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Andy Gell

@andygell.bsky.social
546 followers 335 following 889 posts

#Yorkshire #birdwatching (especially raptors) and occasional #phonescoping. Art,Space and other stuff. Proud Manxman 🇮🇲 living in God's own county. Former RAF & airline pilot. Location: w3w.co/beyond.gigabytes.mayhem

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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 22h
My copy of "In thin air" by the Spell Songs collective arrived today. I love birds,art and folk music.This collection of CD, book and art work ticks every box. The music is evocative of birds, flight and is very soothing. Looking forward to listening again on a winter's night with a wee dram.
Boxed CD with a book containing painted images and song lyrics
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
The Eagle Stone on Baslow Edge Derbyshire. At a stretch I can see an Eagle's head or wing tip primary feathers the LH photo. But believe the name is a distortion of Aigle, a rock throwing deity from Celtic folklore.
A 6m high  gritstone boulder.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Joe 90's "Rat Trap" style #portal @simonguy.bsky.social
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
A wonderful sunset whilst out raptoring* last night. *A verb invented by my wife to describe my raptor roost watch activities.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It's World Space Week. There's so much #Space stuff happening these days.Amazing telescope images,humans going back to the Moon, huge rocket launches and SciFi like booster landings. I still lurk on X for the Aerospace content,here on 🦋 it's mostly birds and nature but wish for more🚀 🌌🌠engagement.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Saturn in opposition, best I could manage with my spotting scope. Could definitely make out the rings that my phone can't resolve. Was surprised how quickly it moved across the sky when trying to track it. #Space #Astronomy
The planet Saturn.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Nothing encapsulates Bird Song like a Eurasian Eagle-Owl. 🤦🏻‍♂️
Picture of an Eagle -Owl for a Leeds Light Night event.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A quark zooms through quark-gluon plasma, creating a wake in the plasma. #ArtinScience #Art #Science 📸Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Portal to the Underland? @simonguy.bsky.social
Sink hole roped off at the top of Trollers' Gill Yorkshire Dales.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I suspected from this oak sapling that Jays visit my urban garden. Finally saw one. City Council tree planting in a nearby field a few years ago has bridged the gap to the nearest woodland.
Oak sapling. Tree planting in red box.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
There's a puppet theatre you can play with too!
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Soft Light is the new exhibition @sunnybankmills.bsky.social which I spent this week helping to install opens today.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The week ahead starts now.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I'm reading Findings at present and enjoying the everyday observational style that many nature writers could learn from.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Battle of Stamford Bridge #OTD 1066. The Norwegian berserker is about to suffer a fate worse than a fate worse than death. #Yorkshire
Tapestry in style of the Bayeux one depicting the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of Gaudi's first projects featuring many nature motifs. Comillas Cantabria. 🇪🇸
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Gull on Gaudi.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
And the Picos de Europa make a stunning backdrop.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A few days ago I watched a Spanish Pro surf competition near Santander. Today I caught a few waves myself here at San Vicente🏄‍♂️. Just getting up riding a few metres on a wave feels like a huge achievement.
Surf beach at San Vicente de la Barquera.Spanish pro surfers at Somo beach Santander.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Quote this with a picture of the aircraft you'll accept as a bribe.
North American P-51 Mustang.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
An urban #Peregrine flew across Santander Bay on a hunting trip. 3rd sighting in as many days. Our apartment is a perfect vantage point.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
My top three if I'd been a judge at the Mini Print Exhibition Cantabria. #art #print
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I've seen a lot of reflections in water photos recently so thought I'd give it a try.
Reflections in the sea. 
Bay of Santander 🇪🇸
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Was this 1970s sculpture by Marisol Escobar I saw today at an exhibition, the inspiration for the fish in The Meaning of Life? #MontyPython
Trigger fish sculpture by Marisol Escobar.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
