@btoshropshire
Regional account for the British Trust for Ornithology in Shropshire. If you'd like to help with surveys or to find out more about BTO's work in Shropshire please send a direct message or contact bto.shropshire@gmail.com Follow the #Shropshirebirds feed!
3cy Caspian Gull (centre) with wings raised showing P10 mirrors, amongst Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls
The eighth #CaspianGull of the year was in the Battlefield gull field this morning, a large and advanced 3cy shining through the gloom. Who knows how many individuals daily rather than weekly visits would have produced #shropshirebirding #ukbirding
A Sparrowhawk perches on a branch showing its barred underparts and yellow eye. Wording below reads: Can you help monitor raptors in Wales?
1/ We need you to help us monitor raptors in Wales! 🦅 You choose your survey patch, like the route you enjoy walking each week, and the raptors you want to record. It’s as easy as that! Find out more and take part ➡️ bit.ly/CudyllCymru #BirdingWales
More preparation work underway for the upcoming season! 🐦🌿
We’ve been out at Cound Stank, Shropshire, installing dipper boxes to help support these incredible birds. Some of the locations weren’t exactly ideal, due to the flood risk. Fingers crossed.
It’s always special to connect with these sea ducks inland. Most seem to migrate from the Irish Sea to the North Sea non-stop overnight.
As well as the Priorslee bird there were eight on The Mere (Ellesmere) on Saturday, with reports from seven other West Mids sites.
#ShropshireBirding
3 seemingly unringed adult Common Cranes in a marsh
Up up and away
Another home from work diversion allowed me to catch another of #shropshirebirding recent purple patch with the 3 Cranes on the Weald Moors north of Telford until they got up at 1400 and headed SE until lost to view. @belvidebirding.bsky.social next? #ukbirding
An image of a male Greenfinch. It has an olive green body, some yellow on its wings and a sturdy, flesh coloured beak.
(1/) The twittering, wheezy song of Greenfinch can now be heard in many areas. It is sometimes combined with a display flight, where males fly around in circles whilst they deliver their song. @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social #Ornithology #CitizenScience
A graphic promoting the training event, with an image of a male Reed Bunting on a flowering Hawthorn branch.
Our friends in @btocymru.bsky.social BTO are running a free Breeding Bird Survey training event at Llandrindod Lake on 28 March. This survey is incredibly valuable for conservation, but takes just a few hours to do!
Open to the #ShropshireBirding community, too! Click on the link to sign-up.
A reminder about tomorrow's SOS talk by Dawn Balmer. Should be a fascinating evening!
A fascinating, thought provoking paper by @btobirds.bsky.social researchers. Accessible and well worth reading.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great work by Charlotte and Callum, we’ve heard very positive things about the event from Marches birders 👏
Red Male Crossbill amongst the branches of a tree
Green Female Crossbill amongst the branches of a tree
Crossbills at Haughmond Hill #photography #birds #ukwildlife #shropshirebirds #Nature #wildlife #birdphotography #ukbirding
A show garden to look out for if you go to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival (7-10 May): "Lifted by Birds is a peaceful, nature‑rich garden designed to support British birdlife" in partnership with the British Trust for Ornithology's @bto-gbw.bsky.social project.
rhsmalvern.co.uk/whats-on/gar...
Great work by WMRG and the person who reported the sighting. If you see a colour-ringed bird, or can read the number on a metal ring, the place to report it is ring.ac
#ShropshireBirding
As screenshot of a web page promoting Dawn's talk. The text reads "Wednesday, 4 March, 2026 7:15 pm – (approx) 9:15 Rare Breeding Birds in the UK and Bird Atlas 2027-31 with Dawn Balmer with a short introductory talk on 50 Years of the Shropshire Rookeries Project by John Tucker Originally from Shropshire, Dawn is Head of Surveys at the BTO, Secretary of the European Bird Census Council and Chair of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel. Her many roles also include Director of British Birds and Editorial Board Member of British Birds and Trustee of the Eric Hosking Charitable Trust. Dawn is a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee and is a keen birdwatcher, ringer, general naturalist and enjoys photography. Dawn will be providing an update from the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, highlighting recent trends, key species developments, and the ongoing efforts to monitor and protect the UK’s rarest breeding birds. She will also introduce plans for the launch of the next Breeding Bird Atlas with data collection set to begin in 2027. This major national project aims to build on previous atlases by using new technologies, expanding volunteer participation, and delivering vital insights to support future bird conservation."
