A couple of weeks ago when I was suffering from serious man-cold, I took to reading Bill Bryson’s ‘The Road to Little Dribbling’, which is about this American/Brit author’s adventures pottering about the UK. It’s an interesting and amusing read, and one of those where you can easily have a…
You can always find time to do a favour for a friend, right? A bit of DIY, a lift with something heavy, some technical know-how with the computer, even lend a kindly ear to listen to a problem. Surely, everyone can find a little space in their busy diary to…
No, I haven’t joined the Guild but my wife has been an avid embroiderer for donkeys’ years. In October 2019, the Yorkshire and Humberside regional guild set a challenge for their members to produce an artistic interpretation of any image(s) from my website. Regional members had a whole year to…
Sparrowhawk The great British weather. Yesterday it was awful, wet, cold, grey and desolate. Today, blue skies, sunshine, singing house sparrows in the hedgerows and a field full of fieldfare. On the drab winter days, even the birds hunker down and you could be forgiven for asking, ‘where are they…
It’s been a few years since we were able to take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch. At this time of year, we’re usually off on our travels so it was nice to take part this morning and spend an hour recording our avian visitors. As it happened, we had…
American mink Buzzards soaring, a jay collecting nuts, a huge flock of geese flying over, chattering long-tailed tits in the wood and a dipper on the beck, a great-spotted woodpecker and a green woodpecker calling from the garden. That’s not a bad start for a single morning in December. And,…
Barn owl, Kirkheaton I’m guessing here but I think most people would put the barn owl at the top of the list of their ‘want to see’ owls. They are generally nocturnal but can often be seen hunting just after dawn and before dark, particularly in winter and often during…
Lapwings I’ve been asked to write an article for our Kirkheaton village newsletter, ‘Yetton News’, in January next year and to submit a blog each month for the website. Here is the first web blog submitted end of November 2020 – At this time last year, I was in Arctic…
I managed to squeeze in 5 wildlife presentations before covid put paid to the rest of my 2020 schedule. Still, from those talks plus the sale of my images and 2021 wildlife calendars, this year I will have sent £518 to zarach.org, plus US$50 which was paid to the website…
Today is Covid lockdown day – again. So for the next four weeks we’re all restricted to leaving the house for daily exercise and no unnecessary travel. There’s something about work and shopping too but that part passed me by. Those restrictions in themselves will limit my chances of posting…