https://stonefactionbirding2014.blogspot.com/2024/05/1252-signs-of-spring-28424.html
Although the weather didn't feel very Spring-like, the birds definitely thought it was Spring....
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A Tale About Storks – part 5
Having watched the snails - commonly called Roman, or Burgundy snails (the edible type) and quite rare so far up north - for some ten minutes doing their thing, I forced myself to get going. The afternoon was getting on and I still had some way to go. Back into the woods. ‘Go straight, turn right, turn left, go straight again into a south-westerly direction’, the phone instructed me. What do you mean, go straight?, I yelled. It’s a T-junction here, you stupid thing! And where is south west? You know when you are totally frustrated when you start talking back to an inanimate object.
Thankfully, my brother taught me how to use the sun for direction, so I turned left, exasperated at the whole silly situation...
http://iainsowls.blogspot.com/2024/05/philippines-zamboanga-and-sulu-and.html
A Tale About Storks – part 4
Blue sky, sunshine and an unexpected balmy twenty-three degrees C°. Oudemolen, here I come! Relying on a thirty plus year memory of when I had been there last, I was looking for a lovely little white bridge, followed immediately by a broad entrance path into the woods. Friends of mine used to park in that spot on the few occasions that I had joined them for a walk there. I remembered tall, mature oak trees, wet marshy meadows scattered with wildflowers, small fens, towering Scots pines, sudden odd patches of heather, stretches of open fields bordered by hedgerows. And weaving in and out of this landscape, the dark iron-rich waters of that pretty river, the Drentsche Aa.
Things change Erna, I told myself...
Birding can be emotional, depending on what you put into it, and what you want from it. If you allow it to, it can take you to the heights of elation, to the depths of despair, and all points in between. The ideal, though, the holy grail for me, is to escape from the sine wave of ups and downs, to achieve contentment, where birding, and all that it involves, just makes you happy.
Daughter the younger was working at Hampden Park a couple of Sundays ago (either pouring drinks, or badly cooking pizzas) and after dropping her off at an ungodly hour I made good on my perennial promise to make the most of my time out. The road home from Hampden would involve a short detour to Cathkin Marsh SWT reserve. One of my places, a place as fey and...
A Tale About Storks – part 3
Exchanging stork info with one of my neighbours - a retired nurse with all the time in the world to go birdwatching every day - I learned of a brand new nesting pole that had been put up in a meadow behind our apartment block last winter. Huh, a new one?, I asked. There? How odd. As I had gone through the news article about the removed pole at Deurze more properly by this time, I was rather confused by her news about this new pole in our backyard.
In short, the State Forestry Commission had decided against replacing this favourite nesting pole of mine because storks in the Netherlands are doing só well that many of them are now following their natural behaviour by nesting in trees. Proving the case, a...
A Tale About Storks – part 2
Recalling myself from the useless wishful staring at the empty spot in the field beside me, I found a news article that told me that one of the pole’s support beams had been rotten. Being close to the cycling path, it had been taken down for safety reasons. Permanently. Typical Dutch overprotectiveness was my rebellious first reaction, getting more grumpy by the minute.
It was getting colder now, the sun hiding behind ever darkening clouds, so I quickly skimmed over the article. Not quite taking it all in, my eye did fall on the mention that around Deurze – as the pretty brook and nearby village are named - one pair of storks had nested in a tree last year. In the village. Good heavens!, I thought...
A Tale About Storks Part 1
The storks are back!
Three weeks ago I sighted my first stork of the year gliding through the sky in front of our high rise apartment block, right on the edge of town. I spotted the first couple foraging in the nearby field a few days later, and had heard bill-clattering welcome greetings several times in the distance.
Having a break from the rather awful April weather, I got on my bike on the first sunny opportunity. Patches of blue sky lined by huge fluffy white clouds, it was eleven degrees Celcius, with just a breeze of wind. Unaware at first of the very black and threatening rain clouds also up there in the sky, I thought it a perfect day to check out the nearest three stork nests.
Packing a note...
Avid readers will have worked out by now that I’m most definitely not a morning person. Which is unfortunate, given the amount of bird ‘life’ I miss out on by virtue of being a barely- functioning shell of a man before about half ten. My ‘birding hard reset’ though seems to have worked wonders for early morning. The Friday after my Sma’ Glen/ Loch of the Lowes trip I was due to be in the office. Normally such mornings are spent pondering life choices and ruminating about why I never play the lottery. This Friday, however, was something special.
A wall of noise struck once I left the house. A handful of house sparrows had been feeding in the garden and scattered to the shelter of my neighbour’s hedge. A song thrush called from close by-...
Bird Stories – A Tale About Storks (coming up soon)
Last week, on April 16th, I became a member of this Bird Forum. I posted an intro about myself that day in the Say Hello forum. In my intro I refer to my late brother, who was a passionate lover of birds and keen observer, teaching me enough about birds to consider myself a reasonably informed layperson. In our 59 years of life together we went on many a bird watching walk, at home in The Netherlands, and abroad.
In my Say Hello post, I also referred to a second message - Opportunity for book lovers and collectors - that I had posted in the For Sale forum that same day. I posted this second message because my brother left me a legacy of some 1000+ bird and nature books, which I...
https://stonefactionbirding2014.blogspot.com/2024/04/1241-windy-dundee-sunday-7424.html
The local bird club had an outing within Dundee recently and I helped out with 'local knowledge'. Despite less than ideal conditions, and unfavourable tide times, we still managed to exceed expectations and also saw some pretty decent birds.....
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