I was hoping to do another leg of my Pilgrims Way today but it's raining heavily and has been for about 3 weeks, so it's extremely wet and muddy underfoot. I suppose the original pilgrims would have to keep going whatever the weather, but as I'm doing it primarily for enjoyment, I'm not going to make myself miserable by trudging ankle-deep in mud ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Imagine a day-old chick all fluffy and cute. Now imagine that instead of yellow, it's speckled buff and black, with a white tummy. Now imagine that it's tiny, a fraction of the size of a hen's chick. And it has big orange webbed feet. And runs about all over the place.

You've just imagined ( a tern chick )

( Read more... )

I spent the weekend at my parents’ house in Yorkshire and was delighted to spot a blackcap in the garden. I’ve never seen one there before. I only spotted it because it was singing very loudly. Outside the mating season I probably wouldn’t notice it, as they’re quite secretive birds and don’t attract attention to themselves. On Saturday I heard ( Read more... )