If Antoine de Saint- Exupéry had written about Le Petit Neptune.
Sculpture of Neptune as a child by Ramón Muriedas.
Santander 🇪🇸
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." — Batman Begins
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"One decision changed history" I'm a biased meteorology nerd but this was brilliant. The American Col Krick was mocked for forecasting with historical synoptic charts.Ironically,AI forecasts in the near future are going to use a similar method according to a @ncas-uk.bsky.social lecture I went to.
Poster for the film Pressure.Synoptic chart for D-Day.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I love this painting entitled Lindisfarne I saw yesterday. www.sunnybankmills.co.uk/the-rolling-...
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
"Lindisfarne" my favourite painting from Mel and Kim's collaborative exhibition on until 27 Sep @sunnybankmills.bsky.social www.sunnybankmills.co.uk/the-rolling-...
A colourful painting of Puffins and a Cormorant around well known Lindisfarne features.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Swimming with Dolphins is so passé, swimming with Cormorants is where it's at. #Guernsey 🇬🇬
Me swimming in Guernsey's  Vallett pool with a Cormorant.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A #portal at Portelet Bunker 06 (part of the WWII German Felshohlboten Unterwestberg / Hollow Rocks tunnel and defense system) is located at Portelet on Guernsey. @simonguy.bsky.social
Exit stairs from Bunker 6 leading up to woods in bright light.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Interesting attack angle. Optimising optics or avoiding a shadow over the target? Successful anyway. Superb overflight and fishing dive by an Osprey as well at Astley St Aidan's😍. I credit the lucky Osprey socks I was wearing. #Yorkshirebirding
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The painting birds in watercolour workshop with Tim Gommersall @sunnybankmills.bsky.social was great fun and I learnt a lot. Birds from blobs and the stylised gull exercises had us all laughing. #BirdsinArt
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
My name is on its way to Lagrange point 2 (L2) aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope along with 1.3 million others. Watched the Falcon Heavy launch with double booster return to Earth😍🚀🚀 #NASA #NancyGraceRoman
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
If Ladybird wrote a Brief History of Time. I bought this little book from the wonderful Hold Fast floating bookshop at Leeds Dock. But why anyone would need a traveller's pocket guide to Spacetime and Relatively is beyond me. It's a few hundred/ thousand years ahead of its time.🚀 #books #Space
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Some elegant Whinchats at RSPB St Aidan's today. Spotted Redshank,Snipe and Kingfisher too but dipped on the Curlew Sandpiper. #Yorkshirebirding
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A few of the largest Charm of Goldfinches I've ever seen, estimated at 60+ incl lots of fledglings. Near the canal hide at YWT Ripon Wetlands. Greekshank, Snipe & Com Sand too at S end of main lake. @yorkswildlife.bsky.social #Yorkshirebirding.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
No cheating. Share the last photo of the sky on your camera roll..
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I went to see the stunning commissioned vessels "Reflections in Silver" at Temple Newsam #Leeds. Go before 23 Oct if you can. #art museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/reflections-...
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The #raptorpersecution and "vermin" control on our moorlands has been in readiness for today, the #Inglorious12th. The first day of the grouse shooting season. A mosaic of over 200 photos I took around many of the known persecution sites in Nidderdale #Yorkshire @friendsofthedales.bsky.social
A mosaic picture of Red Grouse on moorland.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Anyone else see a bear or a sloth?
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🦖
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Cirrus Uncinus or mare's tail #clouds #meteorology #weather
Wispy clouds against a blue sky.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Au contraire.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Leeds born artist Jim Moir has an exhibition on in Bradford until 31st Aug. The Black Guillemot Frenzy is my favourite. @sjportugal.bsky.social might like them too. I disagree with his quote about humans not being able to fly. I made a career out of it and flew hang gliders for a hobby😉.
A multi of Black Guillemots.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I'd hoped to see a Merlin today on the moors but no joy. My consolation was being overflown by a Buzzard hunting low like a Harrier and I watched 2 Kestrels hunting whilst having my lunch.
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Andy Gell @andygell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Inbound! ☔️
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