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…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
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)
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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…
BGBW 2021 – how was it for you?
A fairly average BGBW with 29 individual birds of 13 species; Starling (6), House Sparrow (7), Chaffinch (2), Dunnock (1), Goldfinch (3), Collared Dove (1), Robin (1), Blackbird (2), Blue Tit (2), Coal; Tit (1), Woodpigeon (1), Reed Bunting (1) and Jackdaw (1). Our regular Blackcap(s) wasn’t seen yesterday and didn’t turn up today despite…
Snow birds
Sunday’s snow has lingered but it will soon be gone as it is raining now. But the snow always brings a few more birds into our garden although the Song Thrush and Redwing seen today were next door, not chez nous. I doubt that either will be around at the weekend for the RSPB Big…
Birdwatch?
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The Guardian reports that Twitter will trial a means of allowing users to flag and annotate misleading or inaccurate tweets – this will be called Birdwatch in an attempt to piggy-back on the respected profile of the UK’s premier birdwatching magazine. A spokesperson for Birdwatch magazine may have said ‘We’re touched that the small inconsequential…