Last week finally saw our first snow of the winter. Not enough to deliver that all important day off work but certainly sufficient to coat the nearby hills and deliver an occasional five minute blizzard down at lower altitudes. Just the conditions I hear you say for an evening drive Read more…
Last Saturday was my first opportunity of 2017 for a proper days birding and, in keeping with my new year resolutions, that meant Patchwork Challenge time. As mentioned previously I’ve abandoned the two patch plan from last year and instead returned to the area that started it all, Cefn Drum Read more…
Tramping around Ilkley Moor photographing Red Grouse wasn’t all we got up to during our few days away in Leeds. On New Year’s eve we paid a rather splendid visit to Fountains Abbey near Rippon in North Yorkshire, one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in the Read more…
First of all let me start by saying Happy New Year, particularly to those birders amongst us for whom January 1st is probably one of the most exciting dates in the calendar. It’s the day on which new notebooks are cracked open, year lists begun and when even the humble Read more…
It’s genuinely hard to believe that twelve months has already slipped by since I last sat in this chair and put pen to paper (cursor to screen?) in an effort to try and lay out what I wanted to achieve during the year ahead. I made no promises that all Read more…
Bagged peaks have been a little slim on the ground this year but that hasn’t stopped us racking up several ascents of Pen y Fan. Being the highest mountain in South Wales and within easy reach makes for an irresistible combination and many a spare half day has been spent Read more…
As we enter those magic few days before 2016 throws in the towel, where no one really knows the day let alone the date, Christmas already feels like a lifetime ago. I hope dear reader that yours was an enjoyable one, surrounded by those you love in a celebration that Read more…
Goldeneye and Ogmore. Two words which go hand in hand at this time of year and with my parents down weekend before last we had the perfect excuse to go and see how numbers were building. The plan was to do a circular walk along the coast from Ogmore to Read more…
Well, things certainly look a bit different around here since we last spoke way back in September. That’s what happens when you fall a little out of love with the medium and decide that a complete revamp is just what the doctor ordered. Several weeks and umpteen hours later and Read more…
Like many other birders I seem to be acquiring an increasingly vast array of books on the subject of bird identification, bird behaviour and birds in general (in case this blog wasn’t evidence enough, I quite like our feathered friends). It is a collection spawned from my very earliest days Read more…