car-free

Eastwood between Showers

More like downpours today and last night, so a little reluctant to venture on to Portbury Wharf. The shopping needed doing anyway and the route back from Eastwood and Battery Point allows that.

I included the Point in a forlorn hope that the gale-force gusts may have blown something up the Bristol Channel. The tide was out, so more…

This is more like the Bristol area. I’ve survived six months without an umbrella but today had to don the old cagoule to check the local patch. And if the weather is no longer surprising, so too are the birds. Usual suspect time. Of those that weren’t lying low, which birds tend to this time of year, what with young to protect. I even managed to belie my assertion about the inevitability of rock pipits.

So, I’ll have a rant more…

All Quiet on the Wharfern Front

OK, I made that word up to fit the title but Portbury has settled into its late June torpor. The swan family boasts eight cygnets; more juvenile wagtails abound; three buzzards soared after a strange absence since the beginning of April.

Locally the goldfinches are busy with more…

Bird Tour by Train through Britain

The last of these for a while as I concentrate on something that may actually sell. So, I thought I’d make one copy a prize for a wee competition. And the competition’s simple: there’s no right answer, just whatever I think is the best answer.

Which is the top rail-connected birding site in Britain?

That’s it. The best suggestion wins the book.

I was musing actually why more…

Eastwood, Portishead, Redux

Middle of June. Late afternoon. A recipe for no birds. And so it proved but I had to get out: too much time hunched over the laptop, recreating my genetic algorithm thesis – the next door I’ve chosen to close on the path to riches.

No birds, apart from juvenile pied wagtails. But possibly a more…

1-Day Bird Tour from Bristol

I’m going mad! This is now out in the self-guided books although that’ll be pretty much it. I have one rail tour in the pipeline, then I need to concentrate on something that will actually make me some money.

I don’t know whether anyone else has experienced this but I get a lot of click-throughs from [...]

1-Day Bird Visit to London

The latest addition to the self-guided tour books. Actually, they’re getting quite good now. I’ve added a link to a page of resources that I’ve used to put together the books. It also contains further links to B&Bs, pubs and so on that I’ve recommended. And the writing excerpts in the appendices have shrunk to make way for something useful – more…

By Train to RSPB Bempton Cliffs

From April to September expect a visit average of 40 species, including the mainstay of British seabirds, for which the country is internationally important. In fact the spectacle is so grand that on no account should you miss it. Further specialities are more…