“PROFITING FROM UNPROFITABLE LAND” January 2016 Two days after our encounter with the barn owl along ‘Melton Mains’, I ventured out again for a late afternoon walk. The weather had changed, snow melted and still dank greyness had returned. As I made my way from dyke to pond and beyond to the river no barn […] Continue reading → BIRDS UPDATE January 17th 2016 “The pieces of unprofitable land are what I like, best seen in winter.” These words by Molly Holden rang true for me on January 17th as I took a late afternoon walk along side a drainage ditch which borders the Bowmont river flood plain. My family have always known this […] Continue reading → 
Bird Tables At a young age, I became a woodwork enthusiast. Why? Well, with Dad being a self employed builder, decorator and carpenter the scene was well set. Moreover, when he brought home a small prefabricated shed and re-erected it in our back garden, a new world became available. It became my domain and hence […] Continue reading → CECIL STUART EMDEN a short biography Cecil Emden was born on December 31st 1889 and died in February 1980. He had been an Emeritus Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and its former treasurer. An earlier collegian had been Gilbert White, the famed eighteenth century naturalist and author of the classic work, ‘Selborne’. This common heritage […] Continue reading → 
“PREPARE FOR ARMAGEDDON” November 26th 2015 Those were the words used by Johnny Watson, head of Border Tree Services, as he concluded his assessment of my garden pruning needs. Radical tree surgery was evidently required to bring Innisfree back to within my control. As I took Johnny’s words in, the guitar intro to “All over […] Continue reading → Bikes with bird moments: right place, right time. Early 2015 Let’s start with the February ride. It was a special one, the first major trip on a new ‘Specialised’ mountain bike; a 65th birthday present. The coastal path from Spittal to Holy Island promised adventurous, scenic cycling through a variety of bird friendly habitats: sand […] Continue reading → ‘Reelin’ in the years. “Reelin’ in the years, stowing away the time”, a memorable phrase from the opening track on side two of the 1972 Steely Dan album entitled ‘Can’t buy a thrill’. It hummed away at the back of my mind just recently as I climbed the 300 metre high hill called Mwmffri at […] Continue reading → “We are all islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep” (1) Earlier this year, I picked something from my archive of personal memorabilia which prompted more than the customary smile of recognition and brief perusal. It was a small ‘album’ entitled ‘Bird Portraits: a series of British Birds illustrated […] Continue reading → 01.01.16 – BIRDS January 14th 2016 Wind and rain have given way to snow and our first frosts of winter. Hence on all fronts the bird life around Innisfree has required special attention. Our four hens (Bluebell, Snowy, Sunshine and Clucky ( courtesy of our daughter and granddaughters’ naming ceremony) welcomed release from their closed […] Continue reading →