I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours on patch this evening following up on some red-hot intel put my way courtesy of Barry Stewart. He’d been around Cefn Drum on Monday and had spotted two species which I have never seen there myself. Needless to say I’ve had itchy Read more…
You find me in a rather confused state this evening. The calendars all say it’s Spring, the Daffodils are out and we even have the first Spring migrants landing on our shores, so why on earth did I have my face almost frozen off during a short walk on Saturday? Read more…
At just under two weeks since my last patch outing I was determined to give the area a thorough going over on Sunday afternoon. The sun was shining but with a cold wind blowing across the valley I knew most of the birds would be kept well hidden, and indeed Read more…
This evening marked a significant moment in what I like to think of as my own personal calendar of seasonal events. For the first time in months I was able to get home from work and out onto my local patch with light still in the sky. I even managed Read more…
I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours out on patch this afternoon between work, window fitters and heavy rain showers that featured nowhere in the forecast. My aim was to try and find a couple of new species for the Patchwork Challenge as let’s face it, one visit Read more…
These last couple of days have been fantastic as for the first time in two years we’ve finally had decent snowfall. The result was an inevitable day off work but more importantly it gave me the perfect opportunity to get my Patchwork Challenge under way. You may remember me blogging Read more…
Having approached 2012 with no clear plans I’ve often found myself missing out on opportunities and not being as active in the field as I would have liked. Summer evenings spent inside just seem such a waste now that it’s winter and there’s not even a chance of getting out Read more…
One of the problems at this time of year is that I don’t get out of work until after dark. The upside is I can clean the house less often as energy saving light bulbs are simply too dull to show the dust, but it also means that evening walks Read more…
It’s amazing what a bit of sun and some great birds can do to lift the spirits, and thankfully we got both in spades this evening as we wondered around our local patch. Up on Goppa Hill the mixed flock of Tits, Chaffinches and Goldcrests were still to be found Read more…
Well I don’t know about you but I’ve got a packed weekend coming up. There are a couple of new reserves that I’ll be visiting for the very first time as well as the small matter of my sisters wedding to attend to. Hopefully this means I will have many Read more…