, no need to use both hashtags.
If anyone's interested I've created a Norfolk birding feed to bring together bird news posts from Norfolk. Use the hashtag #Norfolkbirding
November 15, 2024 at 7:27 PM
What on earth has happened?! The sky has turned a strange colour and there is a big yellow ball up there... Black Redstart on shore nr E hide the best so far at Minsmere #suffolkBirding
November 10, 2024 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by David Bradnum
If anyone's interested I've created a Norfolk birding feed to bring together bird news posts from Norfolk. Use the hashtag #Norfolkbirding
October 6, 2024 at 7:24 PM
Pleasant day of #SuffolkBirding with a few decent scarce migrants. Confiding Hawfinch at Minsmere could be found by listening for haw seeds crunching! Also elusive Temmincks, Whimbrel, smart Redstart, Wheatear, Reed Wblr, Casp and YL Gulls here. Earlier, nice Ring Ouzel at Thorpeness but little else
September 22, 2024 at 6:17 PM
Plenty to see on a sunny stroll around Old Hall today, 79spp in total. 14 Spotshank and 11 Greenshank on Abbotts Hall breach at high tide, 3 juv Little Stint and 7 Yellow Wag on Bale Field, plenty of Hobby action and - best of all, and unexpected - a superb juv Merlin atop a hawthorn. #essexBirding
September 14, 2024 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by David Bradnum
You may have seen a video or two cross your timeline already… our team is putting the final touches on this feature as we finish up testing!

Video is almost ready for you 🤞
September 10, 2024 at 7:15 PM
Excellent morning at the Naze with a decent scatter of migrants still about. Brief but close views of mobile Red-backed Shrike early on, followed by 3 Pied and 1 Spotted Fly, 1w male Redstart feeding on the beach, 2 Whinchat, Willow Warbler and 2 Garden Warblers amongst Sylvias. #essexbirding
September 8, 2024 at 3:56 PM