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The weather over the past few days has, by & large, been fantastic! Gloriously sunny days, light (or even no) winds, crisp & clear. On Saturday afternoon, the visibility was so good that, looking through my 'scope from Kingshill Farm, I could pretty much count how many people (12 - 15 I thought...

Well, here we are in 2012 and returning to Elmley after my Christmas break, I very much had a sense of deja vu, although on this occasion it wasn't just the RSPB website that I couldn't access - I couldn't connect to the internet at all! We traced the glitch to a faulty dongle and having...

Well, here we are again. After a lot of investigation & loads of techy stuff waaay over my head, the bottom line is that I am now able to get onto the RSPB website from Elmley. So hopefully, normal service has been resumed. It's been about a month since my last update and in terms of water...

Not anything to do with birds in this instance. I'm referring to the fact that the hazel catkins are out around Kingshill Farm and the first great crested newts are starting to emerge from hibernation. The catkins are obvious enough, but the newts are generally far more secretive. The reason that...

"You what?" I hear you say. Although in these days of political correctness, I should perhaps use some other alternative name, like Old Wife, or Old Billy. I am referring to an irregular visitor to the reserve, the long-tailed duck. The various names refer to it's vocalisation (usually...

Another rather dreary, cold start to the day, with grey skies and a keen NE'ly wind that quickly froze my fingers. And then in the early afternoon, the sun came out! What a difference - still cold, but you can cope with it when the sun's shining. All "the usual" birds of prey were...

Well, they've been a while coming, but finally today they arrived! Out this afternoon in beautiful sunshine to check the livestock. The grazier & his vet had been in y/day to see how many of his cows were pregnant and we were pleased to learn that they all were, which is quite a rare occurence...