Steve Preddy
@stevepreddy.bsky.social
350 followers 480 following 39 posts
Pastry-loving, nature-bothering, dragonfly-record-vetting, travel-addicted, R3-riding, Supreme Court case-winning lefty social media echo chamber inhabitant. 🏳️‍🌈
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stevepreddy.bsky.social
Hi Max, there’s a photograph of an adult male Siberian Thrush in this October eBird checklist from Taiwan: ebird.org/checklist/S2...

This looks very different from the Shetland bird. What’s your thinking as to why the latter is an adult?
eBird Checklist - 15 Oct 2015 - 台北--野柳IBA(Yeliu IBA) - 11 species (+1 other taxa)
Submitted by Maggie Chen.
ebird.org
Reposted by Steve Preddy
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Monmouthshire dragonfly newsletter number 12 is now available, with news on Willow Emeralds, Scarce Chaser, Lesser Emperors, Red-veined Darters, Common Hawker and Hairy Dragonfly. DM me if you’re not on the mailing list but would like to be. #gwentdragonflies
cc @britishdragonflies.bsky.social
stevepreddy.bsky.social
I’ve just found another absurd one: ´Wryneck head twisting’ gave me this:
stevepreddy.bsky.social
It got itself completely tangled up in knots when I asked about “phalarope underwing patterns” (try it) and as for “large white-headed gull identification”, well …
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Is that doughnut as in the thing I eat more often than I should, or the thing that the youth do in their cars in the Sports Village car park?
Reposted by Steve Preddy
chrisddarby.bsky.social
Zitting cisticola
Walberswick, Suffolk, 23/08/2025
I thought I was having a good day with an image of one of the juveniles from the 1st recorded breeding of Zitting cisticola in the UK. On review I found four juveniles and the adult female🤯
@suffolkbirdgroup.bsky.social #suffolkbirding #ukbirding
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Glos B-w Kite showing on & off this am, up to c1km N & c500m S of Splatt Bridge. Unlikely to be visible from Slimbridge hides when perched though gets quite high when flying so may be visible from estuary tower / summer walkway, but for now, Frampton’s the better bet. Cc @glosterbirder.bsky.social
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Excellent, thanks, I’d appreciate that. I’ll be there Dec to Jan with @andyfmears.bsky.social
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Thanks Shaun. Is that the same as Napo Wildlife Centre or are these different?
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Where did you connect with Zigzag and Agami Shaun?
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Thanks Martin, I thought that was the answer - it just seemed very early for a juvenile to be migrating, so wondered whether I had misremembered the tertial feature.
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Hi Martin, were you able to age this Pied Fly?
stevepreddy.bsky.social
A Lesser Emperor at Wentwood reservoir this evening along the west shore. #gwentdragonflies
stevepreddy.bsky.social
A male Scarce Chaser was seen and photographed on Tuesday just southwest of Magor Marsh: a first record for the county. #gwentdragonflies
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Another one of those has to be on the cards at some point. Julian just has to intercept the next one off Burnham on Sea prom before it decides to have a nap on a driveway in Brean.
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Just over 30 years since @julianthomas19.bsky.social and I saw it. Where did that time go? And who’d have thought that after all the effort involved to make it to Hermaness, a twitchable mainland bird would turn up a couple of decades later.
stevepreddy.bsky.social
The highlight of a day of dragonflying on the Gwent Levels today was a copulating pair of Variable Damselfly on Pont-y-cw-cw reen near West Usk lighthouse, a new site for this species.
w3w.co/scrubbing.ru...

#gwentdragonflies
///scrubbing.rules.joins
This is the what3words address for a 3 metre square location near Nash, Newport.
w3w.co
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Botany peeps: it’s way too early for Fairy Flax (Linum catharticum) to be flowering, isn’t it? If so, I’ve got some head scratching to do over a plant that I’ve found by the River Usk in Newport this afternoon.
stevepreddy.bsky.social
The first Monmouthshire dragonfly newsletter of the year is now in your inbox if you’re on the mailing list. If you’re not, and would like to be, please get in touch.
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Caroline, the main problem with this proposal is that it would have allowed the teaching of creationism in schools by the backdoor. This was pointed out to Mary on multiple occasions.
stevepreddy.bsky.social
Green Hellebores (Helleborus viridis) in flower in woodland near Lower Kilcott in the Cotswolds in South Gloucestershire yesterday.