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Tom Lowe

@saloplarus.bsky.social

1.2K followers 650 following 6.2K posts

Gulls, Geese, Goshawks, Aurora, Astronomy and everything else in the sky. #lookup #salopobs - the unofficial bird observatory in the heart of Shropshire 😏

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Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · Apr 19

Wow. Went out hoping the damp easterlies might produce a Black Tern, and found a BLACK KITE 💥 The first for #shropshirebirding hanging over Wood Lane landfill with 5 Red Kites, on view constantly for 2hrs! Absolutely awesome

Black Kite showing very well soaring over Wood Lane landfill

Black Kite (centre) soaring over Wood Lane landfill with a Red Kite and a Crow

Black Kite being chased by a Red Kite over Wood Lane landfill. The Black always looked smaller and more compact than the range Reds

Black Kite soaring over Wood Lane landfill with constantly attendant Crows

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 17h

I assume you checked the "Ringed Plovers", Steve?! Amazing 👏

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 23h

Yes I think so. Might have a look if I'm passing

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 1d

Nice! Apologies if I've missed it, but have you read the ring?

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 1d

Cappuccino for Tom was the highlight of 18/10 to the MV this morning. Love the viking/antelope horns #salopmoths #teammoth

Green-brindled Crescent of the green-less form capucina

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 1d

Happy one year anniversary of the night the #aurora turned the Shropshire countryside red 💥💃💥 This was the view to the east from the field in front of #salopobs, just before a flock of Common Scoter peeped overhead 🤯

Me, mindblown, in a muddy field coloured red by the intense glow of an unbelievable sky full of aurora borealis, 10th Oct 2024

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 1d

See what you mean, bet it's U7. Earlier this autumn I saw C7, E7, J7 and L7 in Shropshire, so maybe they got to U?!

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 1d

Did you get the code on the yellow ring? It's one of Tony Cross's Welsh/Shropshire birds

Colour Ringing and Tagging - Curlew Country

Colour Ringing Ornithologist Tony Cross has been working with volunteers over the past decade to colour ring curlews at their pre-breeding roosting site at Dolydd Hafren. Over a hundred birds have now...

curlewcountry.org

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 2d

Figure of 24 and a cheeky Merv around the #mothtrap already this evening #salopmoths #teammoth

Collage of a Merveille du Jour and three Figure of 8s

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 2d

Nice! Can't think of a Snow Goose with Whoopers since the Welney one in late 90s. Great carrier species

Reposted by Tom Lowe

BTO Shropshire @btoshropshire.bsky.social · 2d

Our autumn newsletter has just been sent to BTO members and supporters in Shropshire.

It opens with a great account by @saloplarus.bsky.social of an aerial survey of nesting gulls in Shrewsbury, and also has lots of local BTO news.

It's online here:
padlet.com/martin690/bi...

#ShropshireBirding

A screenshot of the BTO Shropshire autumn newsletter, including an image of fluffy gull chick on a corrugated roof, taken by Tom Lowe during his fieldwork on the breeding gulls of Shrewsbury.

A screenshot of the BTO Shropshire autumn newsletter, including graphs and data boxes reporting on the Breeding Bird Survey in the county in 2025.

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 4d

It does look transatlantically exhausted in your pics! You and I both know there's masses never gets seen there. You have it Dan 😉

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 4d

And this one's been ranging up and down the Kintyre coast since I found it years ago, so... 😜

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 4d

Screenshot of a WhatsApped photo lifted from X and posted on BlueSky

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 5d

Cheers Dave. After grilling the 1100 GPs on Banks for an hour, I started to figure it mustn't have actually been with them! 5 juv Curlew Sands and a Wheatear the best I could manage

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 5d

115 canadensis with the Pinks in that field after the news came out but I couldn't find a Todd's. I hadn't seen your post Dave 😕

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 5d

Caught up with the delightful little adult Ross's Goose at Marshside RSPB, sleeping the afternoon away with Canadas and Greylags... No sign of the reported Todd's nearby, just 115 canadensis with the Pinks. Wheatear and Whoopers on Banks Marsh but no AGP for me... #lancsbirding #ukbirding #goosing

Adult Ross's Goose with Lapwing and Wigeon

Adult Ross's Goose with a Canada and a Greylag Goose

Pink-footed Geese coming in to roost

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 6d

That's a stunner. And it seems to think it's February! Wonder how far it has come

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 8d

I will always remember answering the phone at RBA that day:
"Rare Bird Alert, Tom speaking"
"Hi Tom, it's Eric. There's a Blue-winged Warbler on Cape"
"W...... b...... th..... mmph"
"I know."
I saw it the next day. What a bird

The Blue-winged Warbler in County Cork

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 8d

Found your caravan yet?!

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 8d

You might find there's a lag, and then they appear. Shropshirebirding currently not showing anything newer than 4 days. Same happens with them making it onto the ukbirding feed. @bsky.app mysteries 🤷‍♂️

Screenshot of the current #shropshirebirding feed, showing none of the posts made in the last 4 days

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 9d

Thought #shropshirebirding (and #salopobs) might have finally got in on the ibis influx this morning when an all too distant and brief candidate flew SE down the Severn, but a check of likely spots produced nothing better than this creamy juv Red Kite 😕 #ukbirding

Pale (leucistic?) juvenile Red Kite

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 10d

Right. OK. Gonna need a lot of sandwiches

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 10d

The whole thing has been reminding me a lot of the Wilson's Triangle theory. Presumably that was nowhere near as far out? Next question is: can the new Scillonian get us all out there?!

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 10d

Ha! Yes, blackness and roundedness of the primaries, but also the amount of white on the tertials, something distinctive about the GCs (hard to describe), and of course that bill with a pale tip. There are two sorts of autumn 2cys: nice advanced ones that we're used to, and these "spotty teenagers"

Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 10d

2nd-winter