THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGING

I hope it doesn't come as a surprise to you when I say that we put the clocks back last weekend. You did remember, didn't you? If not, you missed out on an extra hour's sleep and I suspect you've missed several appointments throughout the week too. Or perhaps you were an hour early for them? I can never work out what the effect of changing them is. I know that we “spring forward and fall…

GHOULISH DELIGHTS

There are supernatural goings on going on at RSPB Old Moor at the moment. Of course there are, look at the calendar. We're close to Halloween and we have our BIG WILD HALLOWEEN trail on the reserve where our younger visitors can solve challenges, hunt monsters and find out about how nature handles the challenges of Autumn. It's all good spooky fun but if you want to know more about the darker side of…

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

By the time you read this there will only be about ten weeks left in the year. Astounding as it may seem, 2022 will be almost over. With it's political and financial upheavals, war in the East and the threat of COVID19 still hanging over us, many people will be glad to see the back of it. For those of us who are compiling a year list of birds seen, however, we're hoping that 2022 will last a little…

BIRDS FROM THE DARK SIDE

As we move towards the darker end of the year it's time to turn our eyes and ears skywards. It's a time of cold, grey skies and bare spindly trees. The cold, damp, gloomy conditions aren't great for many birds – or many birders. Lots of individuals from both groups seem to hunker down and hide for the winter. Sometimes it seems that the only birds in the air are the ones that group together in…

JUST PASSING THROUGH

I know that it's difficult during these times of economic belt-tightening but please bear with me. Imagine for a moment that you're much more affluent than you currently are. In fact, imagine that beyond, affluent; you're rich. Seriously rich. So rich that you can afford not only a magnificent home near to the wonderful Dearne Valley RSPB reserves here in South Yorkshire but an equally magnificent…

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE DUCK

There are few things in the birdwatching world that are as annoying as a gull that isn't in perfect identification condition. Few things, but not none. Birds that fly into a sparse tree and then immediately don a Cloak of Invisibility, that's one. Birdwatchers who spread their equipment all over a hide, thus depriving other birders a chance for a seat and a good view, that's another annoying…

Delphacid planthopper - Flastena fumipennis   James Flanagan

Female Left, Male Right

ONCE IN A LIFETIME

Like many of you, I keep a year list. For those who don't know, this is a list of every bird that I've seen over the calendar year. It's a harmless way of adding a little self-competition to my birdwatching whereby I try to see more birds on this trip around the sun than the last. This is a great incentive to travel to different locations in search of new birds to add to the list. After all, if I only…

BACK TO BED

After last week's somewhat depressing blog ('Save the Whale?' - click the link to read it if you haven't already) it's time to get back to happier things. Thankfully I've got a whole blogful of good news to serve up. Drum roll please....

RSPB Old Moor's Reedbed Path has now finally reopened!

It's been fenced off for the entire summer while some of our star species have been making…

SAVE THE WHALE?

Foreword - This week's blog is potentially contravertial so this is as good a time as any to remind readers that all views in these 'Views From The Shed' are my views and mine alone. They may or may not align with the opinions of my workmates, the Old Moor management team or the RSPB as an organisation. 

And now for our feature presentation...

Back in the 'seventies us prog rockers were listening…

VIEW FROM A TENT

Some of you may have noticed that I've been missing this week from my usual spot at the Old Moor Welcome Shed. Those nice RSPB folks decided that my particular meagre skill-set (that's chatting to people and writing about it) would be better utilised by temporarily representing Old Moor elsewhere, so they sent me on an away day jolly. For just one shift, instead of having a view from a shed, I had a view…

Forward - Spike Mayston 

Juliette is one of two residential volunteers here at RSPB Old Moor. Our residential volunteers give up their valuable time so that they can gain some practical knowledge and experience in managing a nature reserve. Being a residential volunteer is a great way to fill up CVs with professional training qualifications and practical experience so that they can pursue a career in conservation. 

