I popped into Pop Classics in Caversham yesterday and picked up a copy of Taking Timbuktu. Great shop (good quality stock but a bit expensive)👍🏻
14.03.2026 17:59
👍 0
🔁 0
💬 0
📌 0
I popped into Pop Classics in Caversham yesterday and picked up a copy of Taking Timbuktu. Great shop (good quality stock but a bit expensive)👍🏻
Digging up invasive Skunk Cabbage from a wet woodland in the village this week. Lots of progress but there's more to do.
Scarlet Cup and Blackthorn noticed during the morning.
#conservation #invasivespecies
You're welcome Jonathan. I need to track down a copy of Talking Timbuktu...but will listen on 'Spotty-Fi' in the meantime.
He opened up dialogue with some great musicians. I'd love to have both of those in my collection. And Buena Vista Social Club of course.
They're dusty and eclectic American folk/blues but I have a soft spot for them. Ditty Wah Ditty is one of my all time favourite tracks, maybe because of Earl 'Fatha' Hines' joyous piano playing. It's one of my desert island disks.
My favourite Cooder albums are Paradise & Lunch, and Into The Purple Valley. I have those on vinyl for playing in my studio.
Brilliant. When I was a teenager, about 1981, I saw Ry at Victoria Apollo, on the Borderline tour. Superb musician.
A poster showing two Black-tailed Godwits in flight, with the details of the Berkshire Ornithological Club talk on Wednesday 18th March 2026, 7.30pm. Palmer Building 109, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading. There is a Zoom link for people who can't attend in person: http://bit.ly/4lrQGl8
Our next FREE meeting is on Wed 18 March, 7.30pm.
Professor Jenny Gill, will talk about her research into godwit conservation.
How do we know where and when we should target conservation actions to be most effective?
Non-members welcome, in person or via Zoom: bit.ly/4lrQGl8.
#ornithology
Winners in the 'Birds in Berkshire' category of the photo competition.
1st place: Great Crested Grebes, by Sue Truby
2nd place: Long-tailed Tit, by David Massie
Commended: Crossbill, by John Absolon
Thanks to Rob Still for being our judge and to the members who submitted their brilliant photos.
There were three Greylag in the mist this morning. The first I've seen in the parish this year (we don't have enough standing water to float a Goose).
Tommy Robinson visited the US State Department today at the invite of the Trump administration.
He's Britain's most prominent far-right street thug with criminal convictions for assault, violence, fraud, stalking & harassment.
He was jailed in 2012 for trying to enter the US with a false passport.
When soil structure becomes solid, rain can’t infiltrate. Instead, it runs off - taking topsoil from fields with it, affecting both productivity & water quality downstream. Our booklet explains how to improve infiltration.
👉 https://tinyurl.com/NFFN-Report
In partnership with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
A lovely afternoon to be out. This phone-scoped Treecreeper at Bottom Lane gravel pit sat motionless for a couple of minutes (perhaps hoping I hadn't spotted it). Lots of Siskin still around too.
#berksbirds
The future of the Antarctic Peninsula depends upon the choices we make today.
www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/s...
Our new paper on the future of the Antarctic Peninsula published today, showing how the various systems across the Peninsula will be impacted by different global warming scenarios.
www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...
They're all here! Well at least six of them anyway 😉
Nothing new for the year but a few delightful sights in the village this week:
1. Brambling
2. Redpoll
3. Siskin
4. Firecrest
5. Bullfinch
#berksbirds #mortimerbigyear
Enjoy it while you can
I give the winter olympics another 20 years at most
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
Well done on the Purple Sands. I've dipped three times (Southsea and Barton) so far.
“A warming world is littered with their dead bodies”
Seabird deaths happened around the same time last year too, following the severe storm Eowyn.
We can all help by burning less carbon and by talking about the issues honestly and clearly.
#ukbirding
Excellent. I'm leading a @berksbirdclub.bsky.social trip to Titchfield Haven next month so will seek your advice in advance for some current tips.
***New** Latest wild bird trends in Europe: Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) indicators 1980–2024. Data = 168 bird species, 30 countries⬇️ @rspb.bsky.social @birdlifeeurope.bsky.social @ebcc.info 🐦@rspbscience.bsky.social pecbms.info/european-wil...
pecbms.info/trends-and-i...
Great to finally meet you both. Thanks so much for your work and for giving us reasons for optimism about LSWs. Here's hoping for lots of positive results from this season's passive acoustic monitoring.
After our talk about Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers at @berksbirdclub.bsky.social thrilled to be given this woodcut monoprint on vintage wallpaper by the artist @peterdriver.bsky.social - 'Lesser Spotted now seldom seen' highlighting their decline since the wallpaper was made. Thank you Peter
Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers – reasons for optimism! An in person talk by Ken Smith on 18 February for Berkshire Ornithological Club at University of Reading at 7:30. Also on Zoom - Details here berksoc.org.uk/events/lesse...
Anticipating Ken and Linda Smith's talk tonight at @berksbirdclub.bsky.social on Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.
Here's my 2020 woodcut monoprint on vintage wallpaper, about their decline since the wallpaper was made - from a series shown in So'ton and Reading.
@lesserspotnet.bsky.social
#berksbirds
Brambling still around in the village yesterday.
With the addition of Redpoll on my morning walk today, I'm now on 64 species within Stratfield Mortimer parish. Not bad for the first six weeks of the year.
Sparrowhawk (f) on Thursday's BOC trip to Otmoor RSPB. We observed 55+ species, including Tundra Bean Goose, Red-crested Pochard, Russian White-fronted Goose. As we walked back to the cars, we heard a Bittern booming from the reedbed.
Thanks to Gray Burfoot for leading a wonderful trip.
#ukbirding
A couple of hours at Warsash yesterday before a meeting put me into a small group of Knot among the Dunlin. My 120th species of the year. There were several Little Grebes and GCG on the water but no divers or other grebes in evidence.
#hantsbirds
If she'd won in 2015 we would be living in a different world. For example, I maintain Brexit wouldn't have happened without Corbyn's ambivalence. But that doesn't make Yvette the right person for this moment. Not a fan of Keir but I don't see anyone better able to lead the government today.