Tag Archives: birding
New Year, New List – Part 1
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023 It’s New Year’s Day and I’ve decided to keep a list of birds seen this year – I don’t always, because it can take the fun out of birding – but not push myself and try … Continue reading
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Tagged Allerton Towers, birding, birdwatching, Calderstones Park, nature
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Winter Solstice Birding along Within Way and Hale Shore
Wednesday, 21st December 2022 – the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year; soon, the evenings and mornings will be lighter and the birds will be singing and courting again. For now, though, I am making the most of … Continue reading
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Tagged birding, birds, brambling, golden plover, Hale, merlin, nature, winter solstice
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Lesser Yellowlegs: Lifer Number Two for the Day
The lesser yellowlegs has been frequenting the far side of Marshside, right next to Glencoyne Drive, so it should be an easy ‘tick’, and so it proves to be: I climb the short but muddy slope to the path along … Continue reading
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Tagged birding, birds, lesser yellowlegs, RSPB Marshside
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Hoopoe Hallowe’en at Ince Blundell
It’s Hallowe’en morning. I spent yesterday afternoon on a three-hour Zoom course, interested, participating, but with one eye on Twitter, monitoring the news about the hoopoe that had been discovered at the microlight airfield in Ince Blundell late that morning. … Continue reading
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Tagged birding, birds, hoopoe, Ince Blundell
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A Circular Walk around Hale: Late Swallows Lead to Musings on Nature’s Decline, Part 2
Having reached Carr Lan, I turn down it, prepared to play chicken with the cars as there are no pavements here, and both the road itself and the grass verges are very narrow. The road winds, too, so I zigzag … Continue reading
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Tagged #AttackonNature, Anthropocene, birding, birds, farmland, Hale, nature, walking
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A Circular Walk around Hale: Late Swallows Lead to Musings on Nature’s Decline, Part 1
On a mild October morning of blue skies and fluffy white clouds, I drive to Hale for a walk, but not to the estuary; today, I choose the Town Lane, footpath, Higher Road, Carr Lane loop, hoping to see the … Continue reading
Excitement on the Allotment and then Back to the Prom
It’s a few days later and I’m back on the plot, with another walk along the Prom beckoning. The robin has been for its suet treat, four noisy parakeets have flown over, and I have found three small, brown pellets … Continue reading
A Late August Stroll along Otterspool Prom
It’s a pleasant morning and the tide is high at 11am so, after a couple of hours on the allotment (not many birds about, just a chiffchaff “hweeting” away before it departs these shores for warmer climes), I take a … Continue reading
Rambling around Hale, Part 2
Resuming the walk along Within Way, I see a young whitethroat perched on a hedge down a side track, beak full of small caterpillars. It darts into the opposite hedge – maybe helping to feed the next brood?
Rambling around Hale, Part 1
Preamble (pun intended) This shortish (approx. 2 miles) walk takes in a range of habitats – hedgerows, farmland including wheat and vegetable fields, estuary and mud flats, shore and scrub – and a lighthouse, and can be extended into Hale … Continue reading