RSPB names its 2025 rollcall of 'celebrities and influencers' who help raise society's profile

                                        

Michaela Strachan - familiar presenter on TV wildlife shows

THE RSPB has published its annual list of 24 'celebrities and influencers' whom it believes to have done most to champion its cause.

It says the two dozen have "supported our work and helped to raise our profile".

In alphabetical order, they are:

 –Bill Bailey

 –Mya Bambrick

 –Bonner Black

 –Hannah Bourne-Taylor

 –Carl Bovis

 –Henry Day

 –Mike Dilger

 –George Hassall  

 –Aneeshwar Kunchala

 –Sam Lee

 –David Lindo

 –Kate MacRae

 –April Mayne

 –Dara McAnulty

 –David Oakes

 –Sophie Pavelle

 –Tyler Smith

 –Matt Spracklen  

 –Alison Steadman

 –Hannah Stitfall

 –Michaela Strachan

 –Lira Valencia

 –Cooper Wallace 

The tally is three fewer than last year and 12 fewer than in 2023.

Among those no longer on the list - for reasons unknown -  are actor Samuel West, TV gardener Monty Don and business entrepreneur Deborah Meaden of BBC-TV's Dragons' Den fame.   

Two-hour twitch: Filey Brigg, Yorkshire Coast

Filey Brigg - often a refuge for tired migrant passserines and a good vantage point for marine species

   

Date: October 26, 2025

Time: 10 am - 12.15 pm

Weather: Bright but overcast with north-westerly breeze

Target species: Siberian Rubythroat

Star species seen: Snow Bunting

Other species seen included: 

* Kestrel

* Sparrowhawk

* Common Scoter

* Guillemot

* Robin

* Jackdaw

* Chaffinch

* Oystercatcher

This striking Snow bunting, one of three, was a highlight of the twitch

Feral Pigeon or Rock Dove - or a bit of both? 

The seaside town of Filey provides the backdrop for this hunting Kestrel

 

This lone Guillemot was the only auk family member to be seen

A visiting group from Grimsby RSPB managed to detect a faraway  Great Northern Diver

Superb paintings of Godwits, Eagles, Stonechats - and a Fulmar - likely to spark keen bidding at November sale

Black-tailed Godwits - but who can identify the overhead tern species?

STUNNING bird art by John Cyril Harrison (1898-1985), Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) and others is expected to attract lively bidding when Yorkshire-based auction house Tennants hosts a sale of British, European and Sporting Art at its saleroom in Leyburn on November 15. 

The pre-sale guide prices for the three Harrison paintings  - Black-tailed Godwit, White-tailed Eagles and Fulmar - are in the range of £200-£600.

Meanwhile, the  hammer is expected to fall at between £300 and £500 on Thorburn's study of Stonechats and a Ringed Plover. 

More info at: Tennants Auctioneers

                                                                       

A scene in Scotland? No - take a look look at the creatures in the  distance 

Seldom depicted in paintings - Harrison's study of a  Fulmar

What prompted Thorburn to include a Ringed Plover alongside Stonechats?

Memo to twitchers: 'We can't see every bird, nor do we have any right do so'

Jon Dunn - Shetlands-based writer, photographer and tour guide

FRONTLINE ornithologist Jon Dunn has reminded fellow-birders against becoming "obsessively" addicted to tick-hunting - or in believing "fervid conspiracy theories".

In a surprisingly punchy section of his regular column in online publication Rare Bird Alert Weekly, he writes: "One of these days, even the most obsessive outliers of our tribe will surely realise we cannot see every bird - nor do we have any right to do so. 

"Some birds will simply be the ones that got away."

Jon's comments have come in the wake of  Shetland woman Hazel Ulyat's October 16 photograph in her garden of a Great Crested Flycatcher - the first time the American species has been recorded in Britain.

Some twitchers speculated that the record had been 'suppressed' - ie kept secret - but  Jon does not buy the theory of anything untoward.

He explains what happened thus: "A photo of a Great Crested Flycatcher was sent to former Fair Isle Bird Observatory warden and long-term Shetland resident birder Paul Harvey.

