At just under two weeks since my last patch outing I was determined to give the area a thorough going over on Sunday afternoon. The sun was shining but with a cold wind blowing across the valley I knew most of the birds would be kept well hidden, and indeed Read more…
In all the years that I’ve been visiting Kenfig NNR, Sunday was the very first opportunity I’ve ever had to photograph this ‘classic’ view. For once all the important elements of a blue sky, high water level and no people combined to kick start what turned out to be a Read more…
This evening marked a significant moment in what I like to think of as my own personal calendar of seasonal events. For the first time in months I was able to get home from work and out onto my local patch with light still in the sky. I even managed Read more…
As I’m writing this I can hear the all too familiar sound of rain bouncing off the windows. The snow of last week has now departed in the face of Atlantic weather systems meaning that for the next few days it looks like we are back to warm but damp Read more…
I arrived at the Ogmore River on Sunday, headed straight for the nearest telescope wielding human and heard those words that strike despair into every birders heart. “If you’d been here an hour ago we were having great views, but it’s flown off since and hasn’t been relocated”. As I Read more…
A new month, a new year and seemingly a new sort of weather if the strange glowing orb in the sky was anything to go by yesterday. Having spent the last couple of days in December tramping across Ilkley Moor whilst enduring driving rain, hail and the occasional upwardly flowing Read more…
Anyone who knows me will have by now realised that I love snow. From November onwards I am constantly glued to various weather forecasting services in an attempt to work out when the first flurries will arrive. Of course we usually just end up with rain and sleet but having Read more…
Before Waxwing fever gripped us a couple of weekends ago we’d already had quite a successful days birding and walking at Bosherston lily ponds in Pembrokeshire. It seems like an absolute age since we were last there, a visit which sticks in the mind due to the then drought conditions Read more…
Paviland Cave on Gower has long featured at the top of my list of places to visit with past attempts being thwarted by high tides and a degree of doubt over the caves exact location. Armed with GPS coordinates and a favourable tide on Sunday however, it finally looked like Read more…
You’d have thought that after five years of walking on Gower each weekend there wouldn’t be many places that I haven’t yet been to or explored. As it turns out that couldn’t be further from the truth. Saturday was a perfect case in point where a slight variation on a Read more…