summer photos

june

sorry i havent blogged for ages - i've been suffering from a little thing called june, possibly the least birdy month in the year, everything is either moulting, breeding or migating away! however it's now july so the stalemate should be broken (note the key word there 'should').

it will soon (in two and two third days) be the summer holidays, AR (my birdy friend) and myself are doing a summer holiday-long bird race, wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in the meantime let's all hope that the stalemate is broking and my list get a good boost soon!

update...

mistle thrush

yesterday, myself and three friends did (another) bird race in the local area, we finished on a grand, record-breaking total of 56!

School?

I'd rather be Birding...

Islay of Fair Isle

decisions, decisions...
Fair Isle with mega rarities but an expensive plane ride
or
Islay with a hundred birds in a day but the cave my dad spent a week in?

Where have all the Swallows gone?

Last year, the first swallow on my patch came on the 8th of April, this year it came as late as the 12th; so where are they? Normally, by now the skies would be full of swooping hirundines, but the most i've seen at once was eight. Is it the cold weather, southerly winds or something compleately different? Any insights, I would be greatfull enlightened...

Barnes WWT, London Photos

starling

grey heron

cormorant caught in the act of swallowing an eel

tufted duck

shoveler

coot

tufted duck

teal

teal

little grebe

displaying coots

mute swan - quietly serene

Canada goose

coot

mute swan 'up tails all'

Canada goose

another 'guess where' this time there's a small brown blob that is a female garganey

Life, The Universe and Everything

singing robin

greenfinch

pooh's corner

feeder

spring in the corner of pooh's corner

 a tree just waiting for nest boxes

a muddy ditch

one of the holly trees we've planted

the gate in

one of my nest boxes

Urban Birding in the Capital

Does anyone know any good birding locations in London? Any 'capital' April Migartion hotspots? Please share!

a one legged gull, 40-odd trees and a carniverous jackdaw...

....a week in the life of the teenage twitcher.
To begin with we have finally planted all the trees in the the soggy corner of my field, all in all the amounted to over 40 trees. just one chitty chitty bang bang style shed left.
Secondly i boosted my year list with a trip to exotic Workington harbor; I added rock pipit, skylark, wheatear, black redstart and finally Stumpy the one legged Mediterranean gull. Wheatears heralded the start of spring for me, as did the skylarks rising skyward singing their hearts out!
Lastly, I was just about to begin this blog when my mum (happy mother's day, by the way!) said come an look at this: she claimed it was a "juvenile something-or-other" i corrected her saying it was a jackdaw, not particularly remarkable except that it was sat outside my back door eating a mouse!

a fungus photo to rival those taken by the Local Nerd

and another one

and another one

every dead animal has a use

kestrel

first wheatear of the spring migration

possibly the same wheaear, possibly another one

a skylark

on the rock to the left of the big pointy one in the centre of the picture should be my black redstart

a jackdaw