"Once he had recovered from the initial shock, he was able to confirm the bird had been seen on mainland Shetland and that the sighting was not a hoax. 

"The breaking news also came with confirmation that the bird had been looked for, and, alas, there had been no further sign of it to be seen."

He continues: "Birders being birders, the rumour mill span into overdrive online, fruitlessly and pointlessly. 

"More often than not, despite the more fervid conspiracy theories, there is nothing sinister going on behind the scenes.

"In this instance, someone found a very rare bird recently in their garden in Shetland. The first of its kind to be recorded in the Western Palearctic. 

"They invited a friend to come and see it, and the rest, as they say, is history."

                                         

Today' edition of Rare Bird Alert Weekly

                                             

* Jon is author of The Glitter in The Green - an authoritative and acclaimed study of hummingbirds                          

Modest price paid for 1789 copy of Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne at American online auction

                                                

A sale price of $537 (about £404) was achieved for this 1789 copy of the  The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne at an online auction conducted by the New York branch of Bonham's auction house. The volume might have achieved more had it not been devalued by its worn covers, fingermarks, an ownership inscription and  writing in the margins of some of the pages. Author the Rev Gilbert White (1720-1793) is probably the best-known English naturalist of the 18th Century.   

Rare Eyebrowed Thrush turns up in (where else?) Scillies

Eyebrowed Thrush - photo: Robert tdc/flickr via Wikimedia Commons

AN Eyebrowed Thrush that has spent part of this week on St Mary's Island in The Scillies has delighted those birders lucky enough to have seen it.

It is probably one of only about 30 to have been recorded in Britain - most on islands though with a few on  the mainland.

The first record, back on October 5, 1964, was perhaps the most unlikely.

It turned up amist an influx of Song Thrushes in the garden in Oundle, Northamptonshire, of Mrs Winifred Smith and son Martin.

It was variously feeding on yew berries and drinking or bathing at a garden pool.

Mother and son were gracious enough to allow experts into their home to identify  the bird through a window.

A forest species, the Eyebrowed Thrush typically migrates from Siberia and Mongolia to China and South-east Asia where it spends winter.

This week's latest Scillies vagrant was first detected on Tuesday of this week and was still present yesterday. 

A magnet for vagrant birds. Photo: visitislesofscilly.com

                                                            

How Letchworth Garden City enthusiast James Walsh descibed his delight on social media platform X. The bird is believed to be the eighth for The Scillies but the first since 1983. 

Turdidae

(birding information services).

Cambridgeshire birder who identified Britain's first Kelp Gull joins British Birds Rarities Committee

                                                   

Ace ornithologist Richard Patient - he's the one on the left 

FRONTLINE Cambridgeshire birder Richard Patient  has joined the British Birds Rarities Committee.

Welcoming his appointment,  British Birds says:  "A birder since he was seven, Richard is a well-known name to anyone who follows the rare bird scene, and he will no doubt become a valuable member of the committee."

Richard's travels in Britain have brought him sightings of many rare birds - notably, on Lundy Island,  Britain’s third Black-faced Bunting,  Red-eyed Vireo and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 

His  BBRC submissions from Cambridgeshire have included:

* Blue-winged Teal

* Ferruginous Duck

* White-headed Duck

* Black Kite

* Red-footed Falcon (on several occasions)

* Lesser Yellowlegs

* Semipalmated Sandpiper

* Whiskered Tern

* Penduline Tit

* Savi’s Warbler

* Arctic Redpolls (on several occasions)

His main local patch is the 630-hectare Grafham Water reservoir, near Huntingdon, where his many impressive discoveries have included Great Reed Warbler, Lesser Scaup, Gull-billed Tern and Franklin’s Gull.

It was here, too, that on August 7, 2022, he idntified Britain’s first Kelp Gull, his description of which led to the receipt of the Carl Zeiss award for 2023.

Overseas, his most significant discovery to date has probably been the first record of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper for Madagascar.