What an eye-opener my visit to Belfast was back in August. This is a city which really “gets” its birds… and has some of nicest most generous birders I’ve met on any of my city birding trips. But did I get to see a Black Guillemot? You’ll really need to read it to find out…
…in which I visit Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for a tour with Tom Bellamy, park ecologist, and investigate options for uploading bird records.
Spoiler alert, there isn’t really a wrong time to visit Britain’s and Ireland’s wonderful bird observatories as I discovered when I went to Portland Bird Observatory in June.
What a lovely bunch of folks Edinburgh birders are! Thanks to all their helpful suggestions I had a fabulous two days of squeezing in birding around family visits as you can see in the August issue of Bird Watching Magazine.
Since talking to folk who install and/or monitor nest cam footage, I’ve gained another way of getting distracted from working – having a nest cam livestream in the corner of my computer screen. (Most of the fab photos in this feature were taken by WildlifeKate – a veritable force of nature!)
I’m always on the look out for nifty free or good value resources for intermediate birders to use to improve their bird identification skills, so in my column for the June issue of Bird Watching Magazine I’ve recruited a team of generous volunteers to test some resources for me. The sound identification function on Cornell […]
You don’t have to go far to find colour and interest in our city with new pavement plants coming into flower almost every day. From top left & clockwise, these are Black Medick, Shining Crane’s-bill, Common Field Speedwell and Rue-leaved Saxifrage. Urban botany is just fab and the smaller London plants rival our spectacular street […]
On my first, but definitely not last, visit to Hull to squeeze in some city birding, I had the pleasure of some company from my pal Paul Gamble, and the opportunity to meet up with inspirational birders/naturalists Dr Africa Gomez and Margaret Boyd. Culture, history and great birding spots within easy reach of the rail […]
Tackling the tricky subject of birders and bird photography was fascinating… and, similar to my personal experience, it was no surprise to discover the goodwill in the birdwatching community towards all the different ways folks choose to enjoy birds. I also had the pleasure of a city birdwatching trip with inspiring amateur photographer Rudy Chodankar […]
I’ve always been fascinated by how beginners learn about birds, or plants, or any other aspect of the natural world, and in this month’s column I had the opportunity to really explore this.
