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Ed Keeble

@edkeeble.bsky.social
1.2K followers 240 following 1.8K posts

Bird artist. Colour-ring reader.

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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Hobby season drawing to a close but still three coconuts lined up on the pylon this week- male still feeding them and TBH I think he keeps at it until they decide to push off of their own accord. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
All shades of Grey Plover to be had in over 200 in the bay this evening- looks like the best black pudding (in which even the white bits are black), but must be that all of the white has worn off mantle and scaps. #UKBirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Watercolours misbehaving today- must be the change in the weather- so I punished them with black ink lining over the top and zapped the background. In case not apparent, is the L Yellowlegs on the Stour chasing a juv Spotshank like a jack russell after a spaniel.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Here was nice on the Stour late evening last week- Greenshank stepping out on the turning tide. Or for non-birders, aliens nervously stepping out of a crashed space module. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
proper!
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Another bit o’ watercolouring on the block pad- Ringed Plover yesterday using a brieze block as a breeze block in a force three gale yesterday. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Always impressed how quick they are to tell one species of falcon from another although speed of approach is probably the main thing that that tells them whether to stick or jump!
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Hud fun today too whilst checking the roost- we could see H watching something so we looked up and a speck waaay up high - it had beaten us to seeing an eastbound Osprey which was dropping down to the river like a spider on a thread. #UKBirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Well its taken me more than sixty years to realise that whole point of buying watercolour paper in a block not a pad is you can leave the painting stuck on the block until dry and it comes off flat...anyway, here's a Grey Plover to celebrate there being loads of them on the river this week. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Busy time for Hobbies. This male has taken a leaf from the Merlin playbook and sits quietly in the stubble to hunt the the Linnet flock from ground level. #BirdArt
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Reposted by Ed Keeble
Brigit Strawbridge @brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Blown away by the skill of printmaker, Joshua Miles, whose reduction linocuts are absolutely stunning! More here: joshuamiles.art/scottish-pri...
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Mustn't get too excited, but if I can get out to the roost and grab this chemist's bottle embossed with "table spoons" measure, it seems to be worth £8 on ebay #UKbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
That’s lovely- fresh-in juveniles
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
On we go down at North Marsh, no primaries dropped yet. Had a chap bowl up and say "do you know this bird carries my family name...", but when i asked if his uncle was Roy Hudd, he just walked off. #UKbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Sure enough- first juvs filtered down here on Stour today, ten days later than some years but hard on heels of first further north. Heard via Pete Potts that the breeding season down south in Iceland was washed out by rain, better in north, so juvs later than av. makes sense..
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Handy reminder at Alton Water y'day that Hooded Mergs like to roost anchored in floating weeds, a technique they learn in the wild from sea otters #BirdArt #UKbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Lovely- still waiting for first juv islandica of season down here
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I just nipped in this eve to confirm still there- dunno on rings, but an energetic young person on a bike might get closer from the north side!
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I was half right- kipping on the water
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Not re-seen as far as I know, so probably having a kip on the bank somewhere
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
On the alert down here!
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Juv Cuckoo along the shore this AM being mobbed by half a dozen Y Wags and looking not half like a Kestrel. Thanks to Aristotle for originally drawing attention to the similarity. #ukbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Not sure if it properly words as a trifecta, but anyway an early southbound Bar-tail took us up to three 'wits on the river yesterday. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Even later this year- Redshanks at the old post again with chicks hatched just last week. So the guard bird is having to hang out with the Starlings.. #ukbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
A perky little group of Scaup fresh-in on the Stour this week. The quack vol of BWP tells me drakes transfer from Scandinavia to the IJselmeer in Netherlands in July to moult, so I fancy they are overshooters. #UKbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Busy week- more L3 limosa action down on the Stour today- these on a flash about 10Km inland upriver, one def and one prob, but I reckon both too advanced in moult to be the pristine bird below.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Nice reminder in the kitchen this morning that godwits aren’t the only thing with a long sticky out bit on their head.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
how lovely- it is worth flogging down that path in the hot just for the Greenshank
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
How nice- not as exciting as a new c-ring combo, but after more than 50 years on and off watching godwits at Stutton Mill something interesting has popped up. If it sticks, will prob feed on Essex shore on the falling tide, back to Suffolk a couple of hours after low tide and into roost.#UKbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Hot out there. Curlew panting to keep cool on the roost- light dinging their open beaks. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Been flogging around some hawkerish spots in the hot to check for Southern Migrant Hawkers last few days and returned to find one buzzing about my chimney just now.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Welcome back to Stour godwit ORW in a flock of adults fresh-in but postponing the moment when they have to crank up their salt glands and get back to estuary life: tip-off today (thanks Adam Gretton) that they are camped out on freshwater 10Km inland.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Not a good week for acrylics!
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Hot up in the Brecks on SC duty this week- here's an adult hiding inside a thistle and a near-fledgie that just can't resist upping periscope for a look.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Briefly back on the paint- finished off this one from April of Pied Wags feeding on insects disturbed by the Brents like egrets in cattle #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Brent RDNK sticking it out on the river until at least 28th May, not for the first time. Quite a thought that a heavily upholstered black goose has now experienced 30 degrees C in both the UK (2026) and Siberia (in the mad Arctic spring of 2021). #UKbirding
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Reposted by Ed Keeble
Henry Cook @hcbirding.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Incredible views of a migrating Common Quail as it flew past the ship in the English Channel! @sophieshrike.bsky.social
Common Quail flies over the sea with wings outstretched. It is a small brown streaky gamebird.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Every cloud has a silver lining- here's about half of flock of 175-200 Swifts lumped by the rain and cold onto a farm res. in the Brecks this afternoon. #UKbirding
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Tackling the thorny question of when a footnote should go before the punctuation rather than after. Top answer is about birds, but not by a birder I suspect. #ornithology
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
There’s some nifty research on Oystercatchers showing that you can sex them based on extent of black in iris.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
greeted by a Ptarmigan on the veranda when we got back to the hut from today’s wadering in Iceland
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
that's a beauty
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Dragged out owling in Constable country and ironically my thermal makes Stratford st Mary church look like it was painted by Turner instead.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Time to call a halt on a paint of a juv Roughleg boinging up and down on thin thorn branch before I am tempted to tinker about with it. I miss these chaps more than any other mild winter no-show I can think of. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
The usual parade of the faithful on the godwit front- here's Woofer still with some moult to go. Well over 90% of the c-ringed godwits since beginning of Feb have prev. history on the river. #UKbirding #Ornithology
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
A bit of vismig from 200+ years ago here in NE Essex. I was thinking it would be nice to time travel back there but then I saw that even then, they had to get up at 5AM to partake of it.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
I thought they were called Swingos?
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Funny thing how often you see a pic of WB Diver with the tip of its lower mandible broken- my pet theory is that they stub it flushing flatfish but it is fair to say that this is unsubstantiated through personal observation.
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
A quick skid of ink over some Knot feeding back-to-the wind on Thursday. Might need to invest in a thinner brush. #BirdArt
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Ed Keeble @edkeeble.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Looks to be on the flooded grazing marsh at North Warren RSPB
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