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Natural Selection

A mix of birding news and creative writing about nature in Blackpool and beyond

  • Book Review – Walking The King Charles III Coast Path

    I’ve used this blog to do book reviews when I’ve read something new, so here are my thoughts on Ange Harker’s recently published guide to the north western portion of the officially launched England coastal path. “I’ve used Cicerone guides numerous times over the years, and this is right up there with the most useful…

    stephendunstan76

    16th Sep 2026
    Uncategorized
    travel, books, book-review, walking, hiking, north-west-england-coastal-path, cicerone, ange-harker
  • Fancy Seeing You Here

    I’ve been spending a bit of time at Tarnacre Quarry recently. This is partly because it’s just off the A586 when I’m headed for Barrow and partly because there’s a lot of birds there. Mostly feral geese to be honest, but they’re still birds and something to look at. A fortnight ago among the Canadas…

    stephendunstan76

    10th Aug 2026
    Uncategorized
    barnacle-goose, birding, Birds, emperor-barnacle-hybrid, emperor-goose, nature, wildlife
  • Review – The Butterfly Season

    One of the occasional functions of this now very occasional blog is to get reviews of new nature books I’ve read to people who might be interested. About a month ago The Observer trailed ‘The Butterfly Season’ by interviewing Lea Korsgaard about her quest to see all Denmark’s breeding butterflies in a calendar year. I…

    stephendunstan76

    27th Jun 2026
    Uncategorized
    books, butterflies, denmark, lea-korsgaard, nature, poetry, writing
  • 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…

    stephendunstan76

    5th May 2026
    Uncategorized
  • 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…

    stephendunstan76

    4th May 2026
    Uncategorized
  • 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…

    stephendunstan76

    12th Apr 2026
    Uncategorized
    birding, Birds, bonapartes-gull, fylde, lancashire, myerscough-quarry, nature, photography, wetland-bird-survey, wildlife
  • 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…

    stephendunstan76

    16th Mar 2026
    Uncategorized
    birding, Birds, coniston, coniston-water, intersex, mallard, Mute Swan, nature, photography, wildlife
  • 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…

    stephendunstan76

    11th Mar 2026
    Uncategorized
    Birds, book-review, books, nature, pan-species-listing, wildlife
  • 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…

    stephendunstan76

    14th Feb 2026
    Uncategorized
  • 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…

    stephendunstan76

    11th Feb 2026
    Uncategorized
    algeria, birding, Birds, liechtensteins-sandgrouse, nature, photography, rock-hyrax, senegalese-parrot, wildlife
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