It was cold and stormy today, with some snow and sleet but also some milder sunny intervals. The first thing I managed to do was get a rather nice photo of one of our resident tree sparrows in the snowy conditions. In the afternoon I ventured out to Fraserburgh, on the north-east tip of the …
I only managed to see the resident tree sparrows around our house today, as most of my time was taken up with admin of one type or another. It was a cold and rainy day, and more snow is forecast, but I’m hoping that I might get out and about tomorrow – fingers’ crossed! Any …
Having spent the morning clearing up soggy carpet and underlay and spoking to a local builder about various repairs, I decided to head into the Cairngorms to Tomintoul where there had been a report of a grerat grey shrike: Quite what one was doing in the middle of the Cairngorms I don’t know. Not, I …
Today I continued my journey up to our Scottish house and – for anyone who might be wondering after the last two blog entries – I’m delighted to say that though there is some damage from the burst water pipe it was not as bad or as extensive as I had feared. Huge sigh of …
Sadly there was absolutely no chance at any wildlife watching today: Quite apart from having quite a lot of musical tasks to accomplish, including taking an orchestral rehearsal, I had to spend a lot of additional time talking to our insurance company and various others to set in motion assessments and repairs to the Scottish …
Today I was due to spend some time in the studio with my sound engineer friend Mark Fawcett, working on my new album. But around the edges of that there were various other bits of work that needed to be done, so there was very little time for wildlife. However I did manage a walk …
A busy admin and practice day today, but I managed a short walk at Lady Anne’s Drive, where I encountered the usual suspects with the addition of a couple of kestrels – a bird I don’t always see there – and a beautiful looking male hen harrier. But probably the highlight of this brief visit …
What, I hear you ask, is the problem with pipits? Well perhaps it’s more a problem with me, but I have always found them difficult to identify. I’ve seen hundreds of meadow pipits over the years, but when it comes to water pipit, tree pipit and rock pipit I have always had issues telling them …
It was never likely that I would get out for a walk today – there was just too much to do. Ah well – hopefully I can make up for it tomorrow. The only wildlife related thing I managed today was to order some swift nextboxes! Swifts are another of the species that are massively …
Today was one of those days where I wondered about not going out: It was cold and somewhat grey, and I had quite a lot to do at home. I initially decided to work in the morning rather than have an early walk, and then 2pm came and I wondered about not going out at …
