The evenings are really drawing in now and, as autumn and winter are my favourite birding seasons, I’m listening with longing for the sound of returning flocks of pink-footed geese flying over my house. Autumn is the time when our coastlines and wetlands begin to fill with flocks of wildfowl
Continue reading
Hello birdwatchers Happy New Year! Traditionally, New Year’s Day is when birders go outdoors to get a good start to their year list. I’ve always like to have a lie in after celebrations the night before so I tend to start off my list with birds from my garden and
Continue readingWell, I said goodbye to my little house martin on the last day of July and it flew away, without looking back, towards an area full of feeding adult and juvenile house martins at Golden Acre Park. You can see a little video here. Thank you to the staff at The Parkway
Continue reading
Now that the Leeds Birdfair is over I’m looking forward to enjoying the summer months although, as a birder, my July and August is spent watching the beginning of the outward migration, when birds begin to move away from their breeding grounds in the north. For a birder, autumn has
Continue reading
Hello birdwatchers I hope you’ve been able to go outdoors to enjoy the last of the amazing autumn weather. The colours have been amazing and as it’s stayed dry for most of the autumn we’ve been able to enjoy golds, reds and russet browns on the trees and on the
Continue reading
At the time ‘the general public’ are enjoying their summer holidays, birders are watching their local nature reserves with eager anticipation for the arrival of waders. July and August is the start of the autumn migration and every day is special when birds are on the move. Birds will move
Continue readingSunday May 7th saw the first bird-walk for the Friends of Lawnswood Cemetery. It was a bird song identification walk led by Linda Jenkinson of Start Birding. A group of about 25-30, seven of whom were “Friends”, the others more experienced bird watchers, had assembled in the car park by
Continue readingThanks to the development of the new Kirkstall railway station, I’ve been able to offer a new circular walk on my programme of events. You can book onto my tour of Bramley Falls Wood, Hawksworth Woods and Newlay Wood, which takes place on Tuesday 31st January, via the events page on
Continue readingHello birdwatchers I hope you’ve all had a relaxing Christmas with friends and family and that you’re all looking forward to starting a new year. After what was thrown at us over 2016, I can imagine that many of you have been looking back at the past 12 months and
Continue reading
Dear friends of Start Birding Our icy blast from the north has certainly brought in those winter migrants As we birdwatched at St Aidan’s on Tuesday, a family of whooper swans appeared and landed in the lake in front of us. They have come all the way from Iceland to
Continue reading
