Natural Selection

A mix of birding news and creative writing about nature in Blackpool and beyond

    • One Swallow Doesn’t Make A Christmas

      After I’d dropped Jane off at work and was heading to a meeting in North Blackpool news came through of a ‘reported’ Swallow not too far away. December or not most people know what a Swallow looks like so I decided to stop and have a brief search for it. The bird club WhatsApp said […]

      stephendunstan76

      2nd Dec 2022
      Uncategorized
    • Birding And Mental Elf

      Today after the junior parkrun the Blues Skies charity did their annual Elf Run on the same course. We provided some marshals, and this year I took part in the 5k event. This gave me the opportunity to use the dreadful pun above, but there is a more serious point to this post. Birding and […]

      stephendunstan76

      27th Nov 2022
      Uncategorized
    • ‘North Country’ Book Launch

      Just a short blog to say that I will be reading from my piece at the launch of this new Northern nature writing anthology tomorrow night. I am doing the opening paragraphs of my short piece about Barrow AFC and Ormsgill Reservoir. The in person event at the Storey Institute in Lancaster is sold out. […]

      stephendunstan76

      23rd Nov 2022
      Uncategorized
    • End Of The Friends

      Black-necked Grebe at Kincraig Lake by Cliff Raby On Tuesday this week I went to the final meeting of the Friends of North Blackpool Pond Trail Group. For the best part of a decade they’ve been putting on moth and bat walks, pond dipping and so on. They do this on the Kincraig estate near […]

      stephendunstan76

      17th Nov 2022
      Uncategorized
    • Book Reviews – Tales By Two Patricks

      In the last couple of months I’ve read a couple of new books by Patrick Barkham and Patrick Galbraith. Here are my brief thoughts. I didn’t know Patrick Barkham had released a collection of his newspaper and magazine articles until I saw it in a Didsbury bookshop. I have a backlog of nature books from […]

      stephendunstan76

      15th Nov 2022
      Uncategorized
    • Out Skerries – Review of the 2022 Birding Year

      Western Subalpine Warbler by Nathaniel Dargue Introduction There are no resident birders on Out Skerries, so like last year I am doing a review after the last knockings of the autumn. If there are any further notable sightings I will repost an updated version. In the context of ever declining numbers of migrants noted by […]

      stephendunstan76

      12th Nov 2022
      Uncategorized
    • Putative Pallid – Postscript

      I thought the presumed Pallid Swift might have roosted on the eastern face of St John’s clocktower. I spoke to Jane about it and we agreed I should go and have a look first thing in the morning in case this was correct. I was in St John’s Square at 6.30 for dawn. It was […]

      stephendunstan76

      3rd Nov 2022
      Uncategorized
    • Bittersweet, but mostly sweet

      Pallid Swift montage by De Ruwe Philip from Facebook There has been an unprecedented influx of Pallid Swifts into Britain in the last four weeks, as birders reading this will know. In the first week I was actually watching the odd one in Porto Santo. The second two weeks I was in Shetland; they got […]

      stephendunstan76

      2nd Nov 2022
      Uncategorized
    • Skerries – A Marvellous Encore

      The best birding moments should be the ones you’ve prepared meticulously for. In my experience they’re not. They’re the ones that take you completely by surprise. The last of the easterly winds were yesterday. Walking across a random part of North Hill I flushed an Olive-backed or Tree Pipit. It flew from the right of […]

      stephendunstan76

      25th Oct 2022
      Uncategorized
    • First For Skerries

      I’ve been visiting Skerries annually since 2007. In that time I’ve added three species to the bird list of the island – Savi’s Warbler one spring and then both Firecrest and Pied Wheatear in the awesome October 2017 stay. Today I made that four with an American Golden Plover. American Golden Plover is expected in […]

      stephendunstan76

      22nd Oct 2022
      Uncategorized
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