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…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
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…
Last and first
The last species of bird I saw in 2016 was Wigeon (although I heard a Coot call a bit later). I was ultimately glad that I went out for a walk instead of sitting in front of a rather dull TV and a rather sparkling log fire – getting out is always worth it even…
Watching birds
As always, there is some good stuff in this month’s Birdwatch. As well as the good news of the guano award for YFTB and the ‘Campaign of the Year’ award for the Ban Driven Grouse Shooting e-petition, there is plenty of other good reading material. I enjoyed reading about the first Irish Harlequin Duck…
Dull day – or maybe not
There are (or were in 2014) more Bearded Tits in the UK than there have been since records began – more than 770 pairs. That’s quite a success story and a lot of these birds nest on nature reserves. Yesterday I strolled down to my local patch of Stanwick Lakes on a dull grey day….
The autumn statement?
A few predictions for phrases for the Chancellor’s autumn statement: it’s a bugger being in the Cabinet – I had no time to get Siberian Accentor unlike almost everyone else in the country. I bet that Ken Clarke has it on his list now. Only 32 European records up until 2015, and none…
Wombling on
The Wombles are fictional furry-nosed creatures with several top-20 musical hits. The Dartford Warbler is a real long-tailed Sylvia warbler most often found on the UK in areas of lowland heathland with a voice that will sell few records. What’s the connection? There’s a Dartford Warbler on Wimbledon Common, the alleged home of the Wombles…