My Blog

Category: Wildlife

  • Meles Meles

    “In the real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning.” F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Attr.).  To be honest I read that in a Snoopy cartoon in the 80s, back when I thought the Daily Mail practised ethical journalism.  And in the interests of veracity, it is only 02:50. I am surprised…

  • Circulation

    There’s a word to think about, circulation figures governed my life when I worked for Menzies.  Movement of any kind in the transport sense is a huge issue for us just now and my husband had that full throttle last night as he attempted to get to Glasgow from The Bay,  and in the sense…

  • Windy Miller

    A rare day out to RSPB Loch Leven or Vane Farm as it’s known in our house.   Don’t ask me how I prised these shots from my camera, unless you want a three hour rant about SD cards and readers.  Very windy there yesterday, birds mostly in hiding, unlike the rooks and magpies who are…

  • Ars longa, vita brevis

    A deftly crafted and finely honed homily, on the subject of British wildlife. You’ve got to be nice to badgers, Badgers are nice to us. If you’re not nice to badgers We’ll smack you in the puss.

  • Footing the bill

    Well, I haven’t been here for a while, sorry about that, things have been busy and I am still trying to work out what I think about last week’s Election result. So, yesterday we hied to the Lyceum in Edinburgh for the final play in the 2014 -15 season.  The was The Venetian Twins, relocated…

  • Wading right in

    Went to Vane Farm aka RSPB Loch Leven this afternoon, just to stretch legs and breathe the Fife air.  Rewarded with a rare glimpse of a female garganey.  A very knowledgeable lady in the Carden hide, on the flood,  had never seen one this far north, so there was much excitement.   Also saw shoveler,…

  • Downtime Abbey

    Well, it’s been unusually quiet here in Camp Chandler, Paul has had the cold from hell for the past 2 – 3 weeks and we didn’t manage to join the chums in Blairgowrie for the annual Folk Club getaway weekend, which was very disappointing but sometimes you just have to acknowledge when it would be…

  • Redding up

    Janus is the Roman god  after whom January is named; he had two heads, one for looking backwards and one for looking forwards.   Harbinger of change;  turns out that is going to be quite appropriate for 2015, of which more anon. So, to Townhill Loch, north of Dunfy yesterday, to see some new birds and…

  • Murmur

    Shoud you happen to spot a starling murmuration, be sure to log it here.  See here if you have never heard me going on about this natural phenomenon.   And here, no apologies for repeating this link. Also be sure to phone me so that I can see it too.   Likewise any flocks of waxwings.…

  • The North, Circular

    Affairs of the stomach much on my mind these days, so it was with rising interest that I noted a factoid from the appendices to one of my favourite books, The Poetry of Birds*.   The noble bird the gannet derives its name from the Scottish word gant or gaunt which means to yawn by…