Martin George
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jannerbirder.bsky.social
Martin George
@jannerbirder.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.6K following 1.7K posts
Bird nerd, patch worker and BTO surveyor. MSc Ornithology (mostly a seabirds thing). Proud Devonian currently exiled to North Shropshire. I also run the #Shropshirebirds feed.
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jannerbirder.bsky.social
A sunny day and the urgent realisation that we had just 17 light evenings left in 2025 took me up to the Long Mynd after work, and it was glorious, but cold!

Wonderful views plus Red Grouse and lots of Stonechat. It was a delight to just stand there and watch the sun set and the moon rise ♥️
A low sun over tussocky upland vegetation on the Long Mynd, with distant hills receding towards the horizon. Heather moorland and a curious sheep. Distant Welsh hills seen from a Shropshire hill as the sun sets. Distant Welsh hills seen from a Shropshire hill as the sun sets, this time with the foreground enlivened with a grazing sheep.
October 8, 2025 at 9:10 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Enjoyed a very quiet first visit to Haughmond Hill near Shrewsbury for the Winter Bird Survey, an addition to @bbs-birds.bsky.social for this winter. Just 24 species seen, but that does include a few Crossbills.

Some sites are still available, see www.bto.org/get-involved...

#ShropshireBirds
The view from Haughmond Hill across green fields with standard trees and hedgerows to Shropshire's famous Wrekin Hill. The view from Haughmond Hill towards the Stretton Gap and the hogback hills of The Lawley and Caer Caradoc, under a blue sky with some white fair weather clouds. The foreground vegetation is fading from green to brown as autumn slowly takes hold of the trees and shrubs. A map of the Shropshire region for BTO surveying. It looks unfamiliar because it is based on whole 10km squares rather than the precise geographical county outline. The orange areas contain currently available squares. For more info go to https://app.bto.org/bbs/public/request-square.jsp?s=WINBS
September 28, 2025 at 1:42 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
A mild frost on the windscreen this morning, constant calls of migrating Skylarks and Meadow Pipits from above on a walk around the "Annscroft oaks", no Swallows for the first day since April.

Checks calendar... Ah, autumn equinox! Just waiting for the first Redwings now. Two or three weeks to go.
A footpath fingerpost sign against a landscape of a tilled arable field and hedges with mature trees. The "Annscroft oaks", a striking clump of 13 oaks in farmland near the village of Annscroft, about 4 miles south of Shrewsbury, with a young crop of possibly oil seed rape in the foreground. The "Annscroft oaks", a striking clump of 13 oaks in farmland near the village of Annscroft, about 4 miles south of Shrewsbury, with a newly tilled arable field and small stream in the foreground.
September 22, 2025 at 8:16 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
More close views of a diving Osprey near Saltash this evening, spooking around 80 roosting Redshank at the Antony Passage mill pond. Also of note were around 30 Sandwich Terns feeding off Jupiter Point.

The footpath beside Forder Creek was wellie-buckle deep and mullet strewn 🙂
#CornwallBirding
Antony Passage harbour breakwater at high tide looking across the Lynher Estuary towards Jupiter Point and the former mine countermeasures ship HMS Brecon (now a seamanship training vessel for HMS Raleigh). The Lynher Estuary's junction with the Hamoaze (River Tamar) with Devonport Dockyard in the distance. The Lynher fills a tree-lined valley. Forder Railway Viaduct reflected in a calm Forder Creek and framed by trees. A flooded footpath at high tide beside the tree-lined Forder Creek with several moored pleasure craft.
September 20, 2025 at 7:43 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Three Eider, three Ringed Plover and five Sandwich Terns were the highlights at Hannafore Point, West Looe at lunchtime today.
#CornwallBirding
Three Ringed Plover on the sandy edge of a rocky shoreline. A male Eider on a seaweed-draped rock rising above the sea. Three Sandwich Terns perched on seaweed-draped rocks.
September 19, 2025 at 12:27 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Two Grey Phalaropes at South Huish Marsh this evening, originally found by John Hurrell. Also present six Bar-tailed Godwit and three Dunlin.

