Natural Selection

I’ve had a long-standing wish to see a Small Blue butterfly. I achieved that ambition today and I’m pleased. So now we know there’s a happy ending let’s rewind a bit. Names given to animal species can sometimes be left field, but this is the smallest blue butterfly in Britain. It’s scarce and declining, and…

Many thanks to Karen Lloyd for sending me a copy of this new book published by Saraband. I got through most of it on the journey home from holiday, and read the rest today. Andrew Millham’s first book explores the relationship between birds and folk songs. It’s an area briefly covered in Patrick Galbraith’s In…

I’ve always wanted to see a pterodroma petrel. Soft-plumaged Petrel in old money, most realistically Fea’s Petrel or less likely Zino’s Petrel in new money. I haven’t helped myself by my only visit to Madeira being in October, when they’ve departed. I could also have just gone seawatching in Ireland in August a few times…

This blog has an identity crisis. It’s very rarely a photo-essay, but today it is. I hope some readers will find something of interest in it. This morning in the Ribeiro Salgado there was at least one Purple Heron, and a Grey Heron. I got a few pics so here they are. Purple heron above,…

There’s plenty of reasons to be cheerful on a sunny island off Madeira. But looked at objectively the birding involves relatively few species. If I was to have been asked what my target would be, I think I’d have said ideally a good bird from the east and a good ‘un from the west. That’s…

Hoopoe and Junior today Technically I’m not in Madeira, I’m back on Porto Santo where I spent a week last autumn. I came here with Jane then, but she can’t get the leave so this time I’m on my own. Someone decided to teach me a lesson for coming away on my tod as there…

I was in Barrow on a hospital visit when I saw the above Lesser Black-backed Gull as I stopped for fuel. It has a crossbow bolt through its neck. I grabbed a few shots, but the bird rather understandably didn’t allow close approach. It appears to have other bolts / bolt wounds as well, but…

I’ve been meaning to post about seeing dolphins a week last Friday but life has been getting in the way. In the meantime I’ve managed to completely miss a spectacular passage of Little Gulls through the area. But I don’t care, I’ve seen dolphins off Blackpool Prom and that always works for me. It was…

I’m not doing myself any favours today with my choice of topic. I’ve watched an Osprey catching a fish at close range only a handful of miles from my childhood home, something I’ve meant to get round to since they colonised south west Cumbria. I’ve also been mesmerised by swarms of Sand Martins appearing over…

Today’s birding consisted of a Lancaster Breeding Atlas tetrad. I was doing SD45L, which is the area shown in the map below. Note the word ‘airfield’. This is the Black Knights parachuting facility, and they were doing a roaring trade enabling people to jump out of their light aircraft today. The birds, in addition to…