Natural Selection

This is my half century of entries on this blog. I haven’t missed a day, WordPress like Ebird call this a streak. I am not sure the pressure to maintain these ‘streaks’ is conducive to good mental health, but I will be on Foula in the spring without laptop internet access so I know radio silence will occur in due course and in the meantime and I am pleased to have developed the habit of writing.

Looking back at January I have enjoyed some productive local birding. I found Pale-bellied Brent and Greenland White-fronted Geese in local Pink-foot flocks that have generally been low on stranger content. Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society called off their goose chase on Saturday on this basis, hopefully there is still more to come in February. I have also enjoyed some productive ring reading of gulls, doing my bit for Citizen Science.

In the here and now I checked the gull at Mereside again today at lunchtime. Lesser Black-backed Gulls are increasing as birds return from further south. There was nothing else evident among the Herring Gulls, but persistence may deliver something over the next few months. Heading past the police station I was genuinely thrilled to see a Kestrel hovering on the edge of our housing estate, and when it joined another on a lamppost I was about as beside myself as I tend to get. Further into the journey home on our Grange Park Estate I saw three Collared Doves at the roadside, hence today’s header picture.

Looking ahead for those interested in nature writing I see the Lancaster Litfest Event in March includes a session on Women and Nature. Editor of the book of that name Katherine Norbury will be joined by contributors Polly Atkin and Karen Lloyd reading their work. For anyone in the Lancaster area with an interest in nature writing this will certainly be worth a look, and there is also a writing workshop with Anita Sethi. Further details are available at http://www.litfest.org.