I’ve visited the Kettering Starbucks a couple of time in the last two months as it’s a pleasanter place to hang around, if one has to, than the Kettering Hospital car park. On my first visit there was a guy cutting the grass with whom I got into conversation as I drank my coffee outside….
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BBS extra
I told you, as I usually do, about my visits to my two Breeding Bird Survey squares (see here and here). Having done the surveys and entered the data online I thought I was done but those nice people in BTO HQ wanted to wring a little more from my volunteer effort because I had…
Let them eat croissants!
I like a good croissant – don’t you? Thursday mornings are now ASDA delivery mornings chez-nous, comme d’habitude. A wide variety of deliverymen (and yes, they have all been hommes to date) arrive in our early morning slot and deliver some of what we ordered. This is a covid-legacy pour nous. There is a minimum…
Football’s coming – to a glorious finale on Sunday evening?
My week: I’ve had a busy week this week but an enjoyable one. It’s been one of those weeks where several things have all demanded my time: Wild Justice discussions with lawyers, accountants, donors and each other; World Land Trust papers for the next trustee meeting; the first visit of our five-month-old grandson to our…
BBS completed
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Last week I revisited ‘my’ two Breeding Bird Survey squares to carry out the second surveys at each to complete the data collection for 2021. BBS1, as I shall call it, is arable farmland and I have now completed 17 years of surveying it for the national scheme, and BBS2 is mostly farmland by the…
BBS 2021
Last weekend, the May Bank Holiday weekend, it was back to normal and I made my first visits to ‘my’ two BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey squares in the Northants countryside. Let’s call the two sites BBS1 and BBS2. Actually, when I say back to normal, there is no such thing as a normal Spring as…
Slow Spring
It feels like a slow Spring. Not only is this apple tree about 10 days behind last year but so are many of our migrant birds. Although the ‘first records’ for arrival dates of spring migrant birds in the UK, or parts of it like my home county of Northants, are distinctly on the early…
Normally…
This is one of those familiar x-rays of a shot raptor – see the pellets? I’m not at my best when identifying dead birds from x-rays but this is apparently a Red Kite. And Gloucestershire police would like anyone with information to step forward… I noticed that someone commented on this subject that they wouldn’t…
British Wildlife April 2021
This is a particularly good issue of the almost always particularly good British Wildlife. From Peter Marren, arguing for Swanscombe Peninsula to be protected, to Twitcher in the Swamp demonstrating that he (is Twitcher a he? I believe so) has supernatural powers to write about nature conservation in a sardonic but meaningful way, it is…
Garden thoughts
A flip side of being able to nip down to Stanwick Lakes regularly this year (see yesterday’s blog), unlike last year, is that I spend less time tuning in to Spring in the garden. But, it has recently been so cold , it’s the wind you know, that sitting in the garden is currently less…