Natural Selection

On my way to Friday night football fixtures in Barrow last autumn I checked gull roosts at Newbiggin and Roosebeck several times. I reported a number of colour ringed gulls from these sites, and as a result Ros Green contacted me today. A GPS transmitter had detached from the Shelduck it was monitoring and washed…

Never start with an apology, but sorry for the highly unoriginal post title. It references the excellent radio series and book by the late Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine seeking out endangered wildlife. Those of you younger than me may better remember the remake with Stephen Fry replacing the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy author.…

It strikes me that I’ve had mixed opinions on the critically acclaimed nature writing I’ve read of late. Some stuff has been a bit of a slog to get through. Islands of Abandonment isn’t in that category, it’s great. Beginning with some spoil heaps in Scotland Cal Flyn takes in some of the most damaged…

I’ve just finished this book. Rather than re-type my Goodreads review I am sharing that below for those who don’t have access to that site. With regard to the ornithological comments, as the detail of this would sit better in this blog it included from memory a statement that terns winter in Northern Europe and…

Apologies if all my readership know this but imprinting is an important part of the formative days and weeks of many young birds. If a chick accidentally gets detached from its brood in certain circumstances it can get the wrong idea about its parents. In zoos and other collections if care isn’t taken birds can…

I went through the gulls on the Leven Estuary at Greenodd both on the way to the Barrow game and on the way back. Second helpings was worthwhile as I had a couple of ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls after little on the way in. I will hopefully remember to post the details of youngster N:W18…

What’s up the Walrus on a card in my home office asks. Well in the Walrus world what’s up is probably climate change, but this has been temporarily supplanted by the killing of a female named Freya in Oslo harbour this weekend. Freya had developed something of a following as she wandered round the North…

Those with long memories will recall this blog is supposed to include my own creative writing, and reviews of the writing of others as well as birding write ups. Part of the reason for the paucity of book reviews is it has taken me a while to plough through nearly 500 pages of this weighty…

I was in two minds whether to go out in the time between finishing work and the football tonight. This was not least because the tide wasn’t great for the sites I would normally go in a short gap, Skippool and Little Singleton. I went to the latter anyway, and was glad I did. Greylags…

The last couple of evenings I’ve been down at Lytham Jetty birding the Ribble Estuary. I laid to rest the Spoonbill dip of last week, both nights half a dozen were doing what Spoonbills do as in very little most of the time. They were also on the other side of the river both days…