Last years inaugural Patchwork Challenge turned out to be an unprecedented success with birders around the country willing to fly the flag for their own regular haunts. For me the real delight was in the range of different habitats covered from world renowned nature reserves to small unknown localities, such Read more…
It’s been a very grey and dreary day here but at least the rain has held off giving me the perfect opportunity to catch up with events out on patch. It’s fair to say that my Patchwork Challenge list has stalled somewhat having taken the last couple of months off, Read more…
On Saturday afternoon I headed out onto patch and managed to complete my largest circuit for some time. Starting at Goppa Hill there was once again a complete lack of Whitethroats but singles of Buzzard and Red Kite, quickly followed by super close views of two Sparrowhawks, more than made Read more…
It’s probably not escaped your notice, and it certainly hasn’t mine, that the last few months have been somewhat barren on here when it comes to updates concerning my Patchwork Challenge. The reasons for this are nothing beyond the usual; lack of time, work and holidays. On a personal level Read more…
Five days and three new species nicely sums up the latest developments on patch. The first came on Monday evening with two Bullfinches along the wooded section of Birch Rock tramway, a nice find and the final ‘common’ bird that I considered lacking from this years list. From here on Read more…
I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours on patch this evening following up on some red-hot intel put my way courtesy of Barry Stewart. He’d been around Cefn Drum on Monday and had spotted two species which I have never seen there myself. Needless to say I’ve had itchy Read more…
You find me in a rather confused state this evening. The calendars all say it’s Spring, the Daffodils are out and we even have the first Spring migrants landing on our shores, so why on earth did I have my face almost frozen off during a short walk on Saturday? Read more…
I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours out on patch this afternoon between work, window fitters and heavy rain showers that featured nowhere in the forecast. My aim was to try and find a couple of new species for the Patchwork Challenge as let’s face it, one visit Read more…
These last couple of days have been fantastic as for the first time in two years we’ve finally had decent snowfall. The result was an inevitable day off work but more importantly it gave me the perfect opportunity to get my Patchwork Challenge under way. You may remember me blogging Read more…