One of the noticeable things about America is the number and variety of churches. I don’t go to church but I am quite proud of my local church at home. It has an impressive spire, medieval wall paintings and has dominated the landscape for hundreds of years. If I come home after dark I can…
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Day 3 – extra blog
I was writing that last blog just before going out for a quick bite to eat and something to drink. I sat in Henderson’s On Deck Riverside Bar overlooking the Ohio River. I watched the sun set behind the trees on the other side of the river while sitting outside eating tacos and drinking coke….
History – Day 3
American history must be quite easy – they don’t have as much of it as we do. But then maybe they have more future than us? Who knows? Actually (oh!, and by the way, today’s waitress is Susan), the USA seems to have fitted in a revolution, a civil war, a couple of World Wars…
Day 2 – Louisiana to Kentucky
Jet lag is a funny thing. Despite having a very long day yesterday, and feeling knackered as I crawled into bed, I woke after just over four hours and have been awake from 0230 local time until after 2200 local time (although, the six hours that someone gave me as extras yesterday have been reduced…
Long day, number 1
I am writing this in Shreveport, Louisiana. It’s been a long day so it will be a short blog. The day started in the UK at 430 am and at 430 pm I set off in my hire car from George Bush (presumably Snr, but maybe both) International Airport, Houston, TX . It’s now 930…
Birds in the Bath
I was in London last week and had my first ever look inside Westminster Abbey. The price of entry almost put me off – £18! And as we all queued to pay, everything paused for a prayer to come over the public address system – it’s good that the Church makes Mammon wait for God…
‘Standing up for nature’ goes to America
My main task between now and the end of September is to finish writing a book ‘on’ the passenger pigeon for Bloomsbury – and for me and for you! 1 September 2014 will mark the centenary of the extinction of this bird – probably the most numerous bird in the world a few decades before…
Sublime
I failed completely in January and March but I hit the target in February and April. On Friday evening I visited Glapthorn Cow Pasture for my annual search for nightingales. They are pretty reliable, and there had been one reported a couple of days before, so although it was at the early end of arrival…
Tilting at the RSPB
That James Delingpole – he’s a bit of a card isn’t he? His latest rant, which resembles quite a few of his previous rants, is about the RSPB supporting carefully-sited wind turbines. It’s well worth a read to see how thin the arguments are. The RSPB is making ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds a year’…
It always surprises me
When I am filling in a list of species seen at my local patch of Stanwick Lakes on the fairly wonderful Birdtrack something always trips me up, mentally speaking. I go through the list in systematic order ticking off the usual mute swan, greylag and Canada geese, followed by a bunch of ducks. Then there…