I went down to the shoreline this weekend looking for shorebirds but was stopped in my tracks when I came face to face with a Merlin. We stared each other down for at least a minute as we both sat perfectly still. No one was going to come between her and a meal. Not even […]
Tag: Merlin
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald – review
The arcane world of falconry is infamous for a snobbery that dates back to the medieval period, when different raptors were pegged to a hierarchical list of feudal stations. So the noble peregrine was for princes, the dainty merlin was milady’s bird, and – as we know from Barry Hines’s novel – it was just […]
Little Ringed Plover – Charadrius dubius
This morning’s weather was terrible, but I thought I would go to Isahaya and try to see the immature Steller’s Sea Eagle that arrived last Thursday. I’d seen heaps of these raptors in Hokkaido so it wasn’t a big deal for me personally (hence waiting this long to go and try spotting it!), but it […]
New Workshops Announced
Finally all that snow is starting to clear up. Personally I quite like the cold and the snow, it keeps my joints tight and not inflamed and it keeps me alert. Things have really been taking off in the past two weeks with a lot of planning going into new workshops which are now live […]
Marl Bed Flats, 1/23/2013
This morning was my best birding morning at Marl Bed Flats, though the photographic side of my brain must have shut down. I went there early this morning hoping to meet with the Space Coast Birding Festival group. I thought they were going to meet there at 6:00am, but apparently they were meeting elsewhere and […]
Lake Apopka, 12/14/2012
So I braved the 4 mile Lake Apopka Loop Trail again. It’s a challenge, not just because it’s an 8 mile walk round drip, but also because the trail is hard, compact gravel much of the way, so I’m always sore when I get back. This morning it was cold (by Florida standards) and windy, […]
Rare Art Works by John James Audubon at Auction on December 5th Part IV
A rare collection of 82 original, hand-colored engravings of birds and quadrupeds by John James Audubon will come under the hammer in New York on 5th December 2012. “The Birds of America” was published in London between 1827 and 1838 by Robert Havell. Although some items will be purchased by art galleries for public display, […]
Bird Tour Report
From Sunday midday until Wednesday afternoon I guided a visiting birder from Canada around places in Kumamoto, Nagasaki and Saga prefectures. Firstly we went to Yatsushiro and Hikawa Estuary, where we saw gulls and shorebirds, however the Black-faced Spoonbills that I had expected there were not to be found. The next morning we watched Streaked […]