Standing up for Nature
It’s that time of year when Birdwatch magazine invites its readers and the world (almost the same, surely?) to vote for their Conservation Hero of the Year, Guano Award for Environmental Harm, Book of the Year and a host of other awards. I’ve had a quick look, and some categories I find easy and others…
Every few years we have a Waxwing winter when these highly attractive birds turn up in numbers and strip the berries from Rowan trees all over the place and Cotoneaster bushes in Tesco car parks. Waxwings come here in years of Waxwing abundance and berry-scarcity in Scandinavia. They are superb birds and all the more…
I slightly covet my neighbour’s Walnut tree but I’m not sure how good the walnuts are. What I do know is that the local Jackdaws love them, as does what appears to be a single Rook. The Jackdaws seem to arrive just after 9am every morning (why then?) and take away individual walnuts in their…
Snettisham Beach this morning as the mist cleared and the tide rose – brilliant. We didn’t exactly have the place to ourselves as there were lots of people with binoculars and telescopes (maybe 100 or so) but we were all outnumbered by around 100,000 waders or more – probably more than half of them were…
Yesterday’s BirdTrack reporting rate graph was Kingfisher. I’m not sure I would have identified this species from its reporting rate – it’s not a very common/obvious species because its reporting rate is quite low. What happens in June – September? Is this when juveniles disperse and there is more whizzing around and indeed more calling?…
Yesterday’s Birdtrack reporting rate graph was Blackbird. The biggest clue is the high reporting rate through the year. As with all the reporting rate graphs (reporting rate is the proportion of all complete lists of birds in which the species is recorded) the shape of the graph is affected by where birders go and what…
Tim Melling’s photographs and text on Green Woodpeckers on Saturday were well-timed for me because on my recent visits to Stanwick Lakes, my local patch, I’ve recorded Green Woodpeckers on each recent visit even though I’ve not seen a single one. They are very shouty at this time of year. And I’ve heard some from…
I’ve gone back to look at the BirdTrack reporting rate graphs for two species which I think exemplify Lockdown – House Sparrow and Little Egret. During Lockdown from 24 March until late May there was a big increase in reporting rate (% of complete bird species lists entered into Birdtrack) for House Sparrow. The simplest…
I live in east Northamptonshire at the moment, in a District Council area called East Northants which is the eastern end of Northamptonshire and is one of seven district councils; East Northants, Northampton, Wellingborough, Corby, Kettering, Daventry and South Northants. But soon Northamptonshire is being split into two new local council areas: West Northants and…
My run of seeing Swifts every day above my garden lasted from 1 May until 13 August – I think that is 105 days. They were difficult to get on the last couple of those days – both times it took until late evening to see one. But none on 14 and 15 August and…