Had an enjoyable Garden Birdwatch today with conditions being much better than last year.

11am
LOCATION: West Kent
CONDITIONS: The ground is frosty.
Temperature of 3.6 degrees C.
Wind speed 1.1 km/h.

12noon
Temperature 4.5 degrees C.
Wind speed 7.2 km/h

Here's the tally and numbers seen at once...

1. Carrion Crow 1
2. Blackbird 2
3. Great Tit 2
4. Blue Tit 3
5. Starling 3
6. Chaffinch...

I visited The Kiltonga Wildlife Reserve, near Newtownards yesterday 25th Jan. I have lived in Northern Ireland for 21 years & I have never been there & it's only about 5 miles from my house! I have missed out!
There are quite a nice variety of wildfowl & small birds there across woodland & 2 lakes.
I saw Greylag Geese, Dunnock, Blackbirds, Grey Wagtail, Song Thrush, Various Gulls (including a very obliging Juvenile Black Headed Gull who sat on the footbridge...

Got a chance to get out today after a busy few weeks. So took advantage and headed off early to Moore NR near Warrington. Chose Moore to strengthen my new year list with some woodland species and also the Bittern thats been there the last few weeks. And maybe even the star of the reserve (only my opinion of course) the Lesser spotted woodpecker.
Never got the Bittern or Woodpecker but still got some good woodland birds including my first Treecreeper and Redpoll of the year. There were really...

1st Leg: Newton Marsh to Naze Pool (About 8 miles)

Having decided to walk the 137 miles of The Lancashire Coastal Way, I set off at 7.30 this morning for the 1 hour bus journey from Blackpool, to the start of the walk in the village of Freckleton, on the north shore of the River Ribble estuary.

The weather was kind to me, in that it did not rain, sleet or snow as the forecasters said it might do. Instead, it was around 4 degrees celcius with an 8 mph SE wind and very...

The name is mine for a place where i first met alan and half killed him !!!!!!! through dehydration,heatstroke and general exhaustion heehehehehe.Its on the ribble near preston docks and borders a canal,fields,a tip,a small marsh and small patches of woodland a great variety of habitats.Its a place i often go to for solitude and just to reflect and of course watch birds ...here is a list of what i saw today buzzard,kestrel,carrion crow,snipe,shelduck,mallard.great,blue, coal and...