This is the occasional blog of my wildlife watching and recording efforts. If you get half as much pleasure as I do from reading the wildlife blogs of others, you might enjoy this too. You can’t leave comments because I don’t have time for spam and trolls but if you want to contact me or find me online you can find out how on the About Me page. I post some limited stuff to social media sites but I have deep concerns about the amount of control we are handing over to a few ultra-wealthy, unaccountable individuals about what information we can share and see, so I’m prepared to go through the (minor) hassle of maintaining my own website and will be posting most content here in future.
Woodlark, Skipwith Common
For some unfathomable reason I’d never visited Skipwith Common National Nature Reserve in North Yorkshire. I’ve known about the place for many years and that it’s the best place to see Woodlarks without a long trip south, but inexplicably have … Continued
Sound recording birdsong with an iPhone
I’ve been getting some sound recordings on the iPhone recently just to see what the quality is like and to generally enhance the quality and comprehensiveness of my wildlife records. I upload the recordings to eBird, where they end up … Continued
Barn Owl, Dean Clough
This morning’s walk round Dean Clough was intended to look for the first Wheatears of the year. I didn’t find any, but we flushed the local Barn Owl from the path down to the upper reservoir where it had just … Continued
Purple Sandpipers at Rossall Point
A Sunday morning trip to Rossall Point to catch up with a few “year-ticks”, in particular Purple Sandpiper before they head off for the summer. High tide was at 12:30 so I headed over at 10:30 to be on site … Continued
Red-necked Grebe, Clowbridge Reservoir
A Red-necked Grebe Podiceps grisegena was reported from Clowbridge Reservoir near Burnley yesterday so I took a trip over this afternoon after the football. It was on the far side of the reservoir when I arrived so after watching it … Continued
Hardy Stonechat, Jan 7 2025
A first walk of the new year around Dean Clough in icy conditions was enjoyable in the cold sunny afternoon but produced few species. An overwintering female Stonechat was nice to see and a first-winter Mute Swan was unexpected as … Continued