If you missed the BTO Conference today there's another chance to hear from BTO this Wednesday (4 March) when @debalmer.bsky.social will be talking about Rare Breeding Birds in the UK and Bird Atlas 2027-31, in Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury.
👉 www.shropshirebirds.com/index/indoor...
#ShropshireBirds
A PowerPoint slide showing an ornithologist about to abseil down a sea cliff, with the speaker and some of the audience also visible.
The final PowerPoint slide of the 2026 BTO conference with the speaker and some of the audience also visible.
#BTOConference2026 was an excellent day of "birds, science and people", opened brilliantly by Ieuan Evans, and perfectly closed by James Pearce-Higgins.
Lots of hard work goes into making this sort of event such a success; it was a great credit to the @btobirds.bsky.social team.
Photograph of BTO Conference attendees & staff during tea break
We’re heading into the final sessions of the afternoon at the BTO Annual Conference here in Northampton - it’s been a really great day!
Thanks to all the speakers for their inspirational & enlightening talks, and to all the attendees for their energy & enthusiasm!
#BTOAnnualConference2026
The opening slide for the BTO Conference 2026 in Northampton.
#BTOConference2026 is go!
Looking forward to some great talks and being among like-minded people for a day 🙂
A screenshot of the Bluesky profile page for BTO Carmarthenshire and Gower, showing a small circular image of a Puffin and a larger header shot of a Black-tailed Godwit.
Great to see BTO Carmarthenshire and Gower join the volunteer presence on Bluesky, alongside @eastglambto.bsky.social and us. Unless we've missed another @btobirds.bsky.social Regional Network account?
One for the #birdingwales community to follow!
👉 @carmgowerbto.bsky.social
A collage of photos showing BTO Bird Camp activities, including a group of young people looking at plants, a young person drawing at a table, a young person looking through binoculars and a close-up of a caterpillar. In the middle is an orange circle with white wording that reads: Bird Camps 2026. The BTO Youth logo is above this. Wording in a box at the bottom reads: Swanage. Southern England. 17-19 July. In collaboration with Birds of Poole Harbour.
There's still time to apply for BTO Bird Camps if you're aged between 11-17 ➡️ www.bto.org/birdcamps
This year our Southern England Bird Camp is run in collaboration with @harbourbirds.bsky.social. We are delighted to be working alongside them to make this year's camp an unforgettable experience!
Local-ish Dippers have started nest building 🪺 #photography #birds #ukwildlife #shropshirebirds #Nature #wildlife #birdphotography
There's less than a week to go in the Winter Bird Survey!
We hope you've enjoyed it!
Please submit your data no later than 30 April ➡️ app.bto.org/bbs/public/l...
A huge thanks to all who have helped us collect important information on the numbers and distribution of the UK’s wintering birds.
Maps of Wales show all sites for which records were submitted to BirdTrack and eBird in 2024 (left) and 2025 (right), using the central grid reference of each user's site
Taking a dive into the wealth of data produced by users of @birdtrack.bsky.social and @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social eBird in Wales in 2025 for @birdsinwales.bsky.social Report.
Number of users, records and time spent were up almost 20% on 2024. Thank you @btobirds.bsky.social for the data pack.
