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The wind is still with us, but now from the south and the west. Thus the ambient temperature rises and, as the blanket of snow melts rapidly away, so our hopes rise also. Spring this year will be fleet and frantic, and now that the passerines and waders are back in force, and field voles are once again...

Across the uplands of Northumberland Spring has not sprung and the land seems locked down. In North Tynedale, only the crossbill and that honorary raptor, the raven, appear impervious to the snow and the ice and the incessant east wind (indeed the crossbills have been seen with juveniles in their loose...

Stephen Temperley returns to Skydancer this month, reprising his role coordinating the North Tynedale hen harrier nest protection project. As the breeding season gets underway in earnest, he has some positive early news... Greetings from the RSPB Species Protection Coordinator for Northumberland!...

It's true what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So how many words, or indeed how many pictures, are worth a single first-hand experience? It's a good question and I honestly have no idea what the answer is but I'd hazard a guess that it's a heck of a lot. Anyone with...

Apologies again! I realise it’s gone a bit quiet from me since my last post but that’s only because I’ve been so busy putting together lots of exciting games, crafts and activities as part of our Skydancer outreach programme for local schools. I can’t wait to start putting it...

While the unseasonable, windless heat of late has been just the ticket for us watchers in Northumberland, it hasn't exactly been conducive to the peregrinations of Circus cyaneus in prospecting for breeding territory. Hen harriers are creatures of the wind, able to efficiently cover vast amounts...

Hello! Please forgive my rudeness - almost six months in post and I’m only just introducing myself now. There’s been so much to do getting things started and it’s amazing how time just slips past but there, I’m getting ahead of myself again – let’s start from the...

Tuesday May 18, 0735 and warm for the time of day. Watching over the North Tynedale site, I was bathed in sunlight and out of the wind. Suddenly, three dots close together in the distance - tussling raptors. It'll be the nesting peregrine pair and a buzzard, I thought, but the white rump of the latter...