What has stayed the same?

In the June issue of British Birds – which has a lovely, vicious sparrowhawk on its cover, I was struck by the juxtaposition of two papers.  One was about lesser-spotted woodpeckers and the other about Dartford warblers in the Thames Basin heathlands of Surrey. Each was an interesting and valuable record of what we know,…

Don’t bank on it, 2

And we pick up yesterday’s blog on a boat to the Isle of May with gannets fishing around us… The sun had gone and I was glad that I had opted for a combination of short-sleeved shirt and jacket as an each-way bet on the weather.  You can’t bank on the weather over a five-hour…

Don’t bank on it, 1

Having seen a rosefinch at Fife Ness on Tuesday, a trip to the Isle of May on Wednesday seemed a good bet. The May is famous for its seabirds,  and the studies of them which have been carried out there, and as a place for seeing migrants.  Just as Fife Ness reaches out to tired…

In the rough

On Tuesday I spent several hours in the rough but didn’t have anything to complain about. I don’t know Fife that well and enjoyed being shown around by my host for this trip (of whom, more, probably, later). We looked in at the Eden Estuary and admired the seals as a whimbrel flew up the…