As the UK’s Big Butterfly Count reaches more than 100,000 submissions, an international group of scientists have produced the first national survey of biodiversity using an entirely different approach. Instead of looking for species by eye, they took advantage of the samplers around the UK that constantly measure toxic metal particles in the air, and […]
Tag: Skylark
The North Cornwall Coast
A spring day out on a North Cornwall headland when the sun is shining and the birds are starting their breeding cycle, I really can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.
Still waiting
Despite afternoon temperatures reaching +6C, overnight frosts and thick snow and ice means that there are very few signs of spring. Apart from a couple of scouts, finches and thrushes have yet to arrive and that is no surprise as there would be no food for them to find. It is still a long way […]
Buntings and Larks – Jebal Hamrah
Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah pivot irrigation fields recently with Phil Roberts, we came across a huge flock of Corn Buntings. The total seen was a minimum of one hundred birds and possibly many more. They were feeding in the grassy pivot fields but a couple of times all took to the air and landed […]
Flock of 30 Bimaculated Larks – Jebal Hamrah
Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah pivot irrigation fields recently with Phil Roberts, we came across a flock of up to thirty Bimaculated LarksMelanocorypha bimaculateon the stony area around the pivot field. The birds were on the edge of the field in with a group of Greater Short-toed Larks and Eurasian Skylarks. We had planned our […]
First visit to Elmley of 2019
My first visit to Elmley this year and as an official friend of Elmley that’s a little sad but the place looks good with plenty of water on the reserve and with it plenty of birds and a few Hares.
Plenty of Larks – Judah
On a winter trip to Judah, also known as Jebal Hamrah, Phil and I came across a good number of larks. They were mainly on a rough stony area between large pivot fields and consisted of a new species for Saudi Arabia for me Temminck’s Lark. There were five birds present but they never allowed […]
Great visit to Wallasea Island
Sometimes a days birding can deliver very little and then sometimes days like today come along where it all seems to go right. A Barn Owl as we pulled into the track to the reserve followed by two Short-eared Owls hunting at first light then a male Merlin flashes across us and sits out on […]