A week after our return from holiday and the necessary catch-ups completed it was time to check out a few local places. I started at Cockerham Quarry where the Sand Martin colony should be well underway. It was – many dozens of holes and a hive o…
Author: Phil Slade
A Scops For Breakfast
There’s a story behind the Scops Owl in the picture below. It’s not the best quality photograph and that’s because it’s a photo of a photo.”Click the pics” in turn for owls and scenes from Menorca Alan’s Two friends of ours, Alan and Jane, who al…
Do The Splits
We are back from Menorca where we spent two weeks enjoying this wonderful island for the fifteenth year.We collected a Fiat Panda from Mahon Airport via our good friends Setta and Mixalis at Momple Car Hire. The little Panda is the ideal car…
A Few Days Away
We counted. This is our fifteenth time in Menorca. And yes, Menorca is that special. But it does get less quiet, much busier and more popular each year, and that’s why this may be our last.We left Joanne in charge of the house; well she is over 21. The…
Mayday, Mayday!
For the hills of Oakenclough one weather forecast predicted rain for Wednesday. The other promised 50/50 of showers and cloud. Both were sure of there being less than 5mph wind so we simply had to go for it. I met Andy at 0600 to a light drizz…
Comedy Gold
I am grateful to my pal who sent me a catalogue of messages from North West Birding Whatsapp. The messages summarise the fun and otherwise surrounding the appearance of a Hoopoe on 27th April 2019.HoopoeFrom Wiki – “The Eurasian Hoopoe is widespread in…
Willy Chiff And Others
After our not very productive ringing of Saturday, and on a slightly marginal forecast, we decided to have another go at Oakenclough on Monday. Well, after all, it is spring when many millions of birds migrate from Africa to Europe, so we might just c…
Two Willies
I met up with Andy soon after six am. Here at Oakenclough we’d suffered three aborted ringing sessions in previous days. But now a gentle southerly easterly of 5 mph, a break in the clouds with a promise of sunny skies suggested things might improve. …
Alouette, Gentille Alouette
Here is a story that first appeared in Birdwatch Magazine and on the Bird Guides Internet page on 07/04/2019. French Hunting Complaint Lodged With EU. It concerns the Skylark, Alauda arvenis, a bird that regularly features on Another Bird Blog.&nb…
Saturday Sortie
Almost three weeks of cold easterly winds has meant not much ringing. There have been a few migrants arriving but not in any great numbers. Until today I had seen a single Swallow and just two House Martins, the latter back on territory at the big ho…