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Steve Dudley

@stevedudley.bsky.social

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · Sep 23

I've long been a gear geek - optics, tripods, clothing - I'm obsessed with it all. I've helped design optics, jackets and more and I love to share and hear others' views on their birding gear. So, I've set up this Feed, Birding Gear, for just that. Tag your posts #BirdingGear to contribute!

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 7h

Little to write home about from today’s #WestrayBirding. A handful of Wheatears and a lone Swallow are hanging in. But no other passerine migrants. The best from my WeBS count was this showy Grey Plover in one of the bays. By no means common on Westray. I average a couple a year.

Grey Plover stood on a beach, Westray, Orkney Islands, 12 October 2025

A medium-sized monochrome wader/shorebird. Upperparts a chequerboard white on black, grey streaking to chest and white underparts. A chequerboard crown, wide pale grey stripe above the eye. Grey cheeks. A short black bill and long black legs. Stood on a pale sandy patch of beach surrounded by small grey-green rocks poking out of the sand strewn with green and rusty brown coloured seaweeds. The lover had a tiny near opaque crab in its bill.

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 10h

Wow! Wow! Wow! Incredible. And ended up with four 🤯 Congrats!

Reposted by Steve Dudley

Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 20h

"Microplastics have been detected in the brains of dementia patients, and in arterial plaques from people with heart disease"

And the response of the plastics industry is......

....to massively ramp up plastic production

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The plastic inside us: how microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and minds

The particles are in our blood, brains and guts – and scientists are only beginning to learn what they do

www.theguardian.com

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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 20h

If we'd set out to purposefully engineer the erasure of all forest ecosystems, we could scarcely have come up with better than a combination of sheep, goats, too many deer, and no natural predators.

Only nuking the whole place would have worked more effectively.

graysonb.bsky.social @graysonb.bsky.social · 20h

Yes but, goats 🐐 🐐 🐐

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JuanWild @juanwild.bsky.social · 20h

Zack Polanski vs Piers Morgan(video)..
#Britain..#Greens youtu.be/TnP0POzjtdA?...

Zack Polanski HUMILIATES Piers Morgan On His Own Show!

YouTube video by Bona Fide

youtu.be

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Mark Roberts @robertsmark.bsky.social · 1d

Happy #SocialistSunday everyone. Zack Polanski and the @greenparty.org.uk have done an excellent job of highlighting Farage’s nonsense of not knowing who Nathan Gill was.

Will follow back like-minded people.✊

#bbclaurak #bbcbreakfast

bsky.app/profile/zack...

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 1d

Glad to see Nigel Farage has finally remembered Nathan Gill, former leader of Reform in Wales - found guilty of taking bribes from Russia.

Maybe he'll now remember how much he took from Putin's propaganda broadcaster Russia Today for all his TV appearances when he was a MEP?

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 19h

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

Well, I am part Italian so that explains it 😉

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

Exactly. We have one at home (UK) and wouldn’t be without it. The only issue I have is that it doesn’t have a seat and you sit on the cold porcelain. Why? Just why?

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

Do yourself a favour and cut out the middle man/woman and throw it straight down the bog. It’s awful.

Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t think this has anything to do with the issues in this instance.

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

Personally it makes no sense to not combine them. It’s just extra work to work across two or more tabs, sheets or files. I see it as a fundamental aspect of my role to present the data to report writers in the simplest form possible. A single sheet.

Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

Last year I sifted out around 20k records before handing over to the writing team. Only my second year and I’m finding it easier and removing more each year. Before I took over the writing team had to work from half a dozen different files on different formats 🤦🏻‍♂️

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

That’s the majority of my role. I collate data from all sources and produce a single spreadsheet for the year. I work through manually deleting duplicates and other quality control. But I’m only handling c100k so it’s not a huge task like it would be for larger counties.

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

Not really. Mute breeds around the isles. Grey Heron a former breeder. But both are migrants here. I’ve seen these once each, both times heading south past the west headland here. I expected the four Mutes to be Whoopers so was surprised (latter seen regularly in-off).

Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

Mute Swan, Grey Heron.

Reposted by Steve Dudley

TG42Birder🇵🇸 @tg42birder.bsky.social · 1d

Unexpected birds (excluding rare seabirds) we’ve seen on a #Norfolkbirding seawatch:

Little Grebe
Coot
Red-legged Partridge
Temminck’s Stint
Red-necked Phalarope
Pec Sand
Black Stork
Eleanora’s Falcon (Hickling bird)

Anyone else got any weird ones?

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 1d

Limited liability is one of our weird silences. It's a massive free gift society makes to plutocrats, seldom remarked upon, let alone contested.
Shareholders should have to buy limited liability, like any other insurance. The insurers would then be liable. 🧵
www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Will UK taxpayers get their £122m back from PPE Medpro?

The high court told the company linked to Michelle Mone to pay up over the supply of defective gowns, but there appears no clear route to reclaim the funds

www.theguardian.com

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 1d

Ever since I finished Question Time, Reform have massively been on the attack.

Including a rant from Richard Tice entirely designed to distract from Reform and Russia.

Everyone should know about Nathan Gill, the bribes from Russia and the link to Reform.

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Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 1d

Yesterday, IUCN declared the Slender-billed Curlew to be extinct.
How did we let this happen?
What lessons are there for the future?
WaderTales blog based on paper by Graeme Buchanan et al
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/l...
#extinction #ornithology

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Jonas Algers @jonasalgers.bsky.social · 1d

Norway are facing Israel in the Football World Cup qualifiers today

The Oslo Tram Driver’s Union will be striking on the tram lines to the stadium in solidarity with the people of Palestine

www.nrk.no/stor-oslo/va...

Varsler kollektiv-streik i Oslo før Norge-Israel

Oslo Sporveiers Arbeiderforening varsler streik 11. oktober, samme dag som Israel og Norge spiller landskamp i fotball på Ullevaal Stadion. Hensikten er å vise støtte til Palestina. Én time før kampst...

www.nrk.no

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TG42Birder🇵🇸 @tg42birder.bsky.social · 1d

There may be a ceasefire in Gaza but while all the media talk will be of Israeli hostages, remember that Israel is also illegally occupying the West Bank, murdering, detaining, torturing and abusing Palestinians and stealing their land every day.

IDF Hannibal Brigade @hannibalbrigade.biz · 2d

Israelis are still murdering Palestinians in the West Bank and Israelis on Telegram still think that’s just great

Israeli Telegram @israeligram.observer · 2d

Source

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Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 3d

'Photographic ornithology'
How can bird photographers contribute to shorebird research?
New WaderTales blog based on paper by Winfried & Wolfgang Daunicht, published in Wader Study journal.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
#ornithology @waderstudy.bsky.social

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 2d

We have truly not yet figured out how to cope with a person or institution that is "aware" of climate change, "accepts the science", but then decides to continue actively worsening it anyway

We don't even have a word or a phrase for this!

theconversation.com/mark-carneys...

Mark Carney’s climate inaction is at odds with his awareness of climate change’s existential threat

Climate action no longer seems to be a priority for Prime Minister Mark Carney, despite his previous activism. This is bad news for Canadians and the climate.

theconversation.com

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