Indeed…

PIPER AT THE GATES OF OLD MOOR

One of the hardest things any birder will ever do is correctly identify Gulls. Many of the different 'sea gull' species look incredibly similar, apart from during the years that they take to grow up and then they look incredibly different. It's a nightmare and big credit goes to anyone who claims to be an expert. Either that or they're great big fibbers. I know it's not a claim I would ever…

BIRD BRAIN

Owls are wise. We're taught that from our earliest picture books. “All the cuddly wuddly forest creatures went to the Wise Old Owl. She would know what to do.” You've probably read something like that to your kids or at least seen it in a Disney movie, right?

Wrong. Owls are stupid, ridiculously so. I've seen owls fly straight into a tree trunk on more than one occasion, they're that dumb…

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SPOONBILL

I'm really pleased that we have what seems to be a comfortably settled SPOONBILL currently here at RSPB Old Moor. I've written at length about these strange white birds and their ilk before on these blogs and I'm delighted that at least one of them has decided to hang around. The Spoonbill is one of the most striking and exotic birds that visit our shores and for many people…

THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK

Come on, admit it. You used the title of this week's blog as an excuse when you were at school, didn't you? Either that or “I left it on the bus, Miss”. These are the two perennial excuses for not doing the required preparatory work before each new school day. They're classics and have passed through the generations. And guess what? Newsflash, kids; the teachers have heard it all before and they…

A READER LIVES A THOUSAND LIVES

As many of you know, I'm a writer by profession. Words are the tools of my trade and I love them in the same way that my cabinet-maker dad used to love the saws and hammers hanging in his workshop. And just as my dad could never pass any wooden furniture without checking the quality of the joints, I can never pass a bookshop without buying something to add to the 600+ books already waiting…

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

There's an ancient Chinese blessing that roughly translates as, “May you live in interesting times”. The twist is that the ancient Chinese people also used the same phrase to curse their enemies. Living in interesting times is not necessarily a good thing. Whichever way you choose to look at it, we are certainly living in interesting times right now.

As I write this week…

YOU'RE GORGEOUS

Regular readers will know that I like to put some cultural reference into the title of these blogs every now and again. So today's title relates not only to the creatures we find around our Dearne Valley reserves (and to you, if you need that personal affirmation) but to a local indie band who had a big hit single in 1996 with the title shared with this piece. Give yourself two points if you can remember…

WASHED IN PERSIL

There have been some very clean white birds visible at RSPB Old Moor recently. And I mean HIGHLY visible, almost glow-in-the dark white. These birds are so clean that they look like herons that have been washed in Persil (other whiter-than-white washing products are available).

We love our herons here at Old Moor, especially the small brown booming ones that cause us to close our reed beds off every year…

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

You may have noticed that the RSPB has recently unveiled its latest logo. The only constant is change, as they say.

One of the reason that we regularly (if infrequently) update our image is to keep us relevant and in tune with the attitudes of the day. What worked in the 'seventies, for example, doesn't always work now. Just look at some old sitcoms or clothes for proof. We need to get people's thoughts…

OUR KIDS

That's what I used to think my Granny was saying whenever she saw a particular flower. “I love our kids”. Well thanks Gran, of course you did. It took me years – I was a slow learner – to realise that what she was actually declaring her love for was flowers of the Orchidaceae family. That's common or garden orchids to you and me, although they're not very common and you won't usually find them in many Barnsley…

DINNER WITH THE KIDS

It's a great time to be a lover of nature. Everywhere you look there's new life springing up, be it colourful flowers or leaves on trees, dragonflies hatching and immediately pairing up to mate or parent birds constantly flying from food source to nest, frantically trying to get their young brood up to a weight and size where they can look after themselves.

Conversely, it's a bad time to be…

THE DEVIL'S BIRD

I've mentioned before that my love of words just about matches my love of birds. I'm fascinated by unusual words, why they mean what they do and how they came into being. And they don't come much more weird and wonderful than the word, Onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia roughly means 'a word that sounds like what it relates to'. In bird terms this can be frequently applied to bird names, for example…

PAYING IT FORWARD

This week's View From The Shed is a little different. In this piece I'm not so much looking out of RSPB Old Moor's Welcome Shed as into it. I'm focussing on the volunteers who work there and at lots of other points all around the reserve. You'll easily recognise us, all dressed in blue with the little Avocet logo on our chests. We usually have a name badge too. Don't be afraid to have a chat with us;…