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We're not done yet!
August 28, 2023 - Contrary to what I wrote on this blog twelve days ago, here, it seems we still have swifts overhead!
We saw two on the...
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The lucky ones, 2023.
August 16, 2023 - For me (this may change of course - I HAVE seen one pass over this house south in the first week of September before) th...
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The most precocious of yearlings - the squadron leader.
June 25, 2023 - 3rd wave swift activity around the house is still going strong. Frantic even.
We are visited multiple times a day now b...
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Summer air shows
June 23, 2023 - The third wave of swifts has arrived in full force right now in Berkshire - and are putting on a SUPERB show around our...
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The (particularly) lucky ones are back!
May 21, 2023 - The regular reader(s?!) of this blog by now, I'm sure, will know that I am besotted by swifts.
Infatuated with them.
A...
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August. The lucky ones.
September 01, 2022 - This will be a very short monthly report, perhaps the shortest of the entire year - if only because other than all the g...
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Our wonderful, wild week in West Wales. Part 2. (Wednesday to Saturday).
August 21, 2022 - This is part 2 of a 2 part blog post write up of our summer holiday in West Wales.
You might like to read these posts i...
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Our wonderful, wild week in West Wales. Part 1. (Saturday to Tuesday).
August 21, 2022 - We've just returned from a wonderful, wild week in West Wales.
Well... truth be told, we've been back for a week now, b...
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July to me?
August 01, 2022 - We're racing through the year now eh, grapple fans. Soon be Christmas and all that?
July then - the driest for 111...
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They're back (again).
July 04, 2022 - Just the shortest of posts this morning, primarily for the benefit of certain potential readers (specifically the staff...
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June buggy.
July 01, 2022 - June suddenly - this June bringing real heat (34C where we are) as well as a month, for me, to concentrate on our local...
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I have to say... I'm more than a bit gutted, really.
June 11, 2022 - Regular readers of this blog will (or should, surely?) know that I am somewhat obsessed with swifts.
I used to film a b...
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May. Flower.
May 31, 2022 - Without (much!) warning, we’re almost halfway through the year then… May always acts as a reminder to me to make sure I...
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They're back!
May 10, 2022 - Yesterday evening, around six-thirty pm, just after tea, Ben saw two swifts screaming above the house.
We had seen a fe...
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Ninety-two days...
August 02, 2021 - ... since I saw my first two lucky ones over the garden, exactly three months ago to the day on May 2nd... and they're s...
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A wonderful wildlife and weather weekend.
June 13, 2021 - No time for a lengthy, flowery write-up.
So, in a bulleted format.
What I (and we) saw this weekend.
I found a (n une...
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They're back!
May 02, 2021 - Oh come on.
You know what "they're" signifies.
The best.
Back high over the house tonight at 18:45. Just two of them.
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A few recent observations
April 28, 2021 - Afternoon all.
Just a few recent observations from me - as we're heading, helter-skelter into my favourite time of year...
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Bird news.
March 21, 2021 - Just a few bits of bird news tonight, for my interested reader?
1 - On January 1st this year, I devised this year's wil...
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A little something to cheer you up. Maybe?
December 16, 2020 - I know.
We're all having a crap year.
So, this morning, a wee blog post to cheer you up.
Perhaps?
Any regular visi...
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Just the 46,000 then?
August 15, 2020 - Before I reveal the second of my two recent firsts (that being the bird (species) that I saw for the very first time (ev...
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The lucky ones.
July 26, 2020 - Many people (retailers generally) would try to have us believe that Christmas is "the most wonderful time of the year",...
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The three waves of swifts.
July 02, 2020 - First things first. In case you weren't aware, this week (if you're reading this between June 27th and July 5th, 2020) i...
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REAL hope for next year now...
June 26, 2020 - Sure. 2018 was a good year here for the best birds of all, swifts. (Unfortunately, last year was bleedin' awful).
But t...
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Love 'em. Just LOVE 'EM.
June 24, 2020 - The image below is a composite of around 35 images taken this afternoon.
We're having our best swift year ever here.
O...
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"It's not the despair, Laura... I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."
June 15, 2020 - Two years ago (almost to the day) I blogged about the best birds of all (of course) finally returning to a NEW "Swift Ha...
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A Greek tragedy.
April 11, 2020 - 2020 doesn't get any better does it? Awful news from Greece yesterday.
And yes, I know this may seem completely trivial...
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Swifts - It's not just the hope that hurts... it really IS the despair too.
August 21, 2019 - After last season, I was really hoping that 2019 would finally bring back my favourite bird of all to actually NEST with...
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Debt well and truly PAID.
