I’ve got a bit of a record going when it comes to producing decent birds whenever my parents come to visit. Glossy Ibis, Woodchat Shrike and parading Bitterns have all helped add to the mystique that in reality comes down to nothing more than damn good timing on their part. Read more…
Anyone who knows me will have by now realised that I love snow. From November onwards I am constantly glued to various weather forecasting services in an attempt to work out when the first flurries will arrive. Of course we usually just end up with rain and sleet but having Read more…
Before Waxwing fever gripped us a couple of weekends ago we’d already had quite a successful days birding and walking at Bosherston lily ponds in Pembrokeshire. It seems like an absolute age since we were last there, a visit which sticks in the mind due to the then drought conditions Read more…
Back in the winter of 2010 the UK found itself under attack from the Scandinavians. They arrived in their thousands and took up residence in every industrial estate and supermarket car park from the Shetlands right down to our southern coasts. With much of the population focussed on forthcoming festivities Read more…
Paviland Cave on Gower has long featured at the top of my list of places to visit with past attempts being thwarted by high tides and a degree of doubt over the caves exact location. Armed with GPS coordinates and a favourable tide on Sunday however, it finally looked like Read more…
You’d have thought that after five years of walking on Gower each weekend there wouldn’t be many places that I haven’t yet been to or explored. As it turns out that couldn’t be further from the truth. Saturday was a perfect case in point where a slight variation on a Read more…
One of the joys of having our own garden is the constant discovery of new wildlife species within it. Birds are our most obvious visitors but over the last couple of years we have begun to realise just how much variety is out there. Spiders, Moths, Slugs, Foxes, Hedgehogs and 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…
Our walk along the Gower coastline last weekend had the added bonus of, as I’ve said, some sun. With it came what was probably only the second decent butterfly display of the year, all concentrated in the small valley beneath Slade. The chilly breeze was completely absent from its damp Read more…
Strong winds and the highest tides of the year have combined this week to give our coast a battering. A quick scan of the local paper shows that some significant damage has been inflicted upon the defences at Blackpill and Langland, whilst huge volumes of sand have been shifted around Read more…