We get wintering Blackcaps in our garden every year, and this spring there was a resident bird through the summer in our neighbourhood too. Yesterday, 6 December, there was a male Blackcap on the fatballs in our garden. That’s great. But it is also the earliest winter record, ever, in our garden. The previous earliest…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
Garden list for 4 weeks of Lockdown2 (unimpressive)
The view from the bathroom window of the ivy on the shed is always worth a look. At this time of year the sinking sun (coming from the right in the image above) catches the top of the ivy in late afternoon and a group of House Sparrows sit in the ivy catching the last…
You’ll be lucky!
The power of birds of prey is illustrated well in this little article about what you might see in Yorkshire – 6 of the 14 species are raptors. Of course, the article does not say that North Yorkshire is known as the UK capital of illegal raptor persecution! The Red Kite above (ahem) is joined…
Lockdown2 birdlist – not much progress
In the first week of Lockdown2 I saw 27 bird species. I saw all of them again this week (except LTTit and Green Woodpecker) but I brought the cumulative list up to 29 with Herring Gull and Rook. It’s not quite like sprng, is it?!
North Northants will fly a Red Kite
This is the propsed logo for the new county of North Northamptonshire from April next year. This is a modified version of one of the logos which was proposed back in the summer. I’m very happy with this and although this wouldn’t have been my preferred option it is an improved version of my second…
Lockdown2 – the first week’s bird list
My Lockdown2 garden bird list is a fairly servicable 27 species, so far. Nothing unusual but the occasional flocks of Redwing, Fieldfare and Skylark make me attentive to what is up in the sky. Here’s my list so far: Woodpigeon Collared Dove Black-headed Gull Common Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Sparrowhawk Red Kite Buzzard Green Woodpecker…
No Waxwing winter this year
It doesn’t look as though this will be a Waxwing winter as numbers seen around the country so far are very low. And the first indications of an invasion are usually large flocks, by this date, in Shetland, eastern Scotland, the northeast of England and East Anglia. Maybe next year? But after looking at this…
A new lockdown
Depending on where you live, today may mark the start of a new lockdown, but depending on your behaviour, it may not make very much difference to what you actually do. Because of caring duties for two mothers in their 90s our household hasn’t got out much since March and we have got accustomed to…
Birders’ behaviour during the pandemic (so far)
This open-access publication looks at birders’ behaviour across a large number of countries and, surprise surprise, most birders have been affected by a global health pandemic. It’s not just you who didn’t get out so much! The paper rightly suggests that citizen science studies will be affected by recent and ongoing movement restrictions but also…
Songbird Survival looking for a CEO – no conservation knowledge or experience necessary
Here’s an opportunity to earn £50,000+ per annum leading an organisation with 1700 members which is the ‘voice for songbirds’. Membership is £20 per annum and of that almost £10 goes to the research fund. So membership subscriptions seem to fund only a third of the CEO salary at most. According to the Charity Commission…