Tim Jukes

Seeing Purple Sandpipers on their breeding grounds was top motivation for #Svalbard - love these little guys and often wonder where they go after UK winter. Honoured to see ~20 & found one with 4 chicks on final day! Mission accomplished 👍. Hope they survived the Arctic Skuas 😬

Morning around WWT Slimbridge. Zeiss Hide: 3 Little Stint & Marsh Harrier. Kingfisher Hide: 12 Ruff. Hogarth Hide: male Marsh Harrier & Green Sandpiper. Estuary Tower: 32 White-fronted Goose #GlosBirds

WWT Tack Piece from Stephen Kirk: 32 White-fronted Goose now on site. 5 unringed Crane, 150 Canadas. #GlosBirds

WWT Robbie Garnett: the 2 fresh-in European White-fronted Goose on Tack Piece #GlosBirds

WWT Mid Point: 2 fresh-in White-fronted Goose flew in at 09:00, landed on the Dumbles. 664 Golden Plover, 2 Spotted Redshank, 3 Stonechat, Reed Bunting, Mipit, Skylark, Peregrine, 3 Roe Deer. Estuary walkway: Hare, Fox, Raven

Nice mini trip to Portland/Weymouth. Pelagic trip cancelled, but Red-backed Shrike, Little Owl and lots of auk, Gannet & Kittiwake at the Bill; breaching Bluefin Tuna too. Fresh in Dark-bellied Brent Geese at Ferrybridge and very showy Grey Plover at Lodmoor.

WWT Zeiss Hide: Pectoral Sandpiper still at 16:30. Also Wood Sandpiper. #GlosBirds

WWT Mid Point: Low tide. 3 Grey Plover and a Turnstone (awful pic 🤣). Spoonbill. 22 Cranes (18 on Estuary, family of 4 to North). 2 Red Kite, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine & Kestrel. #GlosBirds

WWT Zeiss Hide: 10 Cattle & 1 Great Egret, 2 Golden Plover & a Knot amongst Lapwing, Pink-foot with Canadas. Still 16 Ruff, 3 Snipe, Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, 3 Black-tailed Godwit. Marsh Harrier & Kestrel. @GlosBirds

WWT Mid Point. Beautiful morning. Spoonbill, 6 Ringed Plover, 13 Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ross’s & Pink-foot with Barnacles, Great & 3 Little Egret, 4 Pintails, Crane, 35 Curlew, confiding Meadow Pipit #GlosBirds

WWT Zeiss Hide: Arctic Skua Northbound at 11:25. 3 Knot with 95 Black-tailed Godwit. Peregrine hunting Avocet, making very lucky escape! #GlosBirds

Lunar eclipse from last Friday, 28/8/26. Didn’t realise solar and lunar eclipses usually come in pairs: solar eclipse at new moon as the Moon’s shadow is cast onto Earth; lunar eclipse at full moon as the Earth’s shadow is cast onto the Moon. Syzygetic! 🧐 🌞 🌗 🌍 🌓

WWT Mid Point: Excellent birding post high tide, as mud flats re-revealed giving close views. Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Grey Plover, Knot, 6 Turnstone, many Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling & Curlew #GlosBirds

WWT Rushy: 6 Spotshank, 4 Greenshank Knott: 15 Little Egret Walkway: 2 Y Wag, 2 Stonechat Mid Point: 55 Curlew, 2 Oycs, 19 L. Egret, 5 Pintail, 15 Teal, 110 Shelduck, 300+ small waders, mainly Ringed Plover w Dunlin + few Sanderling. Also Little Stint & Knot. 140 BHG #GlosBirds

Great birding at WWT Zeiss Hide over high tide: 329 Ringed Plover, 110 Dunlin, Little Stint, 2 Turnstone, Wood Sandpiper, Greenshank, 7 Snipe, 2 bp Golden Plover, Spoonbill, 15 Avocet, 4 unringed Crane, 3 Great Egret. #GlosBirds

WWT Mid Point: At least 207 Ringed Plover & 90 Dunlin (96 & 21 at high tide), 221 Curlew, 3 Oystercatcher, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Turnstone, 6 Common Sandpiper, Little Egret, 2 Heron, 3 Yellow Wagtail over. Ross’s Goose w Barnacles. Esc’d Flamingo. #GlosBirds

Another fab ringing story. Spotted this Long-tailed Skua nr Ny-London (79°N); a study bird for the Norwegian Inst. Nature Research (Gilg et al 2013). Geolocators show wintering near S Africa (35°S), travelling 44-54,200 km per year! Think this bird is 16 yo = ~0.8 million km! 🤯

Love getting ringing histories back. Meet ‘DSJ’, ringed in Ny-Alesund as gosling 7/24 (79°N). Wintered on the Solway 2/25 & nr Caerlaverock 1/26 (55°N). Seen in Longyearbyen 7/26 (78°N). That’s a 1700 mile commute, so this 2yo female has already racked up >7000 miles! Awesome 🙌

My efforts on the long-staying Long-tailed Shrike. Great to watch it catching various insects. Family of Grey Partridge nearby too. #GlosBirds

And finally from #Svalbard. 23 bird & 9 mammal sp. Lifers: King Eider, Brünnich’s Guillemot, Little Auk, Glaucous & Sabine’s Gull (80°N). No night, no trees & 3 flies in 8 days! Barnacle, Pink-foot, LT Duck, Eider, RT Diver & Artic Tern chicks. Proper Arctic awesomeness 🤯🧊🐻‍❄️🇳🇴