It’s cold, wet and windy and already almost Christmas. After a highly dramatic Summer, this term has been very quiet.  A little disappointing too:  While the dramatic weather events in the Atlantic were sending exceptional numbers of very rare birds to our Western coasts I had no time to take off and look for them….

So much drama has been happening that every time I start to write this blog something else happens and I have to start again! I’m almost glad of the poor weather, making it easier to stay indoors.  In spite of the non appearance of the ‘3 month heatwave’ it’s now Summer and the Swifts are…

Spring migration is well under way, Swallows and Martins are back but long before most birds began to arrive, our Egyptian Geese at Digby started the ball rolling by hatching five cute goslings in the second week of March.  An introduced tropical species, these geese can breed at any time of the year even so…

I’ve been very slack lately, away for Christmas hols, busy at times, a few days sick and arriving and leaving in the dark. Excuses, like fine words, butter no parsnips, so best to just get on with the fine words. Rather late, but let’s start with a review of 2018: Well before the end of…

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, – November! If you want the whole poem, it’s by Thomas Hood.  Basically an exhaustive list of things that are not much in evidence in the early winter.  Some of our regulars do seem to be away, but there are still birds…

Autumn will soon give way to Winter, and the weather has certainly turned cooler. The Annual nationwide fireworks displays, given, I understand, to celebrate the eve of my joining the University on 6 November last year, are over. So what did October bring? We didn’t see many long distance migrants but there was still plenty of…

New term, new academic year, new students. We’re all back from our summer holiday, but what of the birds? Autumn migration is an exciting time of the year for birds, but autumn begins: For astronomers, at the equinox (this year 23 September) For the University of Roehampton, 3 September For meteorologists, 1 September For birds…

This time the exciting news is not about birds: those of a nervous disposition may wish to skip this section. Gilly King kindly allowed me to photograph the Cave Spiders breeding in our Ice House.  We have discovered that they are of the rarer species (officially ‘Nationally Scarce Notable B’) Meta bourneti. They’re unlikely to trouble…

The hot news at the end of May was the hatching of the long awaited cygnets on the 25th. Since then there have been more dramatic developments: as I write, the cygnets are in peril on Grove House lawn. I was lucky enough to be there at 7:30am just after the second had hatched. The…

On the morning of 5 September I saw, for the first time, two sparrowhawks over my garden as I was leaving for work. Seven minutes later, I received a text from a friend who I’d envied since she became Science Education Technician at the University of Roehampton to say she was moving on, did I…