Birding Braunie

This is my first blog since the middle of April. This is mainly due to my working life being turned upside down. It is very difficult to get motivated to write the events of a day when your mind needs to focus on other priorities. But slowly things are improving and life as a freelancer does have a few advantages. An example of this my lunchtimes now consist of a walk around a small pocket of Epping Forest photographing butterflies and dragonflies. In the past it would have been a stressed dash to an overpriced sandwich shop along with a million others and straight back to my desk. (I will save the advantages of not commenting for another day as that’s a blog on its own!) So now I have that out of the way, let’s get on with the business as usual. When you volunteer for the Lee Valley Park, what that really means is you are actually volunteering to experience many amazing things and events. From a ticket to the Bird Fair to organised trips around bird reserves such as Frampton Marsh...

No camera. In the old days this wouldn’t have been a big deal when I went birdwatching. However, digiscoping has become a big thing for me. I might not do it properly, i.e. with all the proper attachments but I can get results I like and it means I can populate my blog with the images of the subjects I’m subjecting you all to. So I decided to paint instead. I haven’t picked up my brushes for a few months and as I had the day to myself, I thought about going a bit further afield and combine it with a reccie of a birding site I had only read about. Therfield Heath in Hertfordshire. The Icknield Way is an ancient track that runs south from Royston and was the path I chose to take. I can imagine in winter this is a harsh environment to be in. Apart from the irregular hedgerows, there is little cover or protection for the cold winds that must stab through here. View from the Icknield Way looking East. I found a place to stop with good views across swathes of fields and sketched a wat...