Birding Braunie

Another quick trip out this morning at 5am, this time to Sewardstone Marsh. Still part of the Lee Valley Park, Sewardstone Marsh is a small and relatively productive habitat with woodland, open scrub and marsh. It sits beside the King George V reservoir which makes it a useful spot for migrants. Sewardstone Marsh at Dawn The marsh had always been a strong site for the elusive cuckoo and a good site for nightingales. Unfortunately, there were no nightingales here this year but I did hear a cuckoo and kept my fingers crossed that one would at least show in flight. There were plenty of sedge warblers and whitethroats in the scrub area. Sand martins and swallows wheeled over the meadows by the Navigation canal. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs and one or two willow warblers sang from the trees along the pathways. They would give themselves away but flying short haul from one section of cover to another. Always difficult to focus on – near impossible to photograph. However,...

As a lot of my friends will tell you, I’m rather partial to a glass or two of wine. I can often be found scanning the shelves of Sainsbury or Tesco looking for that decent Pinot Noir or Grigio. Now this isn’t because I’m an expert on wine, far from it. What I’m looking for is a good, affordable wine that comes with a cork. It seems to me that 70% to 80% of bottles on our supermarket shelves are screw top and not cork and this has nothing to do with the environment. Retailers are understandably keen to deliver a good wine experience to their customers and screw cap bottles safeguard the old problem of a corked or tainted wine.  Customers feel confident the wine they buy will be drinkable and that is what we all have come to exp ect. In fact, I have even noticed that less and less diners feel the need to taste the wine before pouring. That’s how confident people have become. What has been overlooked, is the effect this has had on the cork forest industry. And here, confidence is at...

As my son and girlfriend stumbled into the house at 4.30am after clubbing in the West End, I was getting ready to drive the 5 miles it takes to get to the Lee Valley Park to experience the wonderful dawn chorus. Of course it takes a bit of effort to roll out of a comfy bed and into the cool (very cold really) spring morning but unless you have heard this incredible sound believe me the effort is worth it. Lee Valley Park at 5am. The vast chain of excavated gravel pits now turned into an amazing nature park for all is also a good place to find nightingales. They possess one of the richest and  the most beautiful songs that can be heard in the natural world. The rich medley of liquid notes of the Nightingale has been a source of inspiration for poets and musicians such as Keats, Coleridge and Beethoven. Wren. An incredibly loud song for such a tiny bird. I arrived at 5am to find a full car park! Anglers are even madder tha...

This has always tickled me.

Walking home from work this evening, I was struck by the rich numbers of House Sparrows I saw on the way. Now I know the humble House Sparrow has come top of the Big Garden Birdwatch this year, which, on one hand is clearly good news, but the worrying fact remains, this bird is collectively – across the UK and chunks of the world – in serious decline. In fact, The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) put it on its Red List back in 2002. 50 odd years ago, the sparrow population was recorded at around 10 million. By the mid 70’s it was approximately 25 million but after that, it fell out of the sky and crashed during the 1990’s leaving the population by 2000 down by 65%. So what has done this little fellow in? There are of course a number of valid theories including the moderisiation of farming through more effective grain storage, tighter housing of livestock and feed and cereal hygiene that requires farm building to be watertight or rather, 'sparrow-tight' re...

Red Deer at Minsmere

Marsh Harrier hunting at Minsmere

The may bank holiday should conjure up images of a warm spring day, eating alfresco and the chance to escape to the seaside. Well, escaping to the seaside certainly was on my mind as I set off from Woodford to pick my friend Ed up from his home in Shenfield. The weather this weekend had been dire; the rains had come to perk the garden up but now a northerly wind was threatening to bring a bitter chill to the day. Another early start and with a changeable sky, I met Ed, ate half a sliced pig between a couple slices of bread, all washed down with a decent brew. Our main destination was Minsmere, the RSPB’s flagship reserve and monument to over 50 years hard graft to protect and promote this country’s incredible biodiversity. Ed had his recently acquired Bushnells which were sharp and clear – I was really impressed with the optic quality and handling of these binoculars. I had all my usual kit…minus my tripod strap which I stupidly forgot to attach. On our way to Mi...