I’ve lived here for about 30 years but nature can give you new sights every day, not just every year. There are plenty of cheerful-sounding Jackdaws that career up and down the road, sticking to the chimneys and rooftops. I like them a lot. Just because they are here every day it doesn’t mean that…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
At the Birdwatch offices
I popped into the offices of Birdwatch in north London last week – I’d never been there before. I’ve been writing a monthly column, The Political Birder, for Birdwatch more or less since I left the RSPB over four years ago. This is not an activity that will allow me to retire with a full…
Booming Bitterns
Good news on Bitterns yesterday from the RSPB – 11 males in 1997, over 150 males in 2015 after years of conservation science, habitat management, habitat re-creation and partnership working. And this was, no-one would deny, led by the RSPB. We await the congratulatory press release from YFTB. At Ham Wall, there are apparently 17…
The military career of Jacob the goose.
Since it is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, where the Coldstream Guards fought with gallantry that day at Hougoumont Farm, it seems fitting to recall the military career of Jacob the goose, also of the Coldstream Guards. In 1839 the Coldstream Guards were sent to Quebec in our colony in Canada. There,…
Timing is everything
Yesterday I did the first visit to my first BBS square. I might have done it on Bank Holiday Monday but my plan, based on a favourable forecast, was to see lots of butterflies in the Chilterns on Monday. However, the forecast was an accurate weather forecast rather than a butterfly forecast and the Dukes…
Songbird Survival Twitter account goes bonkers
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Songbird Survival got involved in a discussion with @HenryHenHarrier and myself (@markavery) at the weekend, but their Twitter account seemed to go a bit bonkers. In response to every question about Songbird Survival’s views, they tweeted about Spoonbills at Holkham. Their top trump appeared to be a review of Holkham Hall on tripadvisor. Ooh err!…
Uncoiling Spring
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I’ve been at Stanwick Lakes each morning for the last four and although Spring still has plenty of tension in it, it is beginning to unwind. Over the past four mornings Sedge Warblers have moved from absent (to my ears) to occasional, to all over the place and everywhere I would expect them to be….
Coiled spring
Bank Holiday Monday proved to be a taster of spring – it feels as though spring is coiled and waiting to be released. I started with a walk at the local former airdrome on the Northants/Beds border. Eight of the nine wind turbines were spinning round even though there was little wind at ground level….
Vote Hen Harrier as national bird
Today, the voting for Britain’s national bird starts in earnest. The 10 shortlisted species, on the basis of 70,000 votes cast last autumn are (in alphabetical order): Barn Owl Blackbird Blue Tit Hen Harrier Kingfisher Mute Swan Puffin Red Kite Robin Wren You can vote now and right up until after the polls close in…
Same old song
A reader of this blog was shocked, and somewhat horrified, to find this leaflet flutter out of his Farmers Guardian last week. He cancelled his subscription. This would be an excellent leaflet to give to a mixed group of students – biology students and media studies students – and ask them to analyse it….