#DevonBirds
A Grey Phalarope with a Bar-tailed Godwit behind it. A Grey Phalarope wading in muddy shallows. Three Dunlin in a wader scrape or pool, with marginal vegetation in the foreground.
September 16, 2025 at 8:23 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
The same field pool nine months ago (3 January 2025).
A field pool surrounded by cattle pasture, with a poached (very muddy) field in the foreground complete with Hereford heifer.
September 2, 2025 at 8:23 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
It doesn't look particularly impressive but this is the field pool on my local patch near Ellesmere, barely holding water after such a dry year.

Big news for a small patch: the first two Curlew of autumn just pitched in, uttering those magnificent flight calls! 😍

#ShropshireBirding
A small pool amid surrounded by cattle pasture with mature hedges and woodland behind it. The outlines of a small flock of Canada Geese can be seen on the water.
September 2, 2025 at 7:09 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Impressive skies at Noneley, north of Shrewsbury, after sunset this evening, and a more impressive mixed Jackdaw and Rook pre-roost display.

No Quail, sadly, but what a gorgeous evening 🙂

#ShropshireBirding
July 3, 2025 at 10:02 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Today's seawatch on Anglesey encountered a meteorological challenge...

This is the view of the famous South Stack Lighthouse as seen from the popular clifftop viewpoint 🤦‍♂️

We could hear the foghorn, so the lighthouse is definitely still there!
Mist-shrouded sea cliffs, visibility <200 metres and falling.
June 29, 2025 at 10:31 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
You may need to squint a little, but this is a very distant Osprey on the local patch at Crose Mere in North Shropshire!

I rarely see Ospreys but this is my third in three weeks and my second self-found in that time. It's a serendipity thing...

#ShropshireBirding
A heavy crop of a poor image (mobile phone camera through eyepiece of handheld binoculars) of a distant Osprey perched on the top of a dead tree.
June 9, 2025 at 8:55 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
There are now *two* Corn Buntings singing in the rain beside the "bunting barley" on the home patch near Ellesmere, for the first time in ten or more years. Small victories...

Four Shelduck, four Coot and two Oystercatchers on the field pool, later joined by two Egyptian Geese.

#ShropshireBirding
A barley field with a dark, rain-filled sky. A field pool in pasture land with trees in the background and a muddy beef cattle field in the foreground. Distant dot on the water is a Coot nest. The same barley field, now in light drizzle so a slightly less grey sky. The hedgerow margin on the right is enlivened by the scarlet petals of a precious few Common Poppies.
May 25, 2025 at 9:52 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
An unusual bird-related news story, presumably about a Mute Swan or feral goose.

#ShropshireBirding
A screenshot of a Facebook post by Oswestry Fire Station showing a light fire appliance (pickup based) in a green field with smoke visible. Text reads “Whitchurch assisted by Oswestry with its 4x4 capabilities attended an incident in Whixhall this afternoon. . A fire caused by a bird strike to a power line causing the wire to snap and arc on the floor which resulted in a grass fire. The fire extinguished using a hose reel jet and a fogging unit.”
May 23, 2025 at 10:58 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Great views from The Lawley (after a steep climb) before work this morning. With song from a Cuckoo, Redstarts, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Blackcaps and a lone Whitethroat, plus several foraging Linnets and a lone Swift.

#ShropshireBirding
The steep climb up short-grazed grass towards the top of The Lawley. The "summit" of The Lawley, complete with a Raven wind vane, emblem of the locally Corbett family. In the distance the slightly higher peak of Caer Caradoc and views across the Stretton Gap towards the Long Mynd plateau. The view north from The Lawley across the pastoral landscsape of the Shropshire Plain, under a blue, cloudless sky.
May 23, 2025 at 8:52 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Didn't manage to capture the way the setting sun illuminated the poppy petals in the margins of the barley yesterday, but who cares? We have a singing Corn Bunting back on the patch near Crosemere in North Shropshire, my first in three years!

#ShropshireBirding
A field of ripening barley with flowers in the margin by a hedge, with a golden sunset on the tree-lined horizon. A field of ripening barley with flowers in the margin by a hedge, with a golden sunset on the tree-lined horizon.
May 23, 2025 at 8:37 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
It was a fascinating. We now know a little bit more about how little we know about the gulls that nest on the commercial rooftops of Shrewsbury!

