SCHRODINGER'S OTTER

I'm in danger of going all philosophical this week. Let's start with a simple question and take it from there...

If there's an otter (or more) on the RSPB Old Moor reserve but nobody ever sees it, does it really exist? This theoretical query became reality for me at the Old Moor Welcome Shed this week.

We've known that Otters have been visiting the reserve for well over a year now…

WHERE HAVE ALL THE WADERS GONE?

The RSPB handbook is a free gift given to all members when they join the organisation. The book tells you details of each RSPB site around the country and what birds you might see when you visit. Really old copies said, under the section about Old Moor and the Dearne Valley, that one of our regular highlights was up to 10,000 Golden Plover that would visit each year.

That was then. This…

GOING A BIT OFF PISTE

Normally my basic ideas for one of these blogs starts with some oblique reference to a bird that has been seen in my local Dearne Valley patch this week. Then my thoughts meander wherever they will for a bit and I finally sit down to the work of bashing that mess of ideas into something that I hope is vaguely entertaining, informative and somewhere under a thousand words.

This week is different.…

OLD MOOR'S BOOM BOX

It was certainly a date for my diary. February the second, a momentous date if only for one reason: this was the earliest day of the year that I've ever heard a BITTERN booming at the RSPB Dearne Valley area.

It was about two weeks earlier than expected and it was actually a bit rubbish. Technically it wasn't a full-blown 'boom', the kind that says, 'Hey ladies, I'm here, I'm available and…

BEYOND OLD MOOR

Things have been fairly static here at RSPB Old Moor recently. Unless some mega-rare birds have turned up between the time of writing and you reading this, the number of species on the reserve hasn't really changed much since we unwrapped our Christmas presents. There's still plenty to see and do here but some people who visit several times each week could possibly have seen all the birds that are to be…

THE NAME'S EYE...

I'd like to thank regular readers for sticking with me over the last couple of weeks. The previous two-part View From The Shed was incredibly science heavy and possibly a little hard going. Next week's is going to be a serious one as well so I thought that this time around I might get a little frivolous, if that's OK? I do like a good frivol from time to time.

You have remembered that…

SENSES WORKING OVERTIME (Part Two)

Last week I started looking at how the average birds' senses compared to a humans'. I covered sight, hearing and touch in the last View From the Shed (available to read here if you somehow missed it – where were you?) so it makes sense that this week I examine a bird's other senses and how we can relate them to our own. Sensibly. If you're ready, let's get straight into it,…

SENSES WORKING OVERTIME (Part One)

Most humans have five senses. You know them all. Sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste.

Most birds have the same five, and possibly a bit more too but we'll get to that later. But how do their senses compare to ours? While sight is probably our most used sense, which is most important to them? And how important is each sense to each individual species?

Let's look at some birdy…

IT'S GROUNDHOG DAY... AGAIN

There are some times of the year when Old Moor's lake and the skies above it are filled with birds. Spring and Autumn are the best examples, when we see migrants coming and going in all direction, stopping off for their proverbial motorway service station break and resting up before The Big Push. And there are other months where there seems to be nothing at all on our main mere for weeks…

RING OUT THE OLD

Well there goes 2022. Whoosh. Bye then, don't let the door hit you on the way out. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya. It was, continuing the tradition of several recent years, a pretty awful one, wasn't it? Wars in the East, financial instability leading to a massive cost of living crisis, the continued threat and lingering after-effects of COVID, crippling strikes in every job sector and a revolving door…

MY ROBIN IS BACK

Readers should take note. In this blog I'm going to dispel a deeply and widely-held belief about Christmas. Those of a timid disposition should beware.

No, I'm not talking about the existence of Father Christmas. That's been proven beyond doubt. Navigate to www.NoradSanta.org if you don't believe me. There you can track his whereabouts as he delivers gifts around the world on Christmas Eve…

RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

I've written at length in these blogs about how we birders are collectors at heart, how we love to say, “I found a new one” when we spot a bird that we've never seen before. It's the camouflage jacket equivalent of stamp collecting with – for most of us – the added benefit of doing something good for the environment. And there's usually the added “mine's bigger than yours” nature of lists. “I've…

Pathways to the future for RSPB Old Moor 

We are delighted to be able to share that Old Moor is benefiting from improvements to infrastructure thanks to a £50,000 grant from FCC Communities Foundation. 

The money will be used to resurface pathways along the Green Lane part of the reserve to make it fully accessible, and to create a new wildlife viewing bridge for visitors to enjoy the sights and species at RSPB Old…

GET UP AND GO

Last week I wrote about seeing my first ever Shorelarks in Norfolk. They were stunning little birds with their yellow heads, black facemasks and Devilish little feather-tuft horns. It was a delight and a privilege to see them, made all the better by the fact that I had pretty much zero chance of seeing one at my local patch in South Yorkshire.

Those of you who have met me outside the Welcome Hut at RSPB…

WHAT LARKS!

Regular readers will know that I like owls of all kinds. I've written about them several times in these blogs, mostly about their hunting patterns and their symbolism in folklore. They're fascinating, deadly and beautiful, all at the same time, and they're famous (even if the reputation isn't 100% accurate) for being birds of the night.

Personally though I'm much more of a Lark myself. I'm…

THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

I've written before in these weekly blogs about how many people who take pleasure in watching birds do it with the attitude of a collector. That is, they see each bird species as something to be added to their personal collection. Thankfully these days we don't do this by killing birds and keeping their stuffed remains in drawers and glass-fronted cases. We do it by adding them to lists whenever…

PERFECT BALANCE

It's a strange quirk of the human psyche that we tend to go all gooey eyed at the sight of a wild mammal in a way that we would never do over an insect or reptile. You're much more likely to hear the adjective 'cute' applied to a mammal than, say a grass snake or a stag beetle. We're just hardwired that way. We love to see mammals, especially in the wild.

The mammal that you're probably…

UP ABOVE THE STREETS AND HOUSES

Anyone above a certain age (like me) will no doubt be singing along to the title of this week's blog. It's the next line that is the main thrust of this piece - “Rainbow flying high”. If this means nothing to you then you should ask someone from an older generation. Find me at RSPB Old Moor's Welcome Shed and I might even sing it to you. Maybe. It's the theme tune to an old children's TV…

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