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…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
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…
Birding in North Wales
I had headed up to North Wales on Sunday afternoon for our early Monday-morning start to enjoy the wonders of a Black Grouse lek. I called in on the ‘Lake’ site for Hen Harriers that I mention in Inglorious (see Chapter 5) but there were few signs of spring in the mountains of Snowdonia. I…
Birds and trees
Do you remember this image from Oscar Dewhurst? When I saw the image below, sent by blog reader Chris Gee, I wondered for a minute whether it was ‘same tree, different bird’ but a closer look proved that it wasn’t. Have you answered this short questionnaire on Little Owls?
Delivery by DPD
Sometimes there are interesting things on one’s doorstep. I was taking a stroll to the postbox the other day when a flock of c25 Pied Wagtails flew over calling. It was nearly dusk and so I assumed that they were heading off to roost somewhere. I spent some time in the autumn searching unsuccessfully…
The Birds
Comments Off on The Birds
Do you ever listen to Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 between 1045pm and 11pm? I do, although the fact that it is around my bedtime usually means that I fall asleep before 11pm and get snatches of the story on a few nights a week! But it opens my ears, temporarily, to books that…
A dull day in Kettering
A dull day in Kettering (yesterday) was brightened up here, in the School Lane car park, by a flock of Waxwings which spent most of their time in the tops of the two Alders (what fine trees they are) shown here. I knew these birds had been here for a couple of days so…