This was the view from the rear, with @shropshirebirdlass.bsky.social as surveyor in charge🙂

#ShropshireBirding
#UrbanGulls
An aerial view of the centre of Shrewsbury, showing English Bridge at the the left of the image. A view of the industrial rooftops of Shrewsbury as seen from the back of a light aircraft. A light aircraft cockpit showing the pilot and gull observer.
May 15, 2025 at 10:05 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Phone-scoped images from a semi-permanent field flood on the local patch in North Shropshire this evening.

Highlights were three species of heron in one field (Great White Egret, Grey Heron, Little Egret), 32 Shelduck, a singing Cuckoo and a very bright Yellow Wagtail.

#ShropshireBirding
Two Egyptian Geese in a grass field. Grey Heron and Great White Egret with Mallard and a Black-headed Gull. Eight of the 32 Shelduck present, on the grassy edge of a field flood, with a nice flush of buttercup flowers behind them. A view of the field flood, set among beef cattle and sheep pasture.
May 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
For the first time in probably two and a half decades the front cover of the Devon Bird Report features a bird that I saw! Alpine Swift, Teignmouth in March 2023.

Wonderful image,
@stephmurphy.bsky.social 🙂
The front cover of the Devon Bird Report 2023 featuring a photo of an Alpine Swift taken by S Murphy.
May 9, 2025 at 7:51 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
It was a real joy to hear this Cuckoo at Haughmond Hill on today's @bbs-birds.bsky.social

The clip ends with the gorgeous falling scale song of a Willow Warbler. It's incredible to think that both birds have crossed desert, sea and mountain to be singing in this Shropshire wood.
#ShropshireBirding
May 4, 2025 at 8:46 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
I love May! These image pairs are the view of the "Annscroft Oaks" on 19 November '24 and 2 May '25, and the lane to Lyth Bank on 10 January '24 and 2 May '25.
The "Annscroft Oaks", a small grove of oak trees among arable farmland, barely visible in a snow storm. The "Annscroft Oaks", a small grove of oak trees among arable farmland, in a verdant landscape of Cow Parsley, a green winter wheat crop leading to a bright yellow oilseed rape crop, and then the distant scarp face of Lyth Hill, under a blue sky. A flooded lane with broken ice and frosted verges and fields. The hedges are neatly trimmed, dark and lifeless. A lane with flower rich, bright green hedges under a blue sky.
May 2, 2025 at 8:28 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
The view to and from The Lawley before work this morning.

Five singing Redstarts on the northern end of the ridge were looking gorgeous in that light, and there were lots of Ravens playing in the updraughts, plus the Corbett Raven on the summit.

#ShropshireBirding
The approach to the "hog's back" hill of The Lawley. The Corbett Raven on the summit. It's a tall wooden pole with a windvane in the shape of a Raven. The view northeast from The Lawley, looking across the Shropshire Plain towards the distant Wrekin hill. Highland cattle grazing the slope of The Lawley, against the backdrop of the Shropshire Plain.
May 2, 2025 at 7:54 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
New paper: researchers found plastic debris in breeding American Herring #Gulls in the St. Lawrence Estuary downstream of Quebec is linked to breeding stage, offering new insight into exposure during key life phases.

#Seabirds

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A graphical abstract of the research paper showing the average occurrence, number and mass of anthropogenic debris per pellet ejected by gulls.
April 25, 2025 at 6:43 AM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
Some grim crops of phone-scoped images from the patch this afternoon. There's no convenient cover so I'm always a long way off and viewing through sheep-netting and vegetation.

Just a few of the 38 Shelduck on the pool, and one of the two Black-tailed Godwits that made my day!

#ShropshireBirding
A group of Shelduck on a field pool. Black-tailed Godwit.
April 18, 2025 at 7:17 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
No rain-dropped passage terns for me on the patch today, but two Black-tailed Godwits were very welcome. I can see hundreds on the coast but this is North Shropshire!

Still a few Wigeon remaining, six today, and 38 Shelduck. Not bad for a field pool that dries in some springs!

#ShropshireBirding
April 18, 2025 at 7:11 PM
jannerbirder.bsky.social
There will be a guide in the hide at Venus Pool NR near #Shrewsbury tomorrow morning between 8 and 10. All are welcome. The car park and reserve may be busier than normal around those times.

#ShropshireBirding
A poster promoting the guide in the hide event at Venus Pool Nature Reserve.
April 18, 2025 at 8:21 AM