Standing up for Nature
Yesterday produced my first Swallow of the year at Stanwick Lakes. Spring is ticking slowly along. This Swallow was a little bit later than my earliest records but well within the range, according to my records from Birdtrack. It still feels as though spring is a bit unsprung to me though. And it certainly felt…
I heard my first Sedge Warbler of the year at Stanwick Lakes yesterday – and it wasn’t my only ‘first’. The weather forecast was a bit rubbish but it wasn’t raining when I made some tea at 0630 and so the aim was to get to Stanwick Lakes before the rain started. I almost didn’t…
I heard my first Willow Warbler of the year at my local patch of Stanwick Lakes this morning. It seems to have been a long time coming since the first Chiffchaff was three weeks ago! I think of my first Willow Warbler as being usually a week to 10 days after the first singing Chiffchaff. …
Yesterday the thaw came. When I ventured out of the house at lunchtime yesterday it was almost warm! There was still snow on the ground but it was getting slushy. The garden bird count was much lower – an experience it seems of many of us. The Fieldfares had gone back to the fields; there…
I haven’t written much about my local patch of Stanwick Lakes for a quite a while. You might think I’ve stopped going out birdwatching but, to the extent that anything does, my regular walks around my regular patch are some of the things that keep me sane and reasonably relaxed. I was up at 5am…
I enjoyed last week – here are some highlights: Monday – Ring-necked Parakeet in London – year tick Tuesday – woke in London at 0530 to the beautiful sound of a singing Blackbird Tuesday – planned the downfall of driven grouse shooting over lunch with friends (can’t fail!) Wednesday – windy, rainy, but went for…
When I went to the local farmers’ market this morning, after a walk at Stanwick Lakes, I learned of this proposed new development (ref 17/01328/ful East Northants District Council) just to the east of the A6 near Rushden. I’ll be looking at this over the weekend – I think objections (or messages of support, of…
The July Birdwatch magazine is now in the shops. My column is about lead ammunition and how Liz Truss’s last action as Environment Secretary was to slip out the government’s response to the lead ammunition report at the very moment that David Cameron was leaving Downing Street. Elsewhere in the magazine is an article…
There is a colony of Black-headed Gulls on the lake next to the A45 which forms part of my local patch of Stanwick Lakes. And this year, some of the gulls with black heads really did have black heads because they were Mediterranean Gulls, a pair of which nested among the brown-headed Black-headed Gulls. …
Yesterday I was at the RSPB nature reserve at Frampton Marsh on a cloudy, slightly drizzly and breezy day. But it was great, and we saw lots of birds. In fact, we saw 68 species and through the wonders of Birdtrack I know that on the same date last year, on another visit to Frampton…