June 13, 2019 - At the end of April I blogged HERE and speculated that generally, as the weather tends to "pay its debts" pretty reliabl...
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Watch the birdies...
April 28, 2019 - A brief(ish) post today as I've been rugby coaching and gardening all day, plus showing Ben a barn owl (a proper, live,...
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What of the swifts?
September 07, 2018 - Because of my (understandable and correct!) fascinations with swifts, I'm regularly asked "how are the swifts doing" by...
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What's brown, steaming and comes out of cow(e)s?
August 11, 2018 - …. The Isle of Wight Ferry of course.
Doesn't really work as a written joke that... as when written, one needs to add a...
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The first "Swift awareness week" in the UK.
June 19, 2018 - Most people that know me, know all-too-well that I am besotted by swifts.
This is (now) the shortest blog post I've eve...
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Finally? The NEW Swift Half!
June 08, 2018 - I'm going to try and keep this brief, because if I start spewing up my excitement too much right now on this blog post,...
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Wonderful, weird things in the sky
May 28, 2018 - I'm not going to spend any time blogging purely about the weather today (as everyone is doing that - and I'm sure like m...
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The height of summer.
August 02, 2015 - I should adore this time of year, the “boy of summer” that I most certainly am – and in the main, I do.
Despite being...
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Napoleon, Rembrandt, the Rosetta stone, the first Crusaders and St.Swithun- a swift update
July 15, 2014 - Today is July 15 th.
July 15 th 2014.
Eight years exactly since twitter was launched.
One hundred and ninety-nine yea...
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TV or not TV. That is the question.
May 30, 2014 - There was a time in the past when television schedulers and production companies provided far fewer programmes of intere...
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My less than swift, swift set up...
April 21, 2014 - Just a very quick post today grapple fans - a few words on my swift spaces set up with a couple of days left before I te...
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Less than a month to go...
March 27, 2014 - Regular visitors to this blog will know how I feel about swifts.
I was due to make an appearance at the International...
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For forty days it’ll rain nae mare....?
July 17, 2013 - Monday, (July 15 th) was the date on which we used to feast for St.Swithun – a Bishop of Winchester in the mid 800s.
On...
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We made it (and so did they).
May 07, 2013 - It has been a fair few weeks since I blogged - poor health and incredibly busy work to blame.
Those weeks have seen us...
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The last of the best? Part 2.
September 01, 2012 - A little over a week ago (on the 23rd August 2012) I described here, how I thought I'd seen the last of my favourite bir...
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The last of the best?
August 23, 2012 - Up until 30 minutes ago, the last of the best birds of all (swifts) I had seen this season were on the 1st August (over...
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"Should I stay or should I go"?
August 08, 2012 - This might as well be the summer of 2012 singing this blog’s title, not Joe Strummer of the Clash.
March 2012 – and w...
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Hens and dragonflies in our week of high summer
July 23, 2012 - High summer.
As predicted well over a week ago now, the jet stream has “wagged its tail” and now we are sitting the “...
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Summer to arrive next Sunday?
July 15, 2012 - April - the wettest April ever.
Parts of May - pretty bleedin' wet n all.
June the wettest June ever.
July - shaping...
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2012 – The avian annus horribilis
July 05, 2012 - It’s now official.
The last three month period (April, May and June 2012) has been the wettest April, May and June peri...
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Flash floods again – it must be Wimbledon fortnight…
June 29, 2012 - To be fair, the rain (and there’s been plenty of it again in the midlands and north of the country) hasn’t really affect...
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Urban peregrines
June 17, 2012 - I remember when I first became interested in wildlife (and birds I s'pose, in particular), I could only dream about seei...
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Less of an enigma now? (Perhaps)
June 14, 2012 - My favourite bird of all.
The swift (of course).
I have had to write off any chance of breeding swifts this year in my...
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Summer "nights"?
May 20, 2012 - On Friday 18th May I'd noticed that the air had become a little warmer of late, a little humidity had crept into the sky...
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The youngsters appear
May 14, 2012 - Whilst my ongoing health issues limit my outings at present - and the weather remains changeable at best (apart from a c...
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Swifts, badger cubs and a hobby.
May 07, 2012 - As spring moves sluggishly on - the wildlife does its best to cope with the cool temperatures, frost (this morning) and...
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Why is the swift the most impressive bird of all?
April 29, 2012 - So why do I consider the common swift to be the best bird of all? Better than kingfishers, ospreys, eagles, peregrines,...
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The best bird of all is back!
April 28, 2012 - It is with much joy that I can report my favourite bird of all is back in our skies for three short months again this su...
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