Dartford Waffler

This morning we woke up and everything was white with snow. The snow showers carried on all morning, but by the afternoon most of it had melted. I went for a walk to Eske/Pulfin from 3-4.30pm expecting the cold weather to bring out some birds. I was pretty much wrong there, with just the normal […]

Having finished a peice of coursework, due in later this week, I found some time for a quick walk at Figham Common. What a bright sunny day it was too, but a wintery breeze finally brought some seasonal temperatures. I only had an hour an a half; from 2-3.30pm but there were plenty of birds […]

Almost three weeks into 2007 I finally saw my first Chaffinch of the year. It’s almost unbelievable that one of the UK’s most common species has eluded me for this long. Not that I’ve been searching for it or anything, it’s just that I’ve been out enough times that I should have bumped into it […]

I must be feeling energetic because I went for my second walk to Pulfin Fen (Click here for map) in two days! It’s probably about a mile to walk along the River Hull from Hull bridge in Tickton and today it was so windy I had trouble standing up straight. Fortunately the path is on […]

Today I didn’t just think about birds, I actually went and looked at some!
From 11am to 1 pm I walked up the Hull river to an area known as Eske. However, part of this area is a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve called Pulfin Fen, so I’m never really sure what to call this location. The […]

I spent most of today thinking about Corn Buntings, not actually looking at them, just thinking. I’m in the third year of my degree in Wildlife and Countryside Conservation, and my dissertation is concerned with the breeding habitat selection of Corn Buntings. I did all the fieldwork in East Yorkshire/North Lincolnshire from May to August […]

I just put together my year list so far, and so far there are just a feeble 50 species on it; proof if ever I needed it that I’m not getting out enough. My excuse is that haven’t used my car to drive miles away in search of birds and by not doing so I […]

There’s often a large roost of Pied Wagtails where I work (Morrisons in Beverley) and when I left this evening I made a point of looking for them. Looking carefully along the roof I could see lots of little bodies cuddled together above the entrance - probably about 70 birds that were visible. Presumably the […]

Woke up really late this morning after having a nightmare where my life was completely screwed up by having a baby (not me: my wife). I couldn’t get this spectre out of my head, so I went out for a walk and some birdwatching despite a howling gale. In fact, the wind had been so […]

After spending all morning on the computer doing college work, I managed to get enough energy summoned to go for a walk. As the weather was quite dreadful, strong winds with showers, I opted for a location nearby where a short stroll was an option.

Beverley has a number of ancient commons, and today I went […]