Dartford Waffler

When I looked out of the window this morning the sunshine and blue(ish) skies tempted me out for a walk. Sunshine has been a rather scarce commodity this summer so I thought, “let’s get out before it starts raining again”. Unfortunately things weren’t quite as good as they seemed. On arriving at Tickton and walking [...]

What to do when the sea is calm and seawatching from Flamborough Head is pretty much a waste of time? Head to the beach at Bridlington, that’s what! Unfortunately, the northerly winds that made seawatching at Flamborough on monday so good were not repeated today making it a pretty unrewarding past-time. In a couple of [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Weeks of dismal weather has meant that I have not been out too often, and when I have been out there has been little of interest. However, last monday I got out for a walk up to Eske. The flooding from the rain the previous monday was still very bad and much of the surrounding [...]

Yesterday I went to Dungeness with my wife and younger sister for a barbeque on the beach. Although this wasn’t a birding trip at all, it is difficult to sit on the beach at Dunge in spring and not see something. From 1-6pm only a few birds were seen but all afternoon two Cormorants were [...]

This afternoon I went, with my wife, to Hornsea Mere to feed the ducks – hardly the cutting edge of ornithology but enjoyable anyway. We took some bread and proceeded to be mobbed by a gang of about 20 Mute Swans with a few Canada Geese trying to get into the act. It was quite [...]

After a nice lunch in the pub, my wife and I decided to make the most of the warm, sunny weather by going for a walk to the lake at Eske/Pulfin Fen. The warmth had made most of the birds rather lazy at this time of day, but a few Skylarks were singing away, making [...]

Outside my flat in Beverley today I was watching a male Collared Dove chase around a female when he decided to mate with her. My celebration of this as a sign of spring was muted somewhat by a sudden blizzard of snow and then hail. Needless to say that this event also put an end [...]

Some warm, spring-like weather meant that staying in front of a computer all day would have been a travesty, even though my dissertation work was begging me for some attention. So, a walk to Eske/Pulfin fen was decided upon! Just a few hundred metres along the path, a large raptor appeared. At first I assumed [...]