A-hole Alert!

No idea what this is all about - some dodgy looking bloke I met in a car park asked me if I could advertise his new service. Click for larger image:

A Hawfinch in the rain

I debated for at least an hour this morning whether to go out in the pissing rain and in all probability see nothing, but in the end I decided I needed the exercise, and headed for Cossington Meadows.

At about 11:50 I was walking along the river bank near Plover Meadow pool, checking through a mixed tit flock and doing my best to pretend I was birding somewhere more exciting (the sort of place where something like a Pallas’s Warbler might be in with the flock), when an unfamiliar high-pitched ‘zeerp’ call somehow penetrated my hood/woolly hat combo. I looked up and was delighted to see the unmistakable chunky shape of a Hawfinch bounding towards me across the river! For a moment I thought it was going to land in the hawthorns, but I was obviously too close, and it continued across the pool and away towards the main track and Rectory Marsh.

A welcome county found tick, and the first one I’ve seen in Leics for over 14 years, the last being at Clipsham Hall, where they were fairly regular in the late 90s. And also, it has to be said (sorry Dave and John!), a mega Soar Valley tick, possibly even the first record for the area? If it has ever occurred, it must have been way back in the 1940s or 50s, when they bred at Quorn, which isn’t too far away. Not that my Soar Valley list is anything to shout about though...

Recent Artwork

I’ve decided that I might as well use this blog more for promoting my artwork – if nothing else it will give me something to write about, as posts have been few and far between recently! I don’t intend to completely turn it over to art, but don’t be surprised if there are a few more posts like this in the future.

OK, hands up who knows what ACEO stands for? Anyone who’s liked my Facebook page should know, since I’ve been posting almost nothing else on there recently, but if you haven’t seen my page, or aren’t on Facebook, ACEOs are Art Cards, Editions and Originals.

There is only one rule for an ACEO, and that is that it must measure exactly 3.5 x 2.5 inches (landscape or portrait). Other than that, anything goes – paintings, drawings, prints, collage; if you can put it on a 3.5 x 2.5 inch card, it’s an ACEO. The cards can be framed, or displayed in albums, and make excellent gifts.

The format was introduced as an eBay category several years ago, and has proved to be very popular with art collectors. I’ve been painting ACEOs for a couple of months now, and selling them on eBay and in my Etsy shop. My eBay auctions start at either £14.99 or £19.99; selling prices are slowly rising as more collectors find my work and bid for it, but the top prices so far have been around £30, so this is a very affordable way of acquiring some original art!

Here are just a few of my recent ACEOs. Most of these are sold, but if you want to keep in touch with what’s currently for sale, please have a look at the ACEOs page on my website.

 

 

 

Farewell to Ceefax

How many birders of a certain age felt a little pang of nostalgia when they saw the news this week that Ceefax was finally being switched off? I certainly did, although I was also amazed it was still going in these days of mobile Internet and instant everything-on-demand whenever and wherever you want it.

It seems hard to believe now, but when I were a lad, in addition to Nancy’s Cafe and the grapevine, we used to find out about rare birds via Ceefax. There was a wildlife page, which I think was something like page 260, and on it, as well as general wildlife news, there was usually some very specific rare bird news. I can’t remember who used to update it, but it was a proper birder, who either had good grapevine contacts or used to ring Nancy’s to get the latest news.

There was one big drawback though – it was only updated once a week! Again, my memory is rather hazy (we are talking nearly 30 years ago after all), but I think it was updated on Thursday mornings. I remember going in to Coalville library to use their Ceefax TV, and jotting down anything of interest, which would then be firmed up (or not) by ringing Nancy’s on the Friday, and twitched (transport permitting) at the weekend. The Greater Sandplover at Cley in August 1985 is one bird I particularly remember finding out about on Ceefax, and there were several others. Even after Birdline started it was still a useful (and free) way of finding out what was around, on a Thursday at least!

It’s not quite hearing about a rare bird by postcard, but it’s not far off in terms of seeming ridiculously antiquated now!

Cold Turkey

Normally at this time of year I’m in a state of high excitement preparing to go to Shetland. There will usually be at least one blog post in the week before we go with references to ironing my pants and endless perusing of weather websites. But as I’m not going this year, the pants will have to remain unironed. The weather websites are still being closely monitored, but this year, rather than south-easterlies I’m desperately hoping for continuous westerly gales (a bit like last year in fact!).

And so far, after a worrying start, it’s looking good for the weekend. But no, in all sincerity (yeah, right), ‘good luck to anyone going’ as they say. I’m very envious, as you can probably tell. If the currently forecast westerly gales don’t materialise I might go out and look for my two most-wanted county ticks, Lapland Bunting and Richard’s Pipit. But most likely I’ll be sitting here looking at the weather charts and the Shetland webcams – give me a wave if you’re passing one of them...

Not sure whether this will look as good once Blogger have mangled it, but this is a black & white HDR shot of the view across the airport to Sumburgh Head from Rob's house at Virkie, complete with just about south-easterly airsock.

The Book That Inspired a Generation

I was delighted to find a copy of the Shell Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland in a charity shop the other day. My original copy was thrown out years ago, so I was happy to pay a couple of quid for one in good condition, if only for the nostalgia.

I remember buying ‘the Shell Guide’, as it quickly came to be known, when it was first published in 1983, from WH Smith, or possibly one of the now long-gone independent bookshops in Leicester. I’d had other bird books before of course, but this was something different. Looking at it now, nearly 30 years later, the illustrations seem rather dated, and in many cases completely useless (some of the warblers and waders for example), but at the time the book was a revelation. Several different plumages were portrayed for each species (find me a modern book that shows 12 plumages for Long-tailed Duck!), with accurate captions (no vague ‘immatures’ here), up to date maps and population information, and detailed text.
 

But the best part for me, and I’m sure many others, was the fact that the book was split into two sections: ‘Regulars’ and ‘Vagrants’. And of course it was the vagrants section that captured the young birder’s imagination the most. Here were species I’d barely heard of, let alone thought ever occurred in Britain. And they were treated in almost as much detail as the Regulars.

One of the features of the Vagrants section was that the text gave the total number of records for each species at the time the book was written. Some of these seem incredible now as ranges have expanded, or more has become known about distribution or identification: Wilson’s Petrel, 8; Little Egret, 260; Pallid Harrier, 3; Ring-billed Gull, 37; Olive-backed Pipit, 18;  Red-flanked Bluetail, 8, to give just a few examples. Of course, some species have stayed genuinely rare, and others such as Ortolan Bunting have declined to the point where they would almost be considered as vagrants rather than regulars now.

My first act on getting my original copy home in 1983 was to tick off the species I’d seen (it would have been about 150, with only one – Crane – in the Vagrants section), after which I set about trying to see as many of the rest as I could. I’ve often heard people talk about ‘finishing the regulars in the Shell Guide’. In common with many other people, I’m sure, my last one was Great Shearwater, 15 years after starting out on the quest to see them all. By that time my British list had grown from 150 or so to over 400, and my copy of the Shell Guide had been so used and abused that it literally fell apart.

I’m sure there were many other factors involved, such as the comparative lack of other distractions (no computers, no internet, just four TV channels etc), but I’m convinced the Shell Guide played a large part in inspiring birders of my age to get out there and see birds for themselves, whether by twitching rarities or just going birding. I’m surprised it’s never been updated – would a modern version with better illustrations be as inspiring I wonder, or would it just be lost amongst all the other bird books, magazines and websites constantly clamouring for our attention?