Tag Archives: birds
Thuggish geese
Imagine the scene: a beautiful sunny Autumn day on the banks of the canal in Castlefield, golden leaves rustling above my head. I sit down on a bench, lift my Greggs chargrilled chicken sandwich out of the paper bag and suddenly I’m surrounded by three large geese. One of which keeps running up to me, […]
In the news
Good manners to be taught in schools Scientists demand inquiry over Wi-Fi Birds and bees are hit by phone waves Britain becoming a Big Brother society, says data watchdog April was the hottest in 350 years Online sales ‘will hit £78bn’ Deluge of complaints on minimum wage abuse
A true story for Halloween
A couple of weeks ago I made a final visit to the house where I grew up. My dad had decided to sell and I had to pick up a few remaining bits and pieces. Though I was actually born in hospital, I spent my years from zero to 20 living in that 1950’s semi-detached. […]
Birdlife
One of the things you notice when you come from Manchester city centre to a small village out in the country is the birdlife. Sure we have magpies, pigeons, starlings and even parrots where I live in Manchester. But here there is just so much more variety and so many of them: swifts, swallows, thrushes, […]
A great spotted woodpecker outside my window (video)
Download the MP4 version here (or click through to the blog page for the Flash version).
Currently I’m in a little village near the England/Scotland border.
At 6am on Friday morning there seemed to be a lot of bird noise outside the window. I looked out and saw a crowd of sparrows and a male great spotted woodpecker (I know that because I looked it up on the RSPB website)
The first woodpecker I’ve seen in real-life. I was rather excited.
The window has that old-fashioned glass, which is why the video is a bit blurred.