One for the #birdinggear sub-feed I think, but I like the Opticron Discovery for that sort of price.

Although the bird that’s been in that flock for a few weeks is a male. Or, is there more than one?

I use the skyfeed GUI now, that was the early and easy way of building a feed - It’s a few thousand words or RegEx. There are probably better ways now.

They have been in the woods at the services, but yesterday we caught a first year female in the willow copse.

Well done James, and your grandad. Looking forward to hearing about it in the new year!

I’ll amend the sky feed tomorrow, I agree it’s annoying and I appreciate the feedback.

Yes, I’ll work this out for next year I think!

It looks like KeepItWild are cited in both.

There’s lots of interesting work happening, including yours. It’s a shame it all has to be read through the lens of a minority opinion!

I think BG have reported on a vocal minority. Frankly reintroduction is one option for NE, but it’s a not the goal and the debate is a distraction from on-going and unfinished work.

Yes, but we haven’t fully resolved the tree yet.

There nothing factual in that BG click-bait and no planned release I am aware of.

Sure, so we have a whole tranche of genetic and habitat/climate suitability modeling happening right now.
English birds are more isolated and interesting than descriptive ssp. classification allowed them.
I just wish we could have done this when we wanted to, rather than as post mortem

I also agree that climate change is a major driver of decline in England, but the rate of decline hasn’t been even between sites — We still don’t understand the precise mechanism.

There are no release plans I know of, but there are birds breeding in aviaries (and passionate rewilders!).
The phylogenetics is complex, and OCs birds are of unknown origin (bred in captivity since the 1960s). It’s a complex picture and the reintroduction question is sadly dominating.

Nothing published yet

We haven’t published any of the genetics yet.