I didn’t plan it, but if I’d thought about it then maybe I would have done. In my columns in the current issues of British Wildlife and Birdwatch I discuss two issues where opinions differ. In British Wildlife I discuss the rather poor working relationship between animal welfare organisations and nature conservation organisations and contrast…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
Those fledged Pallid Harriers from The Netherlands
This was the story – click here. And here is the video… Lovely – just lovely!
Pallid Harriers nest successfully in The Netherlands
The first nesting of Pallid Harriers in western Europe has occurred in the Netherlands this year, and the birds have fledged four young (all females). The birds were discovered by Willem-Pier Vellinga, a volunteer of the Dutch Montagu’s Harrier Foundation. This successful nesting of a rare species is only now being publicised at the…
News from my patch, Stanwick Lakes
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There is a colony of Black-headed Gulls on the lake next to the A45 which forms part of my local patch of Stanwick Lakes. And this year, some of the gulls with black heads really did have black heads because they were Mediterranean Gulls, a pair of which nested among the brown-headed Black-headed Gulls. …
House Martins
It seems that many of you are missing your House Martins this year too. The other evening there was just an occasional single bird flying above me as I sat in the garden in the evening – I’d expect them to be present almost all the time and in numbers of up to double figures….
House Martins – it looks like a poor year
One of the problems of not having been in the UK for about a month this spring is that I have not seen spring build as I normally do. And I am still catching up. The few pairs of House Martins in my street aren’t there this year. And there aren’t any just around the…
Birdwatchers are smoking mad
Birdwatchers are up in arms at the description of the new colour for cigarette packets as ‘the world’s ugliest colour’. Pantone 448 c is the colour which dominates the wardrobes of many UK birders – although not that of Lee G R Evans. Staff of clothing firms Country Innovation, Rohan and Paramo are reaching…
Male Pallid Harrier sets up home in Bowland
Many thanks to Tim Sarney for these images. What a turn-up eh?
Spring unwinding at Stanwick Lakes
I know I won’t get any sympathy for this, but I feel I am missing out on the true spring experience this year. I’ve just spent two weeks in Spain and got back to the UK on Tuesday evening. Before I left I had seen or heard Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Sand Martin at…
Black v Red
The moorland where we watched Black Grouse display yesterday morning – we saw about 40 birds altogether – also holds Red Grouse. The Black Grouse were displaying and singing but the Red Grouse were behaving like the silent majority in the early morning. Let’s say there are around 100 Black Grouse at this site (maybe…