Natural Selection

After work I went to Marton Mere, partly for a change of scene and partly in case the first Sand Martins had made it. In the event no martins came in towards dusk, and my attention focused on the mini-murmuration of Starlings. There were probably no more than 400 birds even at the peak as…

Last week I wrote about unsuccessfully looking for migrating Whoopers early morning off Blackpool. The last couple of mornings have been more successful. Yesterday Jane and I were due to volunteer at the junior parkrun, but with lighter mornings this still gave an hour or so beforehand to work with. We parked at Rossall Beach…

Yesterday I joined nine or ten other Cumbria Bird Club members for a walk onto Foulney Island. This trip report is written with people who don’t really know the area in mind. Foulney is on the north west lip of Morecambe Bay. You access it from a car park half way along Roa Island causeway.…

I was up in Barrow today for a Cumbria Bird Club outing on Foulney Island, and then the football. I will write up the Foulney trip tomorrow, the less said about the football the better as although they drew it’s looking increasingly bleak in terms of League status. On the way up to these engagements…

Got out seawatching again before work again with the calm weather. It’s genuinely always a privilege to be on the Promenade on nice spring mornings, but it was quiet initially. I was ship watching to start with as the wind farm supply boat moved across the horizon, then the Seatruck Performance came in from Warrenpoint.…

As I was in Burnley for the morning and not far from Rowley Lake, which I had never visited, I dropped in on a mizzly Thursday lunchtime. I hadn’t realised until today that it was part of the Brun Valley Forest Park, which I have to admit I had never heard of. I knew there…

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I am terrible at art. I do like bird art though, and I am fortunate enough to have been able to commission some over the years. At some point I might mention that in more detail in a blog post. I am also fortunate enough to live…

As it was a nice looking morning I decided to drop Jane off early and get some seawatching in from North Shore. The main target was Whooper Swans. On calm, clear mornings over the next few weeks they will begin their return journeys to Iceland and can be seen from the Fylde heading out past…

My copy of Birdwatch arrived a couple of days ago, and I opened it tonight. On the inside cover where there used to be a kind of ‘And Finally’ light relief article was a piece on Ruddy Duck culls. Back in the day this slot would have featured some light humour from Bill Oddie. For…

We’ll come back to the Gerald the Gorilla reference. A Greenland White-fronted Goose was found at Myerscough Quarry a couple of weeks ago by Ash Baines with a group of Eurasian Whitefronts. The latter have long since departed, but the Greenland bird has hung around and as it’s a site I cover quite regularly, and…