Natural Selection

One of the odd things about bird news is that when it is reported by someone who doesn’t do regular birding they are often referred to as ‘a member of the public’. It makes me wonder what birders are if they aren’t members of the public, some kind of secret society perhaps. Birders are often…

I’m probably being too clever by half with the title, so let me explain. Last Saturday morning there was a Cumbria Bird Club meeting at St Bees, the western outpost of the county. As a Club committee member I wanted to go, but I didn’t feel driving to a birding jaunt so far away was…

I will get round to Foula reflections. I will also write up my green birding jaunt to St Bees at the weekend. I might also do something on my friend Nick’s amazing find of a British bird a long way from home last week. For now though I am getting back into the swing of…

I will get round to some musings about birding Foula in spring, but in the meantime here are some cute Puffin pics.

I am going to do a few posts about my recent Shetland trip, which consisted of a week on Foula and just shy of that on Out Skerries. They will hopefully be uplifting and inspiring generally, but it’s not possible to talk about birding Foula this spring without first addressing the impacts of bird flu.…

There’s probably no more appropriate time to review this book than now. I am rained off in Lerwick at the end of a couple of weeks in Shetland, and spent half an hour this afternoon talking on the street to one contributor (Dennis Coutts) and said hi to another as we crossed the road in…

Observant readers will already have noticed this one isn’t just about birds. It’s also not just about Skerries either. Before heading out to the isles I took part in the Relay for Cancer Research, a twelve hour overnight charity walk. There had been a Bearded Seal right in the centre of Lerwick, and I eventually…

I haven’t been doing a very good job of getting these done, and I am conscious the quality of the pictures in this one are a bit mixed but hopefully someone will enjoy reading this instalment. Jane came on this trip and it was a lovely week weather wise. I particularly remember sunbathing on the…

There was a lot of coverage of Skerries in the autumn of 2017. A group of Scarborough birders had found a Yellow-breasted Bunting, a bird it was thought at the time might never be seen again in Britain. It was so unexpected that some birders chartered the island ferry on a day it didn’t normally…

Bluethroats have been arriving in Shetland in small numbers today. I haven’t had time to do a Best Stays piece tonight, so I’m doing a short photo gallery of some Bluethroats I’ve seen over the years. Some readers may not be familiar with this Robin like species, it should be clear where they get their…