Hiya Jack, regards your absent Magpies....check this link and scroll down to April 2011. They ARE there, just need to go twitch them it seems! :D http://www.mullbirds.com/Archived%20April.html For the low down on the status of bird species on Mull click on http://www.mullbirds.com/SPECIESLIST.html C...

Hummingbird Hawk seen today (but not by me) at Easton on Portland, Dorset.

So there IS life out there after all!

Cheers,

Gibster.

FAO anyone in the Cumbria area - just in case you're keen (aka crazy!) enough to visit Arnside Knott in search of Northern Brown Argus eggs, keep your eyes out for the THREE HUNDRED Waxwings up there today. Would be a nice diversion from all that rock rose scrutininsing, I'd imagine! :wink: Noboby s...

just for the record I'd like to state that Clarkson IS NOT a "birder". The man is many things, some good and some not, but a birder he ain't! His above average height could come in handy at a jammed-in twitch, but that's about it.

Humph! (from a real "birder", lol)

Had a fly-by Comma in Ascot today, brightened up a busy workday somewhat!

Gibster.

Well if you click on http://www.butterflyblitz2010.webs.com/ you can see how Sami and I managed during our Big Year attempt (a shameless plug, I know!) Actually part of the purpose of our "Honeymoon Land's End to John O'Groats Walk" (raising money for Butterfly Conservation - see the tag u...

Ah! Astronomy! A childhood passion of mine, sadly lost after moving to the edge of massively light-polluted London. Just briefly, regards star colour - look out for Cygnus aka The Northern Cross (I much prefer Cygnus, meaning The Swan) a readibly identifiable constellation. The "tail" star...

Hi Matsukaze, regards your mystery burnet pic, have a look at http://www.insecta-web.org/cgi-bin/MWM/vk/dysplay_virt_koll.pl?land=en I can't get the damn page to load properly on my cronky old laptop, maybe you'll have more luck? Hope it helps (looks like it should, if it does what I think it does!!...

Pishing can occasionally be a dangerous affair,though. I was pishing a dense clump of scrub in Cornwall next to a tall hedge in farmland. I was certain there was a good warbler in there. Mid-pish a Buzzard launched itself over the top of the hedge and very nearly took my head off!!! Not sure who was...

And a male Brimstone on Ashtead Common, Surrey this afternoon. Also a few lingering Common Darters near the ponds.

Cheers,

Gibster.

Reminds me of that time I danced all the way home with a traffic cone on my head! Never did go back to that pub again...

Hi Mark, that's a fairly comprehensive response, I shall consider myself newly educated and climb back into my pram! :wink: My own patch is mid-Surrey secondary woodland with scrub invasion the norm. All on thick (and currently very waterlogged) London clay. We used to have bonfires, but now ,where ...

And yet, just to play Devil's Advocate you understand, without her 'meddling ways', and without the advent of the rabbit into our countryside, all of this could have been so wonderfully different... :!: Seriously though, I do wonder how our native fauna and flora will fare in the face of global weat...

Just read this piece, amazing how they do it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19991550

Vince, this is simply superb stuff! Of all the many fantastic facets of this website I feel that your "early stages series" are easily the most educational and visually stunning pieces to be found. Thankyou for sharing, and I mean that sincerely.

Gibster.

Hey Wurzel, shame you left it so long for the dowitcher (I saw it though, if that helps?) :D Your coupla shieldbugs are Coreus marginatus Dock Bug and Palomena prasina the Common Green Shieldbug. Check out http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/gallery.html and click on Shieldbugs and Squashbugs. Sorry to be...

Had one last week, sitting in a big yew tree which (appropriately enough!) I've dubbed "Diaea Yew" - partly coz it sounds so funny if you say out loud, but mostly because I find the spider pretty much every time I shake a branch into my net. But I think I've had them later than this before...

Roger...please bring The Boss!!!

Hi Wurzel, yet MORE cracking pics! Dunno what your long-legged fly is, but check out Trichocera . Looks similar and is widespread across much of England, including in your neck of the woods. Cool pic of the Jewel Wasp too (and good luck IDing those!) I've just bought myself a copy of Wasps of Surrey...

NickMorgan wrote:Now that I am having to scrape ice of the car windscreen in the mornings

Aaah, the joys of living on the east coast of Scotland!!

Still t-shirt weather down here....as long as you don't mind getting wet.....