Crex! Crex! Crex!

I am going out to listen for Corncrakes. There will not be a blog first thing tomorrow morning. I have heard Cuckoos in two places today. I’m pretty sure there are more of them around this spring/summer than there have been for several, many, years. Quite a few people seem to agree, as evidenced by…

Have you seen a Cuckoo lately?

The BTO Cuckoo-tracking project is just fascinating.  ‘Our’ cuckoos are now in central Africa. Have you heard the one about the Scot, the Welshman and the Englishman? Chance is a Scot, a Scottish cuckoo tagged at Loch Katrine.  He is in Nigeria at the moment and he followed a very similar route through Europe on…

Going cuckoo – or gone cuckoo?

We are within days of the summer solstice and I haven’t had my spring yet!  There’s plenty of time for there to be a baking hot summer but I am not necessarily expecting it.  And it’s turning out to be a funny old spring/summer. For a start, England have played two games of football and…

Bits, some bits

went to London on the train from Peterborough on Thursday and saw 3 cuckoos got a reply from NE re Walshaw Moor – will blog later this week spent ages on Friday evening looking at a lone wader in vegetation and gloomy light wondering whether it was a Temminck stint – and it wasn’t, it…

Poor things and real things

Did you watch Planet Earth Live on Sunday night?  I did and there were some enjoyable moments in it. It seemed to be all about going ‘Awww’ at cute little mammals that were having a tough time of making their way in the world – but enough of the presenters Richard Hammond and Julia Bradbury….