Sarah is a MSc Marketing graduate with a strong passion for nature and outdoor adventures. Growing up in Denmark she’s no stranger to natural surroundings and her parents frequently took her camping all over Europe which initially sparked her enthusiasm for the outdoors. She currently resides in West Yorkshire, England where she can often be…
BLOG POSTS
Blackcaps in my garden – and yours?
All records of Blackcap in my garden are winter records. Here they are: 2005 1 2006 0 2007 0 2008 0 2009 0 2010 6 2011 0 2012 0 2013 11 2014 2 The earliest records are 27 January and the latest 7 April (3 January records, 9 February records, 6 March records, 2 April…
Summoned by students
Yesterday evening I was talking to a room full of bright young things – students (mostly) at Oxford and members of the Oxford University Conservation Society. I talked about large and small NGOs (because that’s what they asked me to do) and said that NGOs were like people. None was wholly good and none was…
A taste of orange
Apparently we didn’t have a name for the colour orange in English until we discovered oranges around 1512. I wonder whether that is right. This reminds me of my time at school where my Latin master told us all that oranges used to be called noranges but we English found that saying ‘a norange’ was…
Snowy Owls in Birdwatch
I’ve never seen a Snowy Owl. I’d really like to see one. Even more would I like to see loads of them. And there have been loads and loads of them further south than usual in North America this winter. The latest Birdwatch has an article on Snowy Owls and a beautiful male on the…
English SSSIs
The government aims for the proportion of SSSIs that are in favourable condition to be over 50% by 2020. Year ending March 2011 – 36.7% in favourable condition Year ending March 2012 – 37.4% in favourable condition Year ending March 2013 – 37.5% in favourable condition That doesn’t look like a trajectory that is going…
Did you see Elmley on Countryfile yesterday evening?
Philip Merricks has done a very good job, on the whole, at Elmley NNR. It looked jolly wet on the TV last night didn’t it? Let’s hope lots of Lapwings and Redshank will be nesting successfully there this spring as usual. You have to go back as far as 28 April 1987 to find this…
Thank you BTO, Berks and Oxon
Saturday was a very enjoyable day. I attended a BTO conference for the Berkshire and Oxfordshire region (at Benson just south of Oxford). It seemed the right place to be as the first talk was given by Ian Newton (whose latest excellent book was reviewed here), another talk was about the birds of the ‘heart…
Oscar Dewhurst – Siskin at WWT Wetland Centre, Barnes
Mark writes: this photo reminds me of walks alongside the River Chew in north Somerset, as a teenage boy, where I saw my first ever Siskins and Redpolls. They were usually in Alder trees – just like this one. I’ve seen a Redpoll already this year – but, rather surprisingly, not a Siskin. I’m quite…
Sunday Book Review – Ten Thousand Birds: ornithology since Darwin by Tim Birkhead, Jo Wimpenny and Bob Montgomerie
This is a wonderful book. It might not appeal to everybody but it is right up my street and it will be a book to which I return, often, over many years. It’s about the study of birds, and the contribution made by ornithologists (and birds!) to our understanding of evolution, population regulation, sexual selection,…