Martin Reader

@WillHayCardiff @StephenMoss_TV I have always thought that Mr Farage should pronounce his name Faridge, as in Garidge rather than Garage as it will sound more English and less foreign and less posh, or is he perhaps secretly proud of a heritage that is not English?

Nigel Farage has called Welsh people “Foreign speakers” in a Cameo video. I hate to break it to you Mr Farage, but if you read a history book you would realise English is more foreign in the UK than Welsh. He said: “Gutted I couldn’t attend the wedding. I wanted to come, but I heard that half the guests were Welsh, and I don’t know. Who knows what would have happened with all those foreign speakers there. I don’t know.” This is at a time that his party are trying to convince people in Wales that they should elect them to the Welsh Parliament. Big credit to the Guardian for breaking this story: theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-int…

🌿 Planning Permission Secured for a 25-hectare Somerset wetland project with @WessexWater! Enhancing habitats, water quality, and visitor experiences. #SomersetLevels #WetlandRestoration #NatureRecovery #Conservation #HawkAndOwlTrust #WessexWater

Greys have their winter beauty and when sound accompanies sight they are intensified: the lark ascends and knows that changing light means spring is nearing. @DorsetBirdClub @SwannerySteve @DorsetWildlife

Not the best photo & you may need to zoom: approx 50-60 cattle egret adjacent to the Abbotsbury Portesham Railway path. I was thrilled to see half a dozen last year. ⁦@SwannerySteve⁩ ⁦@DorsetBirdClub⁩ ⁦@DorsetWildlife⁩

@WriterHannahBT Ridiculous argument from the housing secretary. If the average cost per metre square is £1800, and the average price of a swift box is £30, and you just add one per house, this adds just 1.16% to only one metre square of the house.

Apparently swift bricks are just too costly. Sorry guys, swifts& their 50 million year old existence& the category of most accessible urban birds, just isn’t worth the cost. Bye bye birdies. If you disagree tell steve.reed.mp@parliament.uk

@KemiBadenoch I think with pride at the way first a Conservative government and then this Labour government have supported Ukrainian refugees into university & gave them hope & an education for a post-war Ukraine. Why are these Gazan scholarships different? This policy direction saddens me.

Every single one of these students will be entitled to claim asylum once they arrive here, because of the ECHR. These students Labour are giving scholarships to never need to return to Gaza. Our laws are no longer fit for purpose. This is why we need to leave the ECHR and control our borders. It’s the only way we can decide who gets to stay in our country.

When cleaning a clock becomes performance art!

@SwannerySteve @DorsetBirdClub Yes please, it would be a lifer for me!

Anybody have any info on the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at Abbotsbury today, reported on the Dorset Bird News Blog? Potentially the first Abbotsbury record for 30 years! 🤯 @DorsetBirdClub

@OCranleighanCC And Yousef, Tommy & Adam all taught by Mrs Reader! She is very proud of them

For the second game at Guildford v Gloucestershire OC Alex French makes way for another OC, Tommy Ealham (Loveday 2022) who joins Adam Thomas and Yousef Majid. All three were in the 1st XI in 2022

@SwannerySteve @SightingDOR @DorsetWildlife We are just loving living in Abbotsbury with so many wildlife firsts for us!

@martinsreader @SightingDOR @DorsetWildlife There used to be a large population all the way along the Chesil Bank. I used to see them all the time during my tern wardening days in the 80s & regularly opposite the Swannery in the 90s. Still see a few but no where near as many 😕

Defying habitat expectations: a distant brown hare peacefully taking in the sea view on Abbotsbury beach this morning! @SightingDOR @DorsetWildlife @SwannerySteve

Congratulations to Will Barnicoat adding European u23 5000m bronze to his European Cross Country gold. Awesome performance @OldCranleighans @NorthHouseCran

@bbcnickrobinson The leaders of the US, Israel,Iran,Russia, China all over 70 & should have the benefit of wisdom & experience to lead for future generations. Oh for a Mandela who chose peace & reconciliation over power!

Woke at first light on Lowestoft beach to the news that the US has entered the war against Iran by bombing its nuclear facilities. Trump hopes that it will be enough to make the world safer & signal to the Iranians that they now need to make peace but war rarely follows the plan of those who wage it ….

@CSSportPhoto That’s brilliant news! Great to see them both doing so well!

Congratulations to Abi S (102*) and Flick H (5 for 6) on getting their names on the pavilion honours boards in yesterday's emphatic win over Hurst

@SwannerySteve Thank you so much. I was only re-reading @StephenMoss_TV ‘Wild Hares and Hummingbirds’ on the train yesterday & his comments on the loss of the Corn Bunting & thinking the one last year was my first ever. So good to hear & glimpse it bounce between the posts today.

@martinsreader Hi Martin, yeah it’s been back about a week. Just the one so far but a few last year and at least one pair bred successfully. They have also been back on the ridge behind the village in the last few years.

@SwannerySteve 90% sure there was a corn bunting in the fields adjacent to the Swannery just after 9 this morning where it was last year.

A brilliant account of VE Day at Cranleigh @BSAboarding @HMC_Org

Happy national dawn chorus day from Abbotsbury @DorsetBirdClub @Hawkandowluk @Natures_Voice @CranleighEco @SwannerySteve & thankfully no Empire stormtroopers were awake!

@DorsetWildlife just seen a stoat cross the path by Abbotsbury beacon: a gorgeous specimen with its black paintbrush prominent. First I have seen in Dorset. Sheep, skylarks & now stoats: 3 reasons to keep dogs on leads at the moment. @SwannerySteve @DorsetBirdClub

@RobertaBirder @WWTSlimbridge What a beauty! I have never seen one.

Summer must be here! The Summer Walkway @slimbridge_wild @WWTSlimbridge is open and the Bluethroat is back! #DodgyVid #GlosBirds #BirdsSeenIn2025