Here’s wishing every one my readers a Happy, Prosperous, Optimistic and Bird Filled New Year. The first post of 2020 concerns the common Blackbird Turdus merula. The Blackbird is ubiquitous in these parts, so common that it rarely makes the b…
Tuesday morning – New Year’s Eve. There was a thin layer of frost on the windscreen but it soon cleared once the heated screen kicked in. On Monday evening Andy had convinced me we should have another go at the Linnets at Gulf Lane despite the little…
We have 0900 starts for now until the days lengthen but amazingly or not, our garden Dunnocks and Great Tits are already in song? How do they know? Great Tit – CC-BY-SA-3.0There was sunshine this morning so I kicked off at Linnet Square and droppe…
A Happy New Year to all my readers, regular or new. Apologies for a lack of recent posts and there being few pictures today. I have been on a short sabbatical or as Sue might say, “What are you thinking about?” In the coming year of 4,500,000,001…
I’m out of action. For today’s post I put together more archived material. This selection is from January 2013, a winter escape to Fuerteventura, just 60 miles from the coast of Morocco, North Africa.Fuerteventura is the oldest Canary Island, formed ab…
There’s no local news today. I’m not getting out birding and unlikely to do so whilst this foul weather hangs around. Instead I robbed the archives from a winter holiday that Sue and I took to sunny Lanzarote, the Canary Islands almost five years ago.&…
I’ve not been out much this last week, mainly because of the dreadful weather. A couple of trips out proved fruitless in the way of birding, ringing or photographs. Andy and Sandra have just returned from sunny Morocco. I’m hoping they brought back su…
There was a heavy frost this morning with the temperature at minus 4C when I cleared the car windows but then struggled to open the frozen solid doors. At those temperatures I decided to give ringing a miss but stopped at Gulf Lane on the corner o…
The last week has been another waiting game. Watching the weather forecast and waiting for the one day to come along that might allow a spot of ringing. Today was that day and although not ideal, a predicted 8mph meant a visit to Gulf Lane for Projec…
This is most unusual. We’ve had two days of frost with minus 2° on the temperature display at 0600 this morning. Not cold by some standards although the forecast was spot on and I was well prepared with five layers on top, three below, a very woolly …