Tom Lowe

Wow. Went out hoping the damp easterlies might produce a Black Tern, and found a BLACK KITE 💥 The first for #shropshirebirding hanging over Wood Lane landfill with 5 Red Kites, on view constantly for 2hrs! Absolutely awesome

Blowing a gale but so mild I had to put the trap on. Result: 18/10 including our 3rd White-point (county total still seemingly in single figures) and eight Figure-of-🎱 #salopmoths #teammoth

Highlight of a couple of hours from the #salopobs garden first thing was a flock of 15 Long-tailed Tits that spiralled high overhead before setting off south across the fields! Also 4+ Brambling with 178 Chaffinches, and an ad YLG amongst a roost flight of 3160 LBBGs 😍 #vismig #ukbirding

The dazzlingly bright, practically full Hunter's Moon this evening, with Saturn sidekick #phonescoped

The #Norfolk Nutcracker showed wonderfully well this morning in #Mundesley. Please donate to this JustGiving collection for the local RNLI station if you can as a thanks to the local residents www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding... #Norfolkbirding #UKbirding

The Mundesley Slender-billed Nutcracker was feeding on Wasps, which it picked off the gravel driveway. Many of the Dutch birds have been photographed eating wasps recently. Clearly a major autumnal food source. #NorfolkBirding

Today, a Short-eared Owl landed on my car! Watched coming in high from the east on my survey site in SW Lincs (having crossed the North Sea in recent days?), it eventually touched down for a second before seeing me and carrying on. Magic! 👀 A male Hen Harrier was more aloof #lincsbirding #ukbirding

A superb 5 day trip to Islay guiding with Nature Scotland, best of 112sp inc: finding this smart Richardson's Cackler and a Russian Whitefront. Plus Juv Snow Goose, Snow Buntings, GW Egret, Seaducks, waders and Geese galore!

There must be so many invading geese in the country. Checked another flock of Pinks today and turned up another pair of Tundra Beans and 4 Russian Whitefronts #goolefields #yorkshirebirding #ukbirding

A remarkable early influx of Tundra Beans and Russian Whitefronts along the east coast today, and the first two flocks of Pinks I checked held a pair of each! #yorkshirebirding #ukbirding

Fall conditions at work on the Yorkshire Wolds this morning, with a Woodcock over the car, 2 Ring Ouzels in a flock of 20+ Blackbirds, Bramblings, Redwings #loveautumn #yorkshirebirding #ukbirding

The Sunday morning sky was full of birds at #salopobs with totals of 13,550 Woodpigeons SW, 2,200 Redwings (at last), the first 84 Fieldfares, 420 Starlings, 570 Jackdaws, Brambling, 3 Pintail, 8 Wigeon, Great Egret... #ukbirding #vismig #loveautumn

After the excitement of yesterdays SEO over Marcle Ridge, today it was all about Woodpigeons with a site record of 123,000 SW, also 245 Chaffinches, 107 Redwings, 14 Song Thrush and 121 Starlings on the continental line, with @williamlambourne.bsky.social and Andy Hanby #patchbirding

Fantastic autumn pick n mix from the #salopobs garden today: the new flock of Corn Buntings climbed to 💥23💥, 9 newly arrived Whoopers flew south, 5,660 Woodpigeons SW in 90mins, a random Shelduck with 5 Gyps, and the first Goosanders and Goldies of the season #loveautumn #ukbirding

Two quite different Merveilles du Jour this morning, one minty fresh and the other blackened and yellowed with age... #teammoth #salopmoths

More wader #vismig magic today with a flock of 10 Grey Plovers west over inland SW #lincsbirding! Also another Clouded Yellow and some nice Grey Partridge views #ukbirding

Back to oddly warm nights, and 64/18 in the mothtrap including 5 Vestals, 4 Figure-of-8s, 3 Mervs, 2 SMWs and a battered Pearly Underwing that still managed to get away from me! #teammoth #salopmoths

What an epic late hour of the birding day ~ an exceptional count of 16+ Caspian Gulls onto Pat's Pool (a Cley record) - total was 10 1st winters, 2 2nd winters, 1 3rd winter & 3 adults. Also 5 michahellis & 7 Med Gulls. The 4 Glossy Ibis dropped in around 6.20. Superb 🙂 #cleybirds #norfolkbirding

A great day around the county started with WeBS counts and assists, and a mega flock of 157 sinensis, then home to tractors and gulls in front of #salopobs with a 3cy YLG and LBBG rings from Germany and the Netherlands 👌 #ukbirding

I missed the main event, and clouds played havoc with the encore, but nice to see the #aurora again from the back garden last night

Another juv Peregrine today, this one caught its own Woodpigeon but lost it immediately to a Buzzard. Pinks everywhere, more Whoopers south, and my first Redwings of the autumn, 1,020 pouring west over the wolds with 9 Jays #yorkshirebirding #vismig #ukbirding

The day cleared into a fantastic slice of autumn on the Yorkshire Wolds, with southbound Pinks and Whoopers, a SEO in from high east, and some very showy Peregrines 😍 #loveautumn #yorkshirebirding #ukbirding

...down at the pink Vestal club... 💗 Of an amazing 10 Vestals this morning, 7 were deep pinks, maybe born in the garden?! The other surprise amongst 88/23 was this apparent July Belle! In October. Unless anyone has any more autumnal suggestions?! #teammoth #salopmoths @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Two county rares amongst a catch of 72/15 was a good result from a cloudy night at #salopobs. Scarce Bordered Straw and Delicate, both lovely moths and immaculate #teammoth #salopmoths @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

October getting into its stride at #salopobs. More #nocmig Common Scoters and the first Merveille du Jour last night, then a gorgeous 50spp morning including the first push of 2,580 #vismig Woodpigeons, raptors, Skylarks, Mipits, buntings... #loveautumn #ukbirding ebird.org/checklist/S3...

