Category: Uncategorized
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More On Marinus
I was at Stanley Park for meetings today so went to the lake at lunchtime to go through the gulls. Very little turns up among them, but as spring approaches there is always the chance of something dropping in like last spring’s Iceland Gull. Today was notable for no fewer than five Great Black-backed Gulls,…
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Irony Overload
The Willow Tit is probably Britain’s fastest declining bird. It is presumed to be extinct as a breeding bird on the Fylde and yet birds continue to appear. One is visiting a feeder at Inskip, one was seen at a feeder in Preston last year, I heard one near a feeder at Little Singleton the…
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Buzzards – bouncing back
I have just started reading The Accidental Countryside by Stephen Moss. I’ll address the main themes in the book when I eventually review it on here, for now I want to mention the prologue. This is a reminder of the chequered history of Peregrines, the impacts of hunting and pesticides and their recovery and recolonisation.…
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Bird The Weather
There’s a received wisdom to always bird the weather. If you are fairly local and I assume most you are you won’t have missed that it has been a stormy weekend in north west England. So with a couple of Little Gulls blown in at Heysham and one at Seaforth Docks, Liverpool yesterday I decided…
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Abundance – Nature In Recovery
I have read Karen Lloyd’s latest work over the last few days, so this is effectively a book review. But I’ve also been on writing workshops Karen led over the last twelve months. So it’s difficult to be objective. Also I’ve heard extracts and the arguments being made at online events so I wasn’t coming…
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Foula Focus
I was browsing old pictures today so I thought for a change I would major on images rather than words. All these photographs were taken last May on a trip to Foula. I am going again this year, hopefully it will be just as enjoyable second time round.
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The Tide Is Higher
Little Singleton isn’t a place to go at high tide unless the tide is high. By that I mean a normal high tide removes the exposed river banks and offers no compensating benefits. A spring tide is a completely different matter, as birds are funnelled up from downriver and others that are normally out of…
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Missing Mergansers
The Fylde Bird Club newsletter came out yesterday. This prompted a few thoughts on my part. This included how far the standard of local bird club newsletters has come on, with advances in photography and desktop publishing. It also struck me that it’s a bit sad that finder’s accounts of rarities are somewhat old hat…
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Fifty Not Out
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…
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John Wilson – Changes In Bird Populations Over A Lifetime
Tonight’s Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society online meeting was a real treat for over 60 members as they heard club president John Wilson reflect on over 75 years personal experience of birding the area. Like most young boys of his era John got involved in egg collecting to a degree. He was something of an…
Natural Selection 