Ed Keeble

GWE may have sloooow wingbeats but they get about OK- this one ringed in Poland 2025, wintered with us 2025/26, returned to Latvia where seen summer 2026 and back today after a round trip of getting on for oooh 4,000Km. Had another Polish bird in a flock that went through last week too. #UKBirding

Hobby long gone, but good to see my trusty Nikon can still turn the backlit Linnet flock into Snow Buntings at 300 metres. I should take it seawatching and see what it can conjure up. #UKbirding

Hobby season drawing to a close but still three coconuts lined up on the pylon this week- male still feeding them and TBH I think he keeps at it until they decide to push off of their own accord. #BirdArt

All shades of Grey Plover to be had in over 200 in the bay this evening- looks like the best black pudding (in which even the white bits are black), but must be that all of the white has worn off mantle and scaps. #UKBirding

Watercolours misbehaving today- must be the change in the weather- so I punished them with black ink lining over the top and zapped the background. In case not apparent, is the L Yellowlegs on the Stour chasing a juv Spotshank like a jack russell after a spaniel.

Here was nice on the Stour late evening last week- Greenshank stepping out on the turning tide. Or for non-birders, aliens nervously stepping out of a crashed space module. #BirdArt

Another bit o’ watercolouring on the block pad- Ringed Plover yesterday using a brieze block as a breeze block in a force three gale yesterday. #BirdArt

Hud fun today too whilst checking the roost- we could see H watching something so we looked up and a speck waaay up high - it had beaten us to seeing an eastbound Osprey which was dropping down to the river like a spider on a thread. #UKBirding

Well its taken me more than sixty years to realise that whole point of buying watercolour paper in a block not a pad is you can leave the painting stuck on the block until dry and it comes off flat...anyway, here's a Grey Plover to celebrate there being loads of them on the river this week. #BirdArt

Busy time for Hobbies. This male has taken a leaf from the Merlin playbook and sits quietly in the stubble to hunt the the Linnet flock from ground level. #BirdArt

Blown away by the skill of printmaker, Joshua Miles, whose reduction linocuts are absolutely stunning! More here: joshuamiles.art/scottish-pri...

Mustn't get too excited, but if I can get out to the roost and grab this chemist's bottle embossed with "table spoons" measure, it seems to be worth £8 on ebay #UKbirding

On we go down at North Marsh, no primaries dropped yet. Had a chap bowl up and say "do you know this bird carries my family name...", but when i asked if his uncle was Roy Hudd, he just walked off. #UKbirding

Sure enough- first juvs filtered down here on Stour today, ten days later than some years but hard on heels of first further north. Heard via Pete Potts that the breeding season down south in Iceland was washed out by rain, better in north, so juvs later than av. makes sense..

Handy reminder at Alton Water y'day that Hooded Mergs like to roost anchored in floating weeds, a technique they learn in the wild from sea otters #BirdArt #UKbirding

Juv Cuckoo along the shore this AM being mobbed by half a dozen Y Wags and looking not half like a Kestrel. Thanks to Aristotle for originally drawing attention to the similarity. #ukbirding

Not sure if it properly words as a trifecta, but anyway an early southbound Bar-tail took us up to three 'wits on the river yesterday. #BirdArt

Even later this year- Redshanks at the old post again with chicks hatched just last week. So the guard bird is having to hang out with the Starlings.. #ukbirding

A perky little group of Scaup fresh-in on the Stour this week. The quack vol of BWP tells me drakes transfer from Scandinavia to the IJselmeer in Netherlands in July to moult, so I fancy they are overshooters. #UKbirding

Busy week- more L3 limosa action down on the Stour today- these on a flash about 10Km inland upriver, one def and one prob, but I reckon both too advanced in moult to be the pristine bird below.

Nice reminder in the kitchen this morning that godwits aren’t the only thing with a long sticky out bit on their head.

How nice- not as exciting as a new c-ring combo, but after more than 50 years on and off watching godwits at Stutton Mill something interesting has popped up. If it sticks, will prob feed on Essex shore on the falling tide, back to Suffolk a couple of hours after low tide and into roost.#UKbirding

Hot out there. Curlew panting to keep cool on the roost- light dinging their open beaks. #BirdArt

Been flogging around some hawkerish spots in the hot to check for Southern Migrant Hawkers last few days and returned to find one buzzing about my chimney just now.

