The Standlake Birder

White-tailed Lapwing I’ve said it before and I will definitely say it again, repeating yourself is an age thing you know, I said repeating yourself is an age thing you know, the great thing about my hobby is that you have no idea what the next day will bring. Yesterday was a case in point.   I had a straightforward, but none the less very pleasant, day planned. Up at 06:30, breakfast then do the horses and go for a countryside walk with Folly and my bins. A cup of coffee with my lovely wife and then a telephone consultancy call with some private equity investors in Australia at 10 am. Then an afternoon doing jobs outside interspersed with some training sessions with Loki.   Well I got as far as the coffee when a message from my great birding buddy Nick alerted me to the presence of a mega rare White-tailed Lapwing in Yorkshire. My every suffering wife asked if I would have enough time to go after my phone call, well is the pope catholic I asked myself!   As it turned out ...

Black Stork My radio silence in the past 4 weeks reflects the fact that I’ve done precisely zero birding since my last twitch to see the Western Sandpiper. Some weeks back I lost my beloved Red Setter, Dillion, who finally succumbed to the cancer we have been battling for the last two years. At only just 8 years old to say we were devastated would be an understatement!   So 4 weeks ago an 11 weeks old Weimaraner called Loki was welcomed into our household. Why Loki? Well, for