A few more of the 1st summer Bonaparte's Gull. Our first record was between the 16th-22nd April 2020. This becomes the 5th record for Staffordshire. 2 Belvide, 2 Blithfield and 1 Westport Lake.
Belvide's on 🔥at the moment with our 2nd ever Bonaparte's Gull today showing well. Foz @BelvideBirda picked it out on the north shore, knowing it was something different, before I confirmed the ID.
Many thanks to the 20 sites who participated in last Saturday's West Midlands All-Day Birdwatch; apologises for the belated posting. Some impressive totals considering the limited movement on the day. A total of 134 species were noted (compared to 131 in 2025).
#westmidsalldayer
Great Reed Warbler singing from Scott hide though elusive. View from Scott hide only. There is restricted viewing as its to the right of hide. West Midland Bird Club members only.
NO Birding for 7 of us this morn @WestMidBirdClub Belvide, as we prepared 2 new 3mx3m Tern nesting rafts for towing out.Rewarding work. In the summer we’ll be repairing our 2 - 4.8mx2.4m fibreglass rafts for refloating. Thanks to the guys who gave up their time this morn. 👏🏻 😀👍🏻
Feeling far more Spring-like today - an ideal opportunity to advertise the Spring edition of the West Midlands All-dayer Birdwaching taking place on Saturday 2nd May. Usual format - record as many species as you can on your patch in 24 hours.
#westmidsalldayer@WestMidBirdClub
Dr @TonyJuniper, Chair at @NaturalEngland told us that environmental protection has been registered at the highest level across government, and economic growth and nature protection are equal priorities.
🚨 JUST IN: A migratory bird just shattered world records — flying 8,425 miles (13,560 km) NON-STOP across the Pacific without landing once.
The bar-tailed godwit doesn’t stop to eat, drink, or sleep during its migration across the Pacific Ocean. Its journey from Alaska to Australia takes roughly 11 days of continuous flight, covering over 13,000 kilometers through storms, headwinds, and open ocean with zero land beneath it the entire time.
Before departure, it does something almost surgical to its own body. It shrinks its digestive organs down to almost nothing, converting the stomach, intestines, and liver into raw fuel. The bird essentially eats its own gut to make room for fat reserves that will power its wings for nearly two weeks straight.
The brain doesn’t fully sleep either. Half of it stays active while the other half rests, alternating in shifts mid-flight at altitude over the open Pacific. The godwit is simultaneously unconscious and navigating with magnetic field sensitivity that no human instrument in the 18th century could replicate.
What makes this genuinely staggering beyond the physical record is the navigational precision involved. The bird leaves Alaska and arrives in New Zealand with accuracy that would embarrass early GPS systems. It reads Earth’s magnetic field, atmospheric pressure gradients, star positions, and potentially quantum-level compass mechanisms inside its eye that literally let it see magnetic field lines overlaid on its visual field.
Evolution spent millions of years building an aerospace navigation system inside a 300 gram animal.
We spend billions engineering machines that do what this bird does on instinct, fat reserves, and half a sleeping brain.
The longest recorded non-stop flight by a commercial aircraft is around 20 hours.
This bird does 11 days.
Without a runway.
Picture this: 500–2000-year-old trees—carbon vaults, biodiversity homes, flood shields—reduced to stumps & sawdust for shareholder value.
Our descendants? They'll stream documentaries about what we erased.
Humans can be despicable. Choose better. 🌿⚖️ #ClimateJustice
A notice to all WMBC members. The new 2026 code to the car park gate and hides will be in operation from tomorrow morning. Also access to Belvide along Shutt Green Lane is still ok, despite the road closed sign at the beginning of the road.
We are very excited to invite both members & non-members once again to the WMBC Open Day!! 🥳
📆 Saturday 16th May
⏰ 10am - 4pm
📍 Middleton Hall & Gardens
This is a FREE event and will include a range of activities during the day, including guided walks, talks and stalls.
We're excited to announce a brand new partnership with @WestMidBirdClub, offering the chance to for two aspiring conservationists to visit the Obs for two weeks in August this year!
For more details and how to apply, see https://t.co/Bw3WmFmTzJ