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Little Wins
‘Garganey Group’ by the late British artist Noel Cusa Five years ago I took on the Breeding Bird Survey square on the outskirts of Lindal-in-Furness. I was up in South Cumbria more often to watch Barrow AFC, and when I enquired this was the nearest empty square to my parents. It was something of a…
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Publications Update
I sometimes forget that this blog was originally set up to provide a platform for my writing, rather than to give life histories of ringed gulls. Fear not larophiles I will return to ringed gulls very soon, as I’ve had some good recoveries recently. But for now an update on my published / to be…
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Third Time Lucky
Myerscough Quarry is a number of gravel pits near Bilsborrow. It was put on the birding map by my friend Stuart Piner, who covered it diligently when he lived nearby. Over the last ten years I’ve been one of the more frequent visitors, partly because I took on the monthly wildfowl count and partly because…
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Lovely Weather For Ducks
Yesterday I was leading a ramble for Fylde Coast Ramblers out of Coniston and round Tarn Hows. The rain was biblical. I will return to that later but first a couple of points about the visit last week for the reccy. Near the Coniston Inn there was a flock of Greylags and Canada Geese. Checking…
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Book Review: Pan-Species Listing by Graeme Lyons
At the outset a brief explanation is probably helpful. Pan-species listing is a largely British pursuit where people try and see, identify and record all species of plant and animal life. This includes anything above bacteria level, from microscopic flies and tardigrades to whales. It is still a relatively niche pursuit but has become steadily…
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Algeria South – Part 3
On our final day of birding our numbers were further reduced as one of the group was unwell and stayed in their hotel room. The rest of us had a look at the hotel grounds whilst waiting for our police escort. We had good views of White-rumped Seedeaters as well as the Red-billed Firefinches. A…
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Algeria South (Part 2)
Yesterday majored on a Sudan Golden Sparrow site to the north of Tamanrasset. As previously explained my camera was dead, but even though there were lots of birds about it was difficult to get prolonged views. I’ve borrowed one of Nick Bray’s shots to illustrate the blog. These birds are clearly doing very well in…
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Algeria – South (Part 1)
We landed in Tamanrasset well after midnight, and with us needing to be escorted to the hotel by the police it was about half two in the morning before we were in our rooms. This led to me not having my camera fully charged, so the pictures are all from round the hotel. A circuit…
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Algeria – North
I have come on a split Algeria tour despite not being a serious Western Palearctic lister. Everyone else needs Algerian Nuthatch in the northern oak forests and several birds on the fringe of their ranges in the south. I very much wanted Algerian Nuthatch obviously, because they only occur in Algeria and I’ll never be…
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Late To The Party
Eurasian White-fronted Goose by Paul Slade Easterly winds just prior to Christmas brought an influx of scarce geese to Britain, including this neck of the woods. Both subspecies of Greater-Whitefronted Goose and Tundra Bean Geese were appearing all over the country, and often tagging along with Pinkfeet and even Greylag flocks. So naturally I wanted…
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Natural Selection 