If, like me, you enjoy seeing wintering Blackcaps in your garden then this paper may well be of interest.
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
Spring uncoiling at Stanwick Lakes
This Spring is different from last in so many ways. Every Spring is different, but each has Hope written through it. It’s a time when things get better – the days get longer, they get warmer, and the natural world springs into a greater abundance of sound and colours each day. As far as Nature…
My binoculars’ 45th
I took my binoculars for a walk this morning – we went to Stanwick Lakes on their 45th birthday. They seemed to cope well enough. They weren’t needed to identify the singing Chiffchaffs but they came into their own for some distant Sand Martins – my first of 2021. Later, in the sunny garden as…
Blackbird chorus
I was awake before 3am, and it was raining. But at 5am the rain had ceased and I listened to the dawn chorus – a Blackbird chorus. It was simply wonderful. A free treat. Not of our making, and not for us, but nonetheless something we can enjoy. I seem to be going to bed…
A few birds
When I make the first cup of tea of the day at around 6am we have arrived at the time of year when I don’t have to turn a light on in the kitchen to accomplish this task. Indeed, if I step outside the back door while the kettle is boiling, or pause on the…
Blackcaps
I hadn’t seen the Blackcap(s) in my garden for a week but yesterday I did see one, so they are still around. My Birdtrack records show that most of my sightings are in January and February but a few linger into March. Last year was the first that it appeared that the wintering birds turned…
Disgusted of Norfolk in the Telegraph
Last week RaptorPersecutionUK highlighted this letter in the Telegraph. It stands as a monument to a largely bygone age, an age of intolerance to people and some wildlife species too. It is the antithesis to progress and enlightenment. These views are not completely gone, but it’s good that they are going. I assume that the…
Time to brush up on bird song (2)
Last spring I wrote series of blog posts, 50 in all, about bird song – we were all in lockdown and people were listening more. The blogs went down very well. Well, now is a good time to revise, or simply start, listening to bird song and getting to recognise the species involved. Of course,…
Time to brush up on bird song (1)
Last spring I wrote series of blog posts, 50 in all, about bird song – we were all in lockdown and people were listening more. The blogs went down very well. Well, now is a good time to revise, or simply start, listening to bird song and getting to recognise the species involved. Of course,…
Here we go again…
An immature White-tailed Eagle from the Isle of Wight reintroduction project has spent a few daysin Northants recently, at Pitsford Reservoir, before continuing its wanderings southwards into Oxfordshire and maybe back to its release site on the IoW. Here in Northants we don’t really consider ourselves to be within striking distance of ther IoW but…