Wildlife at St Nicks has been flourishing this spring. Wildwatch volunteers would normally be meeting every week to record – and enjoy – this. Alas, this is impossible right now. However, several Wildwatchers have been able to visit individually and share their sightings with us all. And of course staff members continue to do essential […]
New life sprung forth this March at St Nicks – as always. Despite inevitable difficulties, the Wildwatch team was still able to enjoy some great wildlife sightings. Wildwatch groups met as usual on the Wednesday mornings of the 4th and 11th of March – seventeen of us on the latter date. (What a long time ago this […]
Hard times for us all. So many pressing concerns. Not least of these, for many of us, is the way in which our access to the natural world has suddenly become so constricted. Absence, it is said, makes the heart grow fonder. How true this seems now, regarding not just family and friends, but also […]
Weather In contrast to last month, the Wildwatch group was blessed with dry Wednesdays! November’s first Wildwatch meeting had overcast skies, but for the other three Wednesdays we enjoyed sunshine or, at least sunny intervals. Temperatures ranged from 3C to 11C. Observers There were fewer of us during November, compared with last month – between five […]
Winter Thrushes During October, the UK will see the start of a mass invasion from overseas, as hundreds of thousands of birds move in from Scandinavia and other parts of Continental Europe to escape from the harsher winters. These include common garden birds, such as Robin and Chaffinch, but our focus this month is on […]
Weather: Warm (17C to 21C), overcast, but with sunny intervals. Occasional light SW breeze. Observers: Amanda, Declan, Ian, Janetta, Kaj, Kaye, Linda, Preeyus With eight of us on the Wildwatch today, we decided to split into two groups. Ian and Linda took Declan and Preeyus round, aiming to record birds and butterflies, whilst Kaye and […]
Weather: Snowing and cold. Still at first but with a biting wind picking up later. Observers: Janetta, Kaj, Linda, Steve, Kaye Yes, the heading does include your intrepid Wildwatch team. We followed every inch of the winter thrush survey route in defiance of the sometimes quite thick snow. But mainly it’s about nature, which appears […]
Weather: Cloudy, cold (0 C), slight NW wind, snow starting at the end of the walk Observers: Ian, Janetta, Kaye, Linda, Steve Well, we just about beat the snow, which started when we’d nearly finished our morning walk, and continued for the rest of the afternoon. It certainly felt very cold, with a nip in the […]
Weather: Sunny with light breeze after heavy early morning rain Observers: Ian, Janetta The heavy rain, which lasted until 9.30 am probably put some people off coming along, but Janetta and Ian enjoyed a bright sunny morning and the emerging Autumn colours. With there being just two of us, we decided to defer the monthly […]
Weather: Sunny intervals, cool when not in sun Observers: Hannah, Ian, Janetta, Kaye, Linda, Tom This week, our group carried out the first of a series of monthly surveys for the “Winter Thrush” survey, organised by the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology). We followed a route previously set by Ian, which took us along the […]