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Squacco Heron, Blagdon
Twenty months since my last lifer and six since my last British species, this one was a corker. Perched openly in a tree with its long black-bordered plumes, the heron put me in mind of Rod Stewart....
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Tales Told by an Idiot
Here comes the long unawaited anthology of science fiction, mystery, metaphysical and drunken short stories and sketches of Bristol, Edinburgh and… er, San Francisco. Follow the links for samples and...
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Bristol Birding
Bristol from Narroways Nature Reserve Not the most avian of walks from Southville (apparently that’s my bit of Bedminster) to Stapleton yesterday, but among the interesting. The amazing enclave of St...
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Clifton Down Bird List
The Gulley, Clifton Down, Bristol Treecreepers were my target at the only site in Bristol I’ve seen them, back in 2010: a thin strip of wilderness clings to the Avon Gorge between the Suspension Bridge...
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Canary Island Chiffchaffs
Los Cristianos, Tenerife I stand corrected. Los Cristianos’ Iberian chiffchaffs are not; they’re an entirely distinct species, endemic to the Canaries, and in retrospect the first lifer of the holiday...
View ArticleMigrants for the Year List
Spring migration has predictably pushed my year list on to 144, compared with 150 last year but 2014 is so far purely an English tally. Yes, I’ve not even ventured into Wales, which may change...
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Watery Birding
Ellesmere, Shropshire It’s the last lap of the year list and additions are drying up. A trip to Cotswold Water Park was supposed to net me three more but only supplied one – the absolute banker of...
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The Year List Fizzles Out
Gaol Ferry Bridge, Bristol When you score zero out of a possible four species, you know the game is about up. So it was just before Christmas on the saltmarsh between Brean Down and the Axe Estuary,...
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December 14, 1972
Hop on the Train… to Anywhere What’s so special about this date? I’ll leave you with that question until a future post as I spin my related thesis that civilisation has been on the way downhill ever...
View ArticleThe Unplanned Hudsonian Godwit
This bird isn’t even on my 415-strong USA list. Sibley suggests a rather spotty autumn occurrence on the eastern seaboard, so my brief year in Connecticut wasn’t sufficient to touch base with it. Of...
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