-
Review – Storm Pegs by Jen Hadfield
A strand of this blog, among others including local birding and holiday write-ups, has been reviewing nature writing. This is a review of the latest book I’ve read on Shetland, also encompassing another book I read in the autumn covering similar ground. Storm Pegs is a reflection on the experiences of a woman who has…
-
Tale Of The Unexpected
For my birthday Jane and I went to the art deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe. It’s a lovely venue and the rooms on the top floor have panoramic views of the Bay and balconies to drink them in from. We’ve been before for my birthday, we’ll probably go again. But when we rocked up on…
-
Flying PIGs
The situation with Greylag Geese in northern Britain is complicated, and I’m probably a bit out of touch with recent changes as well. There used to be wild populations that visited in winter from Iceland, apparently to as far south as Morecambe Bay. With the feral / naturalised population it’s increasingly unclear whether they still…
-
Review – The Search For India’s Rarest Birds
I’ve written on this blog about the current shortage of good quality writing about UK birding and birders. In recent years I’ve broadened my search to other countries, starting with ‘Big Year’ accounts from the USA. I had read ‘The Living Air’ about Indian birding by Aasheesh Pittie, and through following his Facebook updates saw…
-
Out Skerries – Review Of The Birding Year
Wood Warbler, September 2024 by Dave Bywater Highlights I’ve done this for a few years now and normally it begins with a list of several species recorded on Skerries a handful of times over the years. Prepare to be rather underwhelmed by this year’s version, unless one of the island residents sends me a picture…
-
Safari Birds
As a birder a short a one day safari, whilst a tremendous thrill, left a bit of a dilemma at where to look. I’m not sure how many bird species I missed as we hared past them, though I am fairly sure we saw several different Bee-eaters and could only put a name on one.…
-
Happy Birthday Jane
When we looked at the excursion options on our holiday the one we immediately discounted was flying to mainland Tanzania for a day safari. It was expensive, indulgent and not good for the planet. But then Jane decided we would never have an opportunity and wanted a birthday to remember, so we did. Being based…
-
The Zanzibar ‘Local Patch’
Having walked north along the beach on our first full day we decided to go south the next day (9 August). The sandy tourist beach soon gave way to rocky and muddy terrain, and continuing our ineptitude of the day before Jane wasn’t really in the right footwear but we persisted. Even though we were…
-
Zanzibar Day 2 -More Kingfisher Action
Jane wanted to go to one of the turtle sanctuaries as the focal point of the day. We set of with wifi to locate them, and then found the wifi was terrible. We made our way into the middle of Nungwi, and were stood in the middle of a roundabout looking like prize idiots. After…
-
Zanzibar – Day 1
Striped Kingfisher We flew from Gatwick mid afternoon and changed in Dubai at 2.30 local time. Not knowing what to expect we were surprised to end up on a train / tram in the airport. Even when we got to the right place the bus transfer was fairly epic in very humid conditions. When we…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Natural Selection 