Birds

Birds of Prey in the North of England

August 21, 2012

Eagle Owl at Muncaster Castle I tweeted about eagle owls earlier this afternoon but decided it deserved a longer reference here on the “Around-England” site. It really is good to see an increasing number of birds of prey settling back into the English countryside. Ten days ago we had a 3-generations visit to Muncaster Castle [...]

Ospreys and Mountain Bikes in the Lake District

April 3, 2012

Great news for the osprey watchers of the Lake District. BBC News Cumbria reports A female osprey has been spotted in Cumbria at the start of the nesting season. …. The unidentified female was spotted on a nest near Keswick on Friday but it is not known if she will remain. Ospreys fly south to Africa during [...]

Nature in the North – Smitten bitterns at Leighton Moss

March 30, 2012

Spring is sprung! And the RSPB at Leighton Moss report lovey-dovey bitterns. The other day Annabel Rushton wrote: Our very lucky Visitor Services Manager Jacqui was out for a stroll on the reserve yesterday evening and witnessed a rare treat at the bottom of the causeway. She was listening to our male bittern booming and suddenly he [...]

Our Winter Visitors

November 23, 2011

During the summer months the North of England welcomes visitors in their hundreds of thousands from all around the globe. Those human visitors drop off after September but we then start to see a different kind of visitor, flying in from colder climes. This morning I spotted two reports of White Fronted Geese arriving from [...]

Nature Reserves in the North of England

November 10, 2011

The North of England has a remarkable number of nature reserves, and I’ve decided to include a directory to many (hopefully most) of these on Around-England.co.uk. For starters I’ve now launched version 1 of a page entitled “The RSPB in the North of England“. At present it contains just a simple listing, a brief indication [...]

Sensation At Leighton Moss

November 3, 2011

There’s something very special happening on November evenings at the RSPB nature reserve, Leighton Moss, between Carnforth and Kendal. Yesterday Jen Walker wrote: “Crowds of people are flocking to see a wilder alternative to watching fireworks this year at Leighton Moss. At this time of year the sky comes alive at dusk, as enormous flocks [...]

Flamborough Head, Yorkshire

July 2, 2011

A week ago I wrote about an unusual lighthouse at Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset. Moving from the southwest to the northeast today I’m posting a photo I took last year of Flamborough Head Lighthouse, between Bridlington and Filey on the Yorkshire coast. Actually, if you loook carefully you’ll see that it’s a photo of more than [...]

Ospreys at Rutland Water

June 24, 2008

In an article about Bassenthwaite Lake on my English Lakes site I mentioned the Lake District Osprey Project, and provided a link to the video camera. The watchers up in the Lake District this year believe (from observing the behviour of the parent birds) that at least one chick has now hatched. Down at Rutland [...]