A night that keeps on giving! #LongMyndHike #LongMynd #ChurchStretton #Shropshire Would love to have been taking these with @saloplarus.bsky.social !

After such a beautifully clear day, tonight's sky is unsurprisingly magical. So many stars (but still no Redwings). Thanks as ever to @csmaff.bsky.social for the inspiration to step outside and #lookup

Fourth garden Clouded Yellow this autumn/year/ever this afternoon, a Wheatear on nextdoor's roof, and a few hirundines still trickling south #loveautumn #salopobs #ukbirding

Corn Bunting has become more and more regular at #salopobs over the last few years, but this morning's flock of 14 doubled the previous high #ukbirding

A Northern Waterthrush tagged in Cape May, NJ left after sunset on Sep 11. Two weeks later it was over Colombia! Jamaica -> Colombia included ~800 km of open Caribbean. 3,082 km so far! @birdscanada.bsky.social @originalstu.bsky.social #MotusWTS #BirdMigration #ornithology @nature.org

Third garden record of Clouded Yellow this afternoon, all this month but this was the only one to sit still. Morning #vismig produced 474 Mipits and 2 Swallows #loveautumn #salopobs #ukbirding

Lovely lunar halo out there tonight, first one I've seen for a long time #loveautumn #moon

Vestals have taken on the baton from SMWs in terms of daily occurrence in the #salopobs mothtrap, although there were two of each today in the sea of Lunar Underwings #salopmoths #teammoth

Red sky in the morning, gloriously-sunny-and-freakishly-warm-for-September warning. Migrant Song Thrushes at #salopobs first thing, and another flock of #nocmig Common Scoters overnight #ukbirding

A Delicate (our 3rd, Shropshire's ~8th) was this morning's highlight amongst a sea of 126 Lunar Underwings and the first SMW for a while #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40

What a day. One of the best Leach's days for years. 36 in 2.5hrs for me, and reports of lots more all day, wish I could have stayed. A fully-spooned pale adult Pom was the icing on the cake #seawatching #ukbirding #superseabirdsunday

This delightful adult Baird's Sand was a great find for a friend on a farm pond local to where I grew up yesterday, and it did the decent thing by remaining until I was passing today. Only 200m outside #shropshirebirding... #ukbirding

Magical morning on the Wirral with 36 Leach's Storm-petrels heading west into the wind, some more offshore than others 😍 #seawatching #superseabirdSunday

Watching and listening to Common Scoters on the coast the other day reminded me of another flock of #nocmig birds over #salopobs last week, the same night as a Turnstone, garden tick 💥153💥 our 20th species of wader! #ukbirding

Drizzly autumn morning at #salopobs produced the first Pinks of the year (11 NW), Marsh Tit, 740 LBBGs, 2 Yellow Wags, 4 Little Egrets west, 140 Swallows SW, Chiffs, raptors... #vismig #ukbirding

Pearly Underwing amongst the brown this morning. Still less than annual in Shropshire according to West Mids Moths #teammoth #salopmoths #vc40

More blue sky wader #vismig today when this Whimbrel merrily headed west over inland #lincsbirding farmland #ukbirding #loveautumn

The pink theme continued with another 6 Vestals 💖 this morning, and Small Mottled Willows passed 550 for the year 🤯 #salopmoths #teammoth #vc40 #notthesouthcoast

Roobarb! Shropshire's first Rosy Knot-horn made it through the rain last night along with a fresh Scarce Bordered Straw, 3 Vestals of varying flavours, 4 Angle Shades, 5 Silver Ys, SMW... #salopmoths #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Came home to find 2 ad YLGs behind #salopobs with 620 LBBGs and a plough. Not as good odds as #GooleFields (where these were taken), but nice to see after such a lean summer for them (not just me it seems, as mentioned in the latest @birdguides.bsky.social podcast) #lovegulls

#vismig gold this morning when 3 Barwits flew west over the East Yorkshire Wolds in a clear blue sky, presumably overlanding to the Irish Sea?! #yorkshirebirding #ukbirding

More East Yorkshire Casps today, 2cy, 1cy and something German in a field above Burton Agnes with 1,000 Herring Gulls #lovegulls #CaspianGull #yorkshirebirding

This lovely little Birch Mocha was new for me on #GooleFields today #teammoth

⚠️ First Pinks of the year alert ⚠️ 19 dropped onto Thorne Moors at dusk last night and these 16 have just lit up the blue sky over #GooleFields 😍 #loveautumn #skybluePinks #yorkshirebirding