Currently into my 4th pair of Aigle wellies, having ditched over-priced, underperforming Muck Boots in 2015. I'm getting 2000–2500 miles per pair, with a bit of help from McNett Aquasure after 1.5–2 yrs of daily use (including a fair bit of autumn saltmarsh/bramble action). [2/2]
#birding

Pick your own superlative for this morning's first-calendar-year Caspian Gull at @btobirds.bsky.social #NunneryLakes reserve this morning. 😄
#birding #ukbirding #norfolkbirding

I know you'll have been on tenterhooks all night, so just to let you know that today's score is a very respectable 57 in 57! I was lagging behind after 52 mins before a sudden flurry of fly-over Kestrel, Mistle Thrush, Yellowhammer, Linnet and Reed Bunting! 😁

Ah... you might have to work in 5-minute blocks if playing this game, Julian! 🤔

Raven is still noteworthy here, and there's been a drop in sightings this year – hope our neighbouring estate (not known for a love of corvids!) hasn't cottoned on to them 🤞

Any tips to help focus your concentration in the field? I have a standard game: How long can I keep the species total on my #BirdTrack list at/above my total minutes #birding? Today, I started at 06:50 and ran aground at 43 spp/07:33. Need something for beyond that!

Admittedly, it might just be me.

Who was first to document The Robocop (Canon micropensis)? Gyr Crakes published this on YouTube 14 years ago 🕵‍♂️

It may not be a coastal migrant-magnet, but I'm lucky that I can walk my patch from home. 15 #BirdTrack lists so far in Sept: Green Sandpiper every time, 3 Whinchat, Swift 13/9, Marsh Harrier, Woodlark, 13 Kingfisher recs, 2 each of Great White Egret & Hobby. #lowcarbonbirding #NunneryLakes #birding

A touch of frost in the Brecks, for the third consecutive day. ❄️

Apparently, 'kleptoparasitism' doesn't qualify as a word with multiple letter t's and containing p, o, l.
I'm not angry – just disappointed. @levparikian.bsky.social

Do you ever get that sense of dowitchà vu?

Of course, nobody should be *expecting* to see a Red-flanked Bluetail in the UK in the first week of September – of the 37 September reports of bluetails on BirdGuides, all but one are in the 3rd or 4th week of the month, the outlier being Kilminning, Fife on 10/9/2022.

Uplifting to be surrounded by common migrants yesterday!
For the record, not *all* birds face left on Scolt Head.
#birding #norfolkbirding

1 Whinchat – not to be sniffed at, these days. Also what Neil and I would've had no hesitation logging as a Fieldfare, had it been a month later. Only seen going away, and didn't call. Decent diversity for early September, too: 67 species (8 more than I managed during 11 hours on Scolt yesterday!).

Surely *one* of the migrant birds that arrived in East Anglia over the last 72 hours will have been dropped into the #NunneryLakes by the pre-dawn rain?! 🙏 Pretty sure the 6 Green Sandpipers were already here...
#birding

⚠️ Warning @daily-mail.bsky.social & anyone buying Shutterstock bird pics: many 📷 by Tahseenamjad are AI-generated! This is NOT Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), but rather Big Fictional Gull (L. madeupensis). Shame; the other images in this piece are right: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...

Gert, I think the female Sparrowhawk is a female Kestrel. Structurally, wings are rather narrow-based, tail is rounded-tipped even when closed, and has 4(+) narrow dark bands, then a broader dark terminal band (marked on cropped version). Freeze-frame from our @btobirds.bsky.social Raptor ID course.

How accurate do I find the forecast? Let's just say I wish I'd ignored it and worn a raincoat...
#birding...

I'm a

A great Knot find by @arcanelove.bsky.social at
@btobirds.bsky.social #NunneryLakes yesterday evening (not to be confused with a Great Knot find)!

As usual, the local Lapwings were intolerant of anything different.