#ShropshireBirding
A poster showing a Red Grouse and a Curlew. Text reads: New helpers are wanted for two bird surveys on Long Mynd, and another survey by 10 Community Wildlife Groups covering west and south Shropshire, please. If you did any of them in 2025, you will be contacted directly. If you’ve not done any of them before, or you’re interested in joining another survey, please contact the named person at their email address. Red Grouse Survey Red Grouse breed on the upper heathland plateau. Most Grouse territories are within sight and hearing distance of the road along the top, between the Gliding Station and the Shooting Box car park. The display flight is noisy, conspicuous and unmistakeable, and can be observed over long distances, so this is a suitable project for anyone interested in birds or conservation. No special knowledge or skills are needed. Counts will take place on the Long Mynd every Thursday evening between 2nd April and 14th May. You go to a designated watchpoint, and stay there from 90 minutes before sunset until 15 minutes after it. You don’t need to come on them all. Come as often as you like. Please volunteer even if Thursdays are difficult, as counts are often cancelled because of forecast bad weather, and re-arranged for a Monday or Tuesday. A Project Briefing meeting will be held for new participants on Thursday, 26th March, at 7.30pm at the National Trust Tearoom in Cardingmill Valley, and there will be a practical on-the-job training session, explaining how to go about the survey, and record what you see, on the first date, 2nd April, for people who want to come. If you’re interested in helping, get further information (and a Participants form) from shropscwgs.org.uk/strettons-area-wildlife-group/long-mynd-red-grouse-project/ or Joe Gomme (joegommegrouse@gmail.com) Community Wildlife Group Curlew and other birds survey These Community Wildlife Group surveys look for Lapwing and Curlew. All 10 Groups need more helpers, please. If you can recognise…
A poster showing a Whinchat. Text reads: Long Mynd Breeding Bird Survey Surveyors attempt to record all of the main upland species (including Snipe, Curlew, Grey Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Redstart, Whinchat, Stonechat, Wheatear and Reed Bunting). Maps are provided, and surveyors mark on them the location of all of each of the target species seen, and a code (similar to Bird Atlas codes) indicating the activity and level of breeding evidence observed. Previous bird surveys have been carried out in 1994-98, 2006-09, and 2021-23. Surveys were also attempted in 2024 and 2025, but coverage was inadequate to get good results from all valleys. More surveyors are needed for 2026 and 2027. Habitat changes are having an important effect, as bracken and gorse are both increasing and moving up the valley sides and onto the heathland plateau, probably driven by climate change, and sheep grazing also appears to be having an impact on the heather-bilberry mosaic which is important for several species, including Grouse and Whinchats. Each surveyor takes on all or part of one of the main valleys and the immediately adjacent plateau, and covers it thoroughly at least three, preferably five, times between the very beginning of May and the end of June. Good ID skills are needed of all the target species, and to separate females from males if the sexes are different. It also involves walking on sheep tracks on the steep valley sides, as well as footpaths, so a good level of fitness is needed. People interested in helping should contact Leo Smith (leo@leosmith.org.uk). Further Information Anyone else interested in participating should contact Leo Smith (leo@leosmith.org.uk).
Details of three worthwhile surveys in S Shropshire.
Two are suitable for anyone (all welcome!) but the Long Mynd Breeding Bird Survey needs good ID skills and fitness, as it involves coverage of steep upper valleys, largely on sheep tracks.
More info: tinyurl.com/BTOShropshire
#ShropshireBirds
Quick update: at least two Russian White-fronted Geese were recorded at Bridgwalton Pool near Bridgnorth today, so we had a taste of Siberia as well as Iberia!
They do, like miniature ice picks! 🙂
We were hoping for Siberian geese this weekend, but our thoughts should have been for something warmer! 😎
Diving Pochard with a Lapwing soundtrack. Venus Pool #photography #birds #Nature #wildlife #ukwildlife #shropshirebirds #birdphotography
The big question for this weekend’s Core Count in the #ShropshireBirding area is…
Will any of the WeBS team record White-fronted Geese?!
National Nestbox Week 🐦
Different species have different nesting preferences. Providing a variety of cover gives #birds the best chance of success.
Keep reading to find out how some garden birds nest 👇
And remember: if you find a nest in your garden, report it to Nesting Neighbours 🪺
