Natural Selection

On the way to watch Barrow secure their Football League status for another season I stopped off at High Carley to do a breeding bird survey in the tetrad SD2675. It’s a nice rural square and when I’ve done the two transects I also get to check an out of the way expanse of water…

On Good Friday I was up in Barrow to watch the Bluebirds play league leaders Forest Green. If I said that I travelled more in hope than expectation that would overstate the optimism involved, but I was pleasantly confounded as a brilliant 4-0 win set up a potential Great Escape from relegation. Before that though…

Listening to a proper dawn chorus is always worth the effort of getting up early. As I parked at Staining Nook this morning it was hard to believe what I know about avian populations in Blackpool and Britain. It was wall to wall (or tree to tree) noise, a crescendo of birdsong. It was life…

At this time of year a few birds that generally breed inland stop off on the Fylde coast on their migration in small numbers. They include species like Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts and Wood Warblers that turn up in Stanley Park and other pockets of trees like the Pleasure Beach bushes I mentioned in a recent…

Regular readers will know that I’ve been revisiting some books I’ve read previously in line with what’s current in my birding and blogging. Following on from Wintering by Steven Rutt I had a second look at Landfill by Tim Dee. I am glad I did. Landfill looks at the relationship between mankind and gulls, in…

As I was passing North Shore after work to collect Jane from the college I had a quick stop at the go kart track and former boating pool to look at the waders. I assume that many of the Turnstones still here well into the spring are non-breeders, though I could be wrong about that.…

With onshore winds some skuas were reported on the Fylde coast today, pushed closer to land. I had a quick look at lunchtime and saw very little. I’m on Foula again in June so I will get views of Great and Arctic Skuas like the one above. It’s a truism but few birds are genuinely…

I thought this might be a depressing entry for my 100th blog post, but it turns out that was the more cheery one about House Sparrows. This one visits some other recurring and less positive themes about urban birds. The Gazette ran a story yesterday about the Council shooting some pigeons that were causing issues…

My old works car park was the other side of Blackpool North station from the office. There were some trees on the frontage of the station that often held a few House Sparrows. The trees, or maybe they were bushes, were cut down to make space for more accessible entry to the railway. I thought…

I had an idyllic hour at Roa Island Causeway over the high tide yesterday, but being me I am going to write about my WeBS count on Ormsgill Reservoir instead. Maybe I will do the Roa Island stuff later in the week. Regular readers will know the reservoir is a) where I first got into…