I drove into Flagstaff on a fragment of the ‘historic’ Route 66, which I last touched near its other end south of Chicago many days ago, hoping it would be nice as my ‘Rough Guide’ says it is – and it is. I’ve spent very little time in towns you would have heard of since New York and it’s…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Condors again
I woke later than usual and strolled down to the Navajo Bridge to see what time California Condors get up. #54 was still sitting on his or her metal girder and his or her companion resolved himself or herself to be #73. They looked quite perky together but the world was still ignoring them so…
Marble Canyon
Marble Canyon, Arizona is not much to look at – but it is great to look from. I arrived at the Chevron gas station and went inside to pay in advance – the permutations of paying for gas in the US are seemingly endless – and listened to John telling two young drivers that in this…
Hummers
Hummers are gas-guzzlers to most Americans – but they are hummingbirds to some. Hummingbirds seem exotic to the UK birder because we have nothing really like them – and because they really are exotic. My first hummingbird ever was about 30 years ago when I was sitting on a log in Ontario, looking at a…
Mom’s place
I didn’t know much about Utah before I started driving through it and I’m not an expert now. Brigham Young and Donny Osmond came to mind but I have tried to blank out both. Before I left the UK I met the Independent’s Travel Editor Simon Calder in a TV studio and his advice on my trip…