Dartford Waffler

Wow! We have now had two days of sunshine in a row, in fact today there is hardly a cloud in the sky: after two months of rain and flooding it must now be summer. With the weather far too good to stay in, even with a dodgy ankle I took a walk along the […]

Finally, the sunshine came out, so I had to get out. However, I badly twisted my ankle a few days ago so walking was out of the question, therefore I decided to go back to Flamborough Head to just sit and watch the seabirds.
On arrival a stiff northerly breeze was creating quite a swell on […]

They seek him here
They seek him there
Those Frenches seek him everywhere
Is he in Heaven?
Or is he in Hell?
That demned illusive Pimpernel.
Odds fish m’dear!

Yesterday I suddenly realised that I hadn’t seen any seabirds this year and as Flamborough is just 40 minutes away I drove there whilst the weather was acceptable. I didn’t see anything unexpected but it was nice to watch large numbers of Kittiwakes, Gannets, Puffins, Razorbills and Guillemots go about their business.
Lots of Gannets were […]

With another huge fried breakfast inside me I headed uphill from Boot village towards Blea Tarn. The by now customary Yellowhammers, Willow Warblers, Wrens and Chaffinches were joined by plenty of Robins, including a number of juveniles, and a family party of Great Tits.
Once upon the ridgetop a Raven flew over doing its best demonstration […]

After a large cooked breakfast I headed up Eskedale through some beautiful, mossy woodland - immediately, a Spotted Flycatcher showed itself, perching on a fence post. On closer inspection there was a whole family of Spotted Flycatchers, noisly flitting about with the young begging for food. The flycatchers were just part of a feeding flock […]

I decided to go to the Lake District National Park for a few days, despite the weather forecast being for rather poor weather. The national park took me about 3 hours to get to, but the journey took another hour as I was heading for the western lakes, probably the most spectacular part.
I headed into […]

This afternoon I walked up to the lake at Eske, but very little about apart from a pair of Grey Partridges on the walk up. The water level of the River Hull has hardly gone down at all since the flooding a few weeks back and many fields are still so far under water that […]

On my way back home to Beverley I decided to take a look at the RSPB’s new reserve at Ranham in East London after reading about it in May’s edition of Birds; the fact that a Spoonbil had been hanging around there for a few days helped sway the decision.
I assumed (wrongly) that the reserve […]

I haven’t been to Dartford Marshes for a couple of years now; quite frankly, that is because it isn’t that great a place and when I’m home I usually visit other sites; however, I decided to take a look today to see what was about.
Dartford marsh is not much of a marsh really, just a […]