Natural Selection

Like the last time we had a cruise stop in Lisbon I arranged to be guided by Birds and Nature Tours. They were great so I chose to use them again. On this occasion I was shown round by Amelia Almeida. You can find plenty of information online about the birds of the Lisbon area,…

The last cruise we did we stopped in Vigo. We went to Baiona where there is a replica of the Columbus boat the Pinta, and had a lovely late summer afternoon exploring a castle. I mention this because we were supposed to be going there again today but it was cancelled due to lack of…

Today began not far into the journey south along the edge of the Bay of Biscay. Even though we weren’t in the bay proper things felt a bit quiet birdwise at breakfast, with the odd Gannet but nothing else. I had a spin class booked and was a bit concerned what I might be missing…

We had a leisurely morning as the hotel checkout was midday and we weren’t due on the boat until 2.30. Our digs (the Moxy) were a little eclectic but we had a great stay. One of the unusual elements was the ‘feature wall’ below, it was authentic with the light flashing on and off regularly.…

It was eBird’s October Big Day today, on which all who use the platform are asked to make a special effort to record birds. I had to get to Southampton ahead of our transatlantic odyssey but wanted to take part. Yesterday I had bought the ‘wrong kind of carrots’ for Simba the guinea pig so…

It was fogbound Tuesday morning so I aborted a planned seawatch. When it lifted I headed to the go kart track where shorebirds wait out the tide. There were about 30 Turnstone and twice as many Redshank. Rock Pipits skitted about, they seem to be more conspicuous in winter now they breed here. I was…

Hoopoe family earlier this year in Porto Santo I spent most of last week birding around the Barrow area. I set off on the Sunday late morning working my way round Morecambe Bay via a couple of convenient good birds available. One of these was a Hoopoe on the beach at Aldingham (the other was…

I’ve been too busy to blog recently, but I want to get back into the habit as I’m sailing from Southampton to New York this month and I think that will be a story worth sharing. During my sabbatical I have managed to continue my monthly look aheads to what wildlife can be seen in…

Given the weather forecast I decided to forego the planned seawatch in the morning, and head for the estuary at Skippool in the predicted better evening weather. It was a glorious evening when I joined Paul Slade scoping the estuary. He’d had 30 Common Sandpipers, and a couple of Raven I eventually saw on the…

At the Cumbria Bird Club Committee last night I got my copy of the county bird report for last year. I was considering doing a review, but as one of the writing team I can’t objectively do that. So let’s call this an appreciation. An eye catching cover that makes the potential purchaser want to…