Matthew Pollock
@mattp1975.bsky.social
300 followers 430 following 140 posts
North Warwickshire birder - mainly on foot or by bike 🚲🦉🐦‍⬛🦆🤓 IT engineer💻 | metal vocalist 🎤 | gardener🌻| jogger🏃‍♂️| Green Party member🟢 #birdingbybike #lowcarbonbirding #warksbirding #ukbirding
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Last day of the break today. No sign of the YBW this morning in High Newton.
Nice potter around Craster this morning, then I headed up to Budle Bay this afternoon.
Highlights - 3x Red-breasted Merganser, 5x Knot, 10x Sanderling, several thousand Barnacle Geese. #NEBirding
Reposted by Matthew Pollock
Zoe's illness grounded holiday activities today, so I spent most of the day birding on foot from the cottage.
64 sp. for the day. Highlights - Yellow-browed Warbler still, though elusive - Newton Links, 30 Twite - Long Nanny, 16x Razorbill, 6x Common Scoter, 3x RT Diver #NEBirding #LowCarbonBirding
Cracking start to the day with a Yellow-browed Warbler nr Newton Steads car park. Also 27x Gannet past north from the beach.
Stag Rocks - 7x Purple Sandpiper
Holy Island - was way too busy
Low Newton - Pec Sand still, 4x Ruff.
Couldn't dig out any Willow Tit despite a good search #NEBirding
A quick walk from the cottage this morning produced 4x RT Divers c100m out in Beadnell Bay. Called in at Beadnell for a couple of hours this afternoon - Arctic Tern, 4x Razorbill, 3x RT Diver, 14x Turnstone, 2x Grey Plover, 3x Golden Plover, 3x Rock Pipit, 2x Gannet, 2x Harbour Porpoise #NEBirding
Superb. What great places to have on your doorstep. Hopefully I'll be able to have one of them as my local patch in the next couple of years.
Hi Gary, hope you're well.
Here until Friday, may well pop back to Newton Pool during the week. Thanks for the heads up👍🏻
Today, took in some places I didn't get chance to visit on previous hols - Cullernose Pt, Druridge Bay NR and Longhoughton.
Longhoughton proved best bird wise - 30x Barnacle Geese, Twite, 5x RT Diver, c300 Golden Plover, 6x Grey Plover. Rounded off the day with a Barn Owl - Newton Steads #NEBirding
Decent start to our week away in Northumberland.
Pectoral Sandpiper still - Low Newton Pool, c20 Twite - Long Nanny.
Other coastal goodies inc. - RT Diver, 3x Guillemot, c300 PF Geese, c200 Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Gannet, Rock Pipit, 4x Dunlin, c20 Ring Plover, Common Scoter #NEBirding
Reposted by Matthew Pollock
Astonishing advance by the Greens, astonishing implosion of Labour. When will Starmer's government get the message that it is destroying its base with deeply unpopular, rightwing policies?

By chasing Reform, it legitimises the far right while delegitimising itself.
Latest poll puts Greens just two points behind Labour. When I said we weren't here to be disappointed in Labour but to replace them, I meant it.

Join us and let's make hope normal again.

join.greenparty.org.uk
Reposted by Matthew Pollock
ME/CFS is a devastating condition that has long been denied, dismissed, psychologised and underdiagnosed. Research is at last starting to catch up with it, with glimmers of hope for those who have been left untreated for so long.
There's a huge BUT coming ...🧵
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Scientists develop first ‘accurate blood test’ to detect chronic fatigue syndrome
Research could offer hope for ME patients – but some experts urge caution and say more studies needed
www.theguardian.com
An extended #localpatch walk this morning from Kingsbury Firing Range to Kingsbury Wood in search of Stonechat.
Found a pair along the dried out ditch that runs through the site - sp #89 for the site list. Other birds of note - c50 Skylark, c75 Linnet, c50 Mipit
#lowcarbonbirding #warksbirding
Reposted by Matthew Pollock
Greta Thunberg along with hundreds of others is being kept in an Israeli prison where she is forced to stay in a cell crawling with bedbugs, refused food and water, and forced to take photographs holding Israel flags.

But the West does nothing as Israel tortures its citizens.
Reposted by Matthew Pollock
I think the genocide is stoking tension, you clattering twat of a charisma void.
A long sought after site ✅ came today, by way of a Common Redstart in the public footpath hedge at Kingsbury Firing Range.
Personal site list now up to 87 species.
Other birds of note - 20+ Skylark, 100+ Linnet, Treecreeper, Meadow Pipit
#localpatch #warksbirding #lowcarbonbirding
Shustoke Reservoir this morning - Dunlin & Ruff - both at the west end. Quiet otherwise #warksbirding #localpatch
Nice to be back out on the #localpatch this pm after 3 days stuck indoors painting. All change bird wise - last few Common Terns gone, along with the steady passage of hirundines from K'bury South. Green Sand replaces the lingering Common Sand.
K'bury Range - 60+ Mipit, 70+ Linnet new #warksbirding
A few bits on passage through the patch this weekend.
3x Whinchat - Seeney Lane, Marston (Cuttle Mill Farm/HS2 footpath) yesterday, Wheatear - Seeney Lane, Marston (Marston Lakes/HS2) this evening. #warksbirding #birdingbybike
Went out #birdingbybike this afternoon looking for local Whinchat. Didn't find any, so headed up to #middletonlakes
Highlights - Spotted Redshank, 2x Curlew Sandpiper, Water Rail, Peregrine, Ruff, 4x LRP, 3x Snipe, 5x Black-tailed Godwit.
KWP - Yellow-legged Gull
#ukbirding #lowcarbonbirding
Shustoke Reservoir - Ruff, 4x Common Sandpiper, 2x Raven
Whitacre Heath NR - 2x Spotted Flycatcher, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff #ukbirding #localpatch
Point blank views of a smart looking Ruff this morning at Shustoke Reservoir. Not a bird I've seen at the site before. The receding water levels and exposed shoreline likely bringing the waders in. 3x Common Sandpiper also #ukbirding #localpatch
Probably 40 or so there today. All waders are concentrated near the Reedbed hide. The scrapes from the other hides are all completely dry
Visit to #RSPBFramptonMarsh today. Water levels extremely low, so number of birds on the reserve massively reduced.
Still, managed a few good bits - 7x Little Stint, 2x Marsh Harrier, Ruff, Whooper Swan, Peregrine, 5x Dunlin, 2x Yellow Wag, Greenshank, Redshank. LRP, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover