Ed Keeble
@edkeeble
Bird artist. Colour-ring reader.
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
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.
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
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.
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
A bit of vismig from 200+ years ago here in NE Essex. I was thinking it would be nice to time travel back there but then I saw that even then, they had to get up at 5AM to partake of it.
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.
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
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
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