Welcome back to Stour godwit ORW in a flock of adults fresh-in but postponing the moment when they have to crank up their salt glands and get back to estuary life: tip-off today (thanks Adam Gretton) that they are camped out on freshwater 10Km inland.

Hot up in the Brecks on SC duty this week- here's an adult hiding inside a thistle and a near-fledgie that just can't resist upping periscope for a look.

Briefly back on the paint- finished off this one from April of Pied Wags feeding on insects disturbed by the Brents like egrets in cattle #BirdArt

Brent RDNK sticking it out on the river until at least 28th May, not for the first time. Quite a thought that a heavily upholstered black goose has now experienced 30 degrees C in both the UK (2026) and Siberia (in the mad Arctic spring of 2021). #UKbirding

Incredible views of a migrating Common Quail as it flew past the ship in the English Channel! @sophieshrike.bsky.social

Every cloud has a silver lining- here's about half of flock of 175-200 Swifts lumped by the rain and cold onto a farm res. in the Brecks this afternoon. #UKbirding

Tackling the thorny question of when a footnote should go before the punctuation rather than after. Top answer is about birds, but not by a birder I suspect. #ornithology

greeted by a Ptarmigan on the veranda when we got back to the hut from today’s wadering in Iceland

Dragged out owling in Constable country and ironically my thermal makes Stratford st Mary church look like it was painted by Turner instead.

Time to call a halt on a paint of a juv Roughleg boinging up and down on thin thorn branch before I am tempted to tinker about with it. I miss these chaps more than any other mild winter no-show I can think of. #BirdArt

The usual parade of the faithful on the godwit front- here's Woofer still with some moult to go. Well over 90% of the c-ringed godwits since beginning of Feb have prev. history on the river. #UKbirding #Ornithology

Funny thing how often you see a pic of WB Diver with the tip of its lower mandible broken- my pet theory is that they stub it flushing flatfish but it is fair to say that this is unsubstantiated through personal observation.

A quick skid of ink over some Knot feeding back-to-the wind on Thursday. Might need to invest in a thinner brush. #BirdArt

I can't keep up with this weather- filthy now but here's an Avocet on the Stour at teatime yesterday in clear and calm looking more than a bit @richardallenart.bsky.social #BirdArt

I've been trying to get this old Knot with faded flag read all season- finally brought it to book in the last of the light this eve as it pottered about in the godwit roost behind the Co-op. Turns out it is my old mucker LUP ringed as a 3CY+ in 2009. So now in at least its 20th year. #ornithology

First trip off patch up the Suffolk coast for ooh i dunno how long this AM- here's at Chinese Water Deer and a Tundra Bean Goose sticking their heads up at same moment. #BirdArt

Not sure if taking dodgy record shots is genetic, but just got some nifty pics from my non-birding daughter of Buller's Shearwaters knocking a heart-shaped hole into a baitball.

flat calm once again on the Stour - GND in the reflection of the clocktower

Just to share the joy of a drake Smew on patch at Alton- the last one a few years ago had felt like a last chance to see already. Not the full set of white head plumes on this chap, but pearls of water on its back when it upped from dive. #BirdArt

Great joy to have R N Grebe in the mighty Stour area this afternoon (ta @esbr-essex.bsky.social ) - here's a pencilling of its resting head shape. #BirdArt

Still tiddling about with GND images from earlier in the week- a happy thing is that they have black stripes down the quills of their axillaries (armpit feath'rs) like the splayed slats of an Adirondack chair #BirdArt

Lovely Barn Owl asleep in the sun this morning with tail fanned and primaries resting on the deck #BirdArt

A wild Sunday PM ride through BOU 58. Adrenalin levels still subsiding after changing Eurasian Hoopoe to Common Hoopoe in the mighty Stour area collective list. Now for the grand re-ordering- looks like Ruddy Duck grabs top spot on all our lists, even if re-badged as Cat C6.

Not a field sketch that's for sure, but just pencilling out a top nice thing from the Stour today- wind lifting the nape of a Black-throated Diver enough to make a white crescent from the underlay. #BirdArt

Not sure if vid. works on repeat, but anyway this should be one of the juv GNDs on the Stour this week losing its rag with a fish way too big to swallow and hammering it with its beak. #BirdArt

Here's a backlit GND from the Stour earlier in the week. Beak open between dives. #BirdArt