Four years ago I was participating in the Champions of the Flyway Bird Race in Israel with the three gentlemen above. It was fun and we raised a lot of money for bird conservation in Greece. But Israel is not the country in the world with the best moral credentials (nor is the UK!) and…
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Bird song (13) – Greenfinch
I agree with regular commenter here, murray marr, that Greenfinches seem more numerous and obvious songsters this year than usual. But, there isn’t a lot to the song of the Greenfinch really; But I’m glad to hear them and see them more often – I find I’ve missed them. Greenfinches rather live under the shadow…
Guest blog – Heal, a new rewilding charity
Jan Stannard, @janstannard, is a Founder Trustee of Heal, @healrewilding, a new rewilding charity in the UK. She has a business background which comes in handy for wildlife campaigning. She is involved nationally in swift conservation, is co-founder of Wild Maidenhead, leading their Wild About Gardens Awards scheme, and she organised England’s largest amphibian ladder…
Paul Leyland – Dark-edged Bee-Fly
Social Distancing Week 2, Dark-edged Bee-fly This little creature cheered me up last weekend. The bee-fly is one of my favourite heralds of spring and 22 March is the earliest I have seen one. It was a bit like seeing my first swallow a week before it was expected. However, unlike the swallow, the bee-fly…
It’s the birthday of my binoculars
My binoculars are 44 years old today. I got them on my 18th birthday. I feel I may have to take the rest of the day off to celebrate my binoculars’ birthday.
Delayed
I was going to write about welfare issues in horse racing – but, to be honest, I just don’t feel like it right now, so that blog is delayed, but it will come here eventually. But in the interim, have a look at the recent British Horseracing Authority report on the subject – click here.
Tim Melling – Stripe-throated Yuhina
Tim writes: Stripe-throated Yuhina (Yuhina gularis) is a common bird of forested hills in the southern Himalayas across to China and Vietnam. They would be a plain, unmemorable bird apart from an enormous, erect crest and a distinctive stripey throat. Both its English and scientific names come from the Nepalese word for this bird (Yuhin),…
Earth Hour and another hour
This evening, at 20:30, it’s Earth Hour where we are asked to turn off lights etc for an hour. I’ll be doing it – will you? And overnight we will make the twice-yearly one hour change to our clocks. Spring Forward, Fall Back, yes I know. This has become, to me, a symbol of our…