If you get the chance to go to the Ghosts of gone birds exhibition then do! I had a look yesterday afternoon and I hope to get back for another look before it finishes on 23 November. Ceri Levy the curator and co-creator of the exhibition told me he was very pleased with how busy…
Category: ME:
Never seen that before
Last weekend I revisited one of the haunts of my youth – a place called Steart or Stert. And I’m going with Stert as I’ve always known it as ‘Sturt’ rather than ‘Steert’. As spotty teenagers at Bristol Grammar School we would, under the guardianship of masters Derek Lucas and Tony Warren, make two autumn…
Coach me
Last Sunday I was one of 33 mid-Nene RSPB Local Group members who set off from east Northants at 7ish for the delights of the RSPB nature reserve at Titchwell. And delightful it was, too. Heading across the Fens we hoped that the forecast rain wouldn’t arrive before we’d seen a few decent birds. Just…
My autumn – how about yours?
This is the ivy in my garden – it was buzzing with hoverflies, flies, wasps, ladybirds, a red admiral and spiders yesterday. I like looking at ivy at this time of year – in the sunshine – as it attracts lots of insects. And it’s worth a careful look – the more you look the…
Even a dull walk is worth having
Just a few thoughts from a walk around my local patch at Stanwick Lakes in east Northants yesterday morning; not many blackberries on the bushes this year – but lots of apples in the garden a few speckled wood butterflies were almost the only butterflies compared with just under a fortnight ago warblers were very…
Talking naturally
I really enjoyed being interviewed by Charlie Moores in the garden of a Luton pub, and I really enjoyed listening to the interview again now it is online. We discussed farmers, grouse moors, the BTO, how I got into the RSPB and how I got out of it and I was asked to disclose the identity of…
Reach for the round up!
Sparrow Survival, a wholly mythical NGO, reacted calmly to the news revealed in the erudite Sun ‘newspaper’ that one whole blue tit was eaten by a carnivorous plant, with the following statement: ‘We love plants but they’ll all have to die. This is proof-positive that plants are the cause of all songbird declines and they’ll just…
Are you a European?
I was just too young to vote in the referendum of 1975 but as a politically-aware sixth former I followed the debate and the arguments about whether the UK should stay in the European Economic Community (which the UK joined in 1973 (alongside Ireland and Denmark, swelling the original six members (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium,…
And finally?
So after 6 weeks (slightly more), 10,000 miles by car (slightly less), 270 bird species (slightly more) and 100 ‘lifers’ (more), what’s it all been for?? Well, this was a holiday so it was about relaxing and I relaxed, but it was a holiday only possible after I gave up the well-paid post of RSPB…
Mostly birds
My friends, family and work colleagues (especially my long-time former PA, the saintly Claire) will tell you that they are extremely lucky that I do not have moods. But if I did, then this morning’s would not have been one of the best. I woke early (which is good) realising that I was in this grotty…