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Amy

@amythebirder.bsky.social

1.7K followers 320 following 1.1K posts

Birder in the Solent. Ecologist/GIS, HOS Assistant Recorder. Loves nature & islands. Mostly wildlife & travel (🚲 🥾🚏) but also interested in public health, climate, more sustainable living etc. Views my own.

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Reposted by Amy

Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre @hantsbic.bsky.social · 13h

Welcome to the Hampshire Nature (UK) feed collating wildlife and plant sightings in Hampshire: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Welcome to the Hampshire Nature feed which is for natural history sightings and events/news (bioblitz, talks, walks etc), in Hampshire. The feed picks up tags like #HantsBirds, #HantsPlants, #HantsMoths, and #TeamMoth will work for Hampshire moth-ers. Some key locations should be picked up too, and extra locations or tags can be added. Please let us know if you've got suggestions to improve it 😊
Other feeds which might be of interest:
• #HantsBirds
• Moth feeds - #TeamMoth & #MigrantMothsuk
• UK Wildlife photos
• Birding UK/IRE (#HantsBirds works as do #ukbirding and other regional tags)
• Low Carbon Birding (#LowCarbonBirding)
• UK Patch Birding (e.g. #PWC2025 – patchwork challenge)
• Birds! which collates global sightings & photos
• Birding Gear
• Wildlife ID and info books

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 12h

Apologies for the confusion, you'll need to re-pin it if you still find it useful as I've transferred it over to HBIC. New link is here:

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Reposted by Amy

Katie Featherstone (Scotland/Iceland) @featherytravels.bsky.social · 1d

1/2 Nine months pregnant feels like an odd time to start promoting something, but the #Cicerone walking guidebook @writesofways.bsky.social and I wrote for the #SmallIsles has just been published. This little book took a long time to put together and I'm really proud of it.

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

Testing out the camera on patch, I was pleased the distant island gulls like (Crows there today) was within reach, and the distant Eider 🙂 What is presumably the same Goosander continues its residence at Titchfield Haven - hopefully a mate will join it? #PWC2025

Distant shingle island with a line of crows. Behind it is the Isle of Wight. It is overcast but the sea is flat

Eider on the sea. The females are dark brown and the males are mostly white with black cap, tails and wings

Goosander in eclipse plumage, I think. It has a dark brownish head and is mostly grey but with large white wing patch. Sat on water

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

Good idea - The bird mode is cool! Haven't tried pro capture yet.

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

OM1 mark II. It was seeing posts on here about the lighter weight set ups & mention of good second hand gear that got me thinking it was time to switch 🙂

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

Do you think this might work with a rucksack? The strap doesn't look too thick. Noticed their thing for the shoulder strap on a rucksack too which might work well

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

Really impressed with what it can do!

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

Whinchat with Stonechats on the meadow at Titchfield Haven, and Great White Egret still on the Frying Pan. Good to have some Brent Geese back with a small group offshore. #HantsBirds #LowCarbonBirding

Cropped photo of a Whinchat on a branch. There is a fence line behind it with a fence post and barbed wire visible. The Whinchat has an orangey red breast and white supercilium.

Original photo of the Whinchat. It is much more distant. There is a reedbed and part of the River Meon behind, and grass.

Great White Egret - large white egret with yellow bill - on the Frying Pa with a black-headed Gull (small with pale grey upper parts, white head and underparts, black primaries) and a Grey Heron standing tall nearby. There is a reedbed behind and a short grassy meadow.

Brent Geese in flight with the Isle of Wight behind (treed part of the island) and blurred green underneath. This is the path with some very short vegetation at Hill Head. The sea is not visible but a red buoy can be seen! The geese are black ish grey with white tails. Their head and necks are black.

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

300mm + 1.4x teleconverter

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

It's a start! 🤯

Photograph of Common Fleabane still in flower (yellow flower) showing the finer details including hairy stem. The background is blurred green. There is a small fly on the flower

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 1d

See what you mean - hand held pics with lens are way better if a little distant!

Reposted by Amy

Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre @hantsbic.bsky.social · 2d

Hello Bluesky - The 'Supporting Local Recording Fund' for Hampshire is OPEN. Get up to £350 to train, run wildlife recording activities or even buy equipment! Deadline, 31st January 2026. More information here: www.hants.gov.uk/landplanning... #BiologicalRecording #Ecology

A selection of wildlife and plant ID guides on white background with a hand lens, sound recorder, notebook, bat detector and binoculars.

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks Tris. Makes sense and I deliberately chose the opposite for tripod & head! Be good to try the camera properly next week 🙂

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 3d

Good stuff 🙂

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 3d

Lens should arrive soon so I'll be able to test out the camera more and hopefully get the hang of it!

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 3d

Worth noting that my scope & tripod set up wasn't designed with this in mind. The plate I use is short but balanced when scope is used on its own. Obviously not balanced when you add another 600g+! #BirdingGear

Camera body attached with an adaptor to a straight scope. It is attached attached to a tripod with a compact head. There is a short handle. The scope is looking out towards a meadow

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 3d

One annoying thing with the digiscope adaptor, is that the image goes out of focus each time you zoom and when you attach the adaptor. With phone digiscoping I've found the camera focuses straight away. 3/4 #BirdingGear

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 3d

Haze doesn't help, but methinks digiscoping with a DSRL / Micro four thirds requires more practise! Photos were more magnified than phone pics, but not that sharp. Still, the Stonechats by Knights Bank hide were obliging. 2/4 #BirdingGear

Stonechat on barbed wire. It had orange underparts and brown upper parts

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Reposted by Amy

Andy Scollick @andyscollick.bsky.social · 5d

It is perfectly possible to unconditionally condemn an antisemitic terrorist attack against Jewish people AND white nationalist terrorist attacks against Jewish people and Muslims AND Israel's terrorist attacks and genocide against Palestinians AND Hamas' terrorist attacks against Jews and Israel.

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 4d

That should say I arrived 3 mins early but bus was seemingly long gone!

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 4d

Will do. Initial thoughts are that a longer tripod plate would probably help. Don't think bird detection mode works with it & maybe is best in a hide or somewhere with plenty of close birds rather than seawatching etc! @mattbirder.bsky.social

Yes, that set up look interesting.

Black-headed Gulls - small ish gulls with white underparts and grey mantle and wings on a beach. In winter plumage. Sea is rough and tide is in

More black-headed Gulls. Photo taken into the sun

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 4d

Why are buses allowed to zoom past stops early without stopping? Today, being 3 mins based on scheduled time was no use as it had already passed! 😐
(it's not a proper frequent service) #PublicTransport

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Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 5d

...or had the faff of switching lots yet!

Amy @amythebirder.bsky.social · 5d

Fair enough. My phone lives in waterproof case which is great but reduces photo quality a bit. Curious to see what it is like. It might be on days I plan to mainly do hides it's worth it or some seawatching (?). Would fit in rucksack too. Lens hasn't arrived yet though so haven't compared them...

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