Summary October 2013 Garden Things were fairly quiet at the start of the month with just a handful of Goldfinches and a few Blue Tits pretty constant. A Mistle Thrush has been lurking around on the neighbouring house roofs, perhaps eying up their winter supply of berries on the Rowan trees. On the whole though…
Summary of Scottish Birding 4th – 12th October 2013 Our Scottish holiday took in a quick stopover at Montrose Basin, a visit to Loch of Strathbeg and environs and on our return a stopover at WWT Caerlaverock. In between we had three great days of birding in the Highlands in Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty and…
Summary September 2013 Garden September continued in a largely pleasant way and there were even a few balmy days towards the end of the month. The Goldfinches have returned in good numbers and there are quite a few Tits around and a Dunnock is spotted occasionally. Still no Robin, though, and Blackbirds are still only…
Summary August 2013 Garden The weather was a bit mixed for the first couple of weeks of August with some good dry days, some uncertain days and some plain wet ones. The combination of sun and rain has done wonders for the garden and it is easy to see why some birders turn to insects…
Summary July 2013 Garden July has turned out to be an absolutely scorching month with record temperatures and virtually no rain – the opposite of the first months of the year. We were away on holiday until the 12th and when we came back the garden was like a jungle. As regards birds, we are…
Summary June 2013 Garden June started surprisingly warm and sunny although it was still cold in the evenings. On the first of the month I saw a Buzzard circling overhead. A remarkable feature in the garden of late has been the regular visits from a pair of Mistle Thrushes who seem largely unconcerned about our…
Summary May 2013 On the 8th May we saw four House Martins (the first for the year for us) starting to nest under the eaves of one of the new flat blocks opposite the Thai restaurant. We saw one nest but at least two other birds were also to-ing and fro-ing so I expected to…
Summary April 2013 Garden Although April started out still cold, there were some signs in the first week of the possibility of Spring happening. It has at least been dry for a couple of weeks so the surrounding countryside is getting a chance to soak up the record rainfalls of March. Disturbingly there have been…
Summary March 2013 Garden The first week of March was an unusually dry spell and sometimes quite warm. After that the weather got wetter and a bit colder. By the start of the second week it was snowing a bit and very cold but by the 17th it was drier and a bit warmer. Towards…
Summary February 2013 Garden February continued wet and sometimes very windy and still a bit cold. Many of our garden birds seem to be absent though I did see a Wren on several occasions. By the 13th there was more snow and the cold brought our two Mistle Thrushes back into the garden. In fact…
