Steve Preddy on Bluesky

So … I’ve had enough of this miserable platform. The Nazi salute was the final straw. I’m over at the other place. @stevepreddy.bsky.social I’ll keep this account for now as an archive of past interactions, but won’t check in often, so best to contact me in other ways. 👋🏻

@DavidJIPrice Thanks. Can you DM me with a PIN showing which part of the park it was in and I’ll add it to the records map. Redstart is good for there too. You should be in with a chance of a few more migrants over the next few weeks.

@stevepreddy Yes sure that’s fine. I’m going to be focusing on this patch going forward. Already had some nice birds Common Sandpiper Redstart Linnet Chiffchaff And yesterdays Cetti’s I’m not sure who surveys this area for GOS but I would like to pick it up, if or when it is free.

Added Cetti’s to new patch list. It’s taken almost 12 months of settling in to new area but I’ve finally got to it. A variety of habitat which I’m hoping is going to produce some good birds #glebelands #gwentbirds

The Booted Eagle has just flown in down the valley towards the line of pines #Cornwallbirds

Read these slides.

42 years ago today, Fraggle Rock debuted. The theme song will always be a banger.

After an FOI dispute lasting 18 months I've finally obtained the official reasons Boris Johnson gave for peerages of Charlotte Owen & Ross Kempsell. The reasons cited for Owen seem thin, inadequate & lacking in evidence, leaving her peerage as a mystery rather than justifying it.

Happy New Year! We had a campaign break over Christmas & New Year but now we are back with over 2,500 signatures today, so far, on our petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Plz consider signing it: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/7000…

There’s an opportunity to bring about a ban on lead shot in the next few weeks. You can support a ban by emailing Steve Reed, the environment secretary, at the page below. Please also share here and on other social media. Thanks. act.wwt.org.uk/page/160992/ac… #gwentbirds

@01000011S Attempts at comedy involving mis-spelt shrikes and pungent Thai fruit is a bit too niche, clearly. You do what you like with your D(a)urian, just keep it away from me!😂 smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…

@01000011S Durian Shrike smells a bit fishy 😉

A new petition to end the Badger cull has been launched just moments ago. Please, if you care about wildlife, about decency, science, democracy, sign and repost this petition. We can’t sit by and allow tens of thousands more Badgers to be slaughtered ✍️ petition.parliament.uk/petitions/7003…

@CarlBovisNature My pro-capitalisation arguments from a few years ago in a thread here:

Should you capitalize bird names? 🤔 Should it be Kingfisher of kingfisher? 🐦 When I wrote my 100 Birds book, my proof reader said I shouldn't capitalize bird names, yet I still do it on social media because it looks better and easier to understand. What to you think?

NEW: Huge poll by More in Common finds the public support assisted dying by 5 to 1. Massive week for Parliament as it grapples with what could be the biggest social change in a generation.

Nearly 10K signatures on day 1! It's about time we binned off Driven Grouse Shooting, isn't it? Please add your name and share with others: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/7000…

@severnrover 4/4 For large gulls (Herring etc) you have to insert third or even fourth year plumages into the sequence. Note: this is greatly over-simplified. It’ll serve you for your photo cataloguing, but once you’ve done that, unlearn it and learn calendar year terminology instead. 🙂

@severnrover 3/ The same terminology applies to Common and Ring-billed (and Little). For most Black-headed Gulls you (usually) won’t see any difference between second years and adults so it goes directly from first-summer -> adult winter.

This photo was taken in July a few years ago, When ageing med gulls would this be classed as a juvenile or a first summer ? or is that the same thing ?. trying to put some age pics together of all my gull photos but there appears to be much confusion in online photos. #gulls

@GmusicV Don’t eat the curly biscuits!!

Green Woodpecker has been back in my Garden this week. Love finding evidence, whether it’s holes in the ant hills or these iconic curly white biscuits they leave behind lol