Some time this week a team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will attempt to beat the world record that they set last year of seeing the most North American bird species in a day. Last year they set a record of 264 species in Texas and that’s where they are based now. It’s not…
Tag: Stanwick Lakes
Clockwork?
The sedge warbler has a stuttering song – it starts – it stops – it starts again – it speeds up – it slows down – it trills – it chatters – it clicks and it churrs. It sounds like a mechanical toy which has been wound up and explodes into song until it runs…
In praise of Birdtrack
I am a great fan of Birdtrack. I can see lots of value in the data that are accumulating there in terms of looking at future changes in bird distributions and numbers. But also it allows me to check changes at my local patch at Stanwick Lakes where I go scores of times each year….
It might be spring
My last two visits to Stanwick Lakes have been very spring-like, even if they were both in late February. Reed buntings were singing, if you can call that a song, everywhere, and skylarks, song thrushes and dunnocks were belting out their songs too. I heard Cetti’s warblers for the first time in quite a while….
Biggest flock of linnets in Northants?
I have been more than usually aware of the cold weather this week – for several reasons. I had been looking forward to the fact that there was racing at Newbury as I had a friend’s member’s badge as he was in Rome watching the rugby – but Newbury was off because of the weather…
Yesterday – three strands
I enjoyed yesterday. I launched the Nature of Harming ‘award’ and it generated a lot of interest. Around 250 votes yesterday was pretty good and there was a clear leader at the end of the day. Lots of varied comments and debate – very interesting. If you haven’t voted yet then please do so here. …
Sometimes it all works out
Yesterday was a cold morning but the air was still and so it didn’t feel bitter on my regular walk around Stanwick Lakes. Great tits, dunnocks, chaffinches and robins were singing in the cold morning air. The lakes in the ex-gravel pits were partly frozen but most had small open areas of water in which…
DC, Stanwick and London
Last week I met up with an American birder whom I’d last seen in Rock Creek Park back in May, and took him for a walk in the drizzle around Stanwick Lakes. He had a list of species that he would quite like to see, and many of them were possible on a visit at…
Various again
I went out for a walk on 1 December – it’s one of the things I can do now I am self-employed. There were fresh worm casts on the lawn and quite a lot of insects in the air – it hardly felt like December. At my local patch of Stanwick Lakes there were golden…
A tale of three warblers
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I find that I carry British Birds around with me for ages before I get around to reading it and so this blog is about the September issue which contains the report of the Rare Breeding Bird Panel. The contrasting fortunes of three warblers struck me as I read through the text; Cetti’s, Savi’s and…