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Natural Selection

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

  • Creative Writing – Eyes To The Skies

    Yesterday I promised to share some creative writing based on another morning Jane and I spent at Rossall Beach in the spring. You can see it here: https://www.blackpoolsocial.club/32412-coast-bird-migration/ In case that doesn’t work for anyone the text is reproduced below.

    stephendunstan76

    28th Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
  • Bad Seawatching

    Jane wanted to look for seaglass this morning, so we ‘killed two birds with one stone’ and I did an hour seawatching from Rossall Promenade car park whilst she combed the beach below the tideline. The basic test of successful seawatching is managing to look at the sea. In this regard I was a failure.…

    stephendunstan76

    27th Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
    hybrid gull, Rossall, Turnstone
  • Grazing Gazing

    Between junior parkrun and my parents coming round I only had an hour or so for birding today. I decided to look for Pinkfeet in the Singleton / Windy Harbour area, where I had seen some in passing yesterday. There were perhaps 1500 or so in a field so I parked carefully off road and…

    stephendunstan76

    26th Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
  • December 25th

    Here is what I’ve received for Christmas from family nature writing wise. I’m putting it on here to make sure that I read them all and do some kind of review in due course. If you’ve been checking in regularly you will know that I received Vagrancy In Birds early, and you can see a…

    stephendunstan76

    25th Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
  • Cliche Corner

    It would be perverse to twitch a bird as rare and iconic as Belted Kingfisher is in Britain and blog on Christmas Eve about something else. It is also difficult to say anything that hasn’t already been said. So what follows is knowingly cliched. Twitching Gets You To New Places I’ve never been to Roach…

    stephendunstan76

    24th Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
    belted kingfisher, roach bridge
  • North Pole And Twitcher Tantrums

    I was dropping Jane off in North Shore at lunchtime so stopped at the go-kart track to try and get pictures of the two Purple Sandpipers that roost here with Turnstones. The waders were not playing ball, hanging out on the inaccessible track wall nearest the sea. I thought I could see one ‘Purp’ but…

    stephendunstan76

    23rd Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
  • Vagrancy In Birds – A Review

    My eldest daughter kindly bought me Vagrancy In Birds as a Christmas present. She is abroad over the festive period, so we exchanged and opened gifts at the weekend As I’ve opened it I’ve not stood on ceremony and read it, so Santa may disapprove but I can at least assure you this isn’t a…

    stephendunstan76

    22nd Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
    Birds, Chestnut-eared Bunting, Review, Vagrancy
  • River Resident to Blackpool Breeding Bird – the interesting case of the roof nesting Grey Wagtails

    Above is the view from where I park on East Topping Street in Blackpool on workdays. There are three of four bays which are arranged so that you are unlikely to get hit by stray car doors, and there’s the bonus of this fantastic street art. Quite often there’s also the sharp call of a…

    stephendunstan76

    21st Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
    Blackpool, Grey Wagtail, Heysham, Ribble Estuary
  • Out Skerries – 2021 In Review

    I’m not normally a big fan of annual reviews before Auld Lang Syne has been sung. There’s no birding being done on Skerries though so it seems pretty safe to say stumps have been drawn. If any of the residents turn up a Bittern or Glossy Ibis on the burn in the next few days…

    stephendunstan76

    20th Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
    autumn migration, golden oriole, nightjar, Out Skerries, Shetland, spring migration, White's Thrush
  • Geese – Full Colour And Monochrome

    I wasn’t expecting to blog about today’s birding simply because I wasn’t expecting to do any birding today given other commitments. But on our way between staging a junior parkrun and Afternoon Tea at Morecambe’s Midland Hotel I spied geese by the A586. Jane was kind enough to let me pull in at Larbreck Gardens…

    stephendunstan76

    19th Dec 2021
    Uncategorized
    Brent Goose, Greenland Whitefront, Half Moon Bay, Heysham
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