An eerie silence in the garden.
Early today I saw a rustle in the patch of grass in the middle of the garden, and a cat emerged, lethargically fleeing. Probably not coincidentally, there were far fewer…
Tag: birdwatching
Kingfishers
The last time I saw Kingfishers I saw was a little over two years ago, in the West Bank section of Nore Linear Park. In former years, a Kingfisher in Booterstown…
Happy International Day for Biological Diversity!
The UN, no less, have declared 22nd May to be International Day for Biological Diversity! Normally I am pretty sceptical of these kinds of “official” days for this and that. However, they…
Coots
For some reason I perceived coots as rather timid, retiring birds. Bird guides frequently describe birds as “shy” (or “not shy”, or “not that shy”) and while there is an…
Where are the magpies?
Since getting back into birding, the daily species count in my garden is usually in the low to mid teens. But there is one notable absentee – the magpie. The…
Little egrets
In the last few years I have begun to re-engage with birding after a long hiatus. I wouldn’t quite say I lost interest in my teens; more than birding became…
From “Birdwatching With Your Eyes Closed: An Introduction to Birdsong” Simon Barnes
Silence is rarely pure. You can hear real silence sometimes deep in a cave – when, if you stop talking, the sound of nothing comes as a physical shock. But…
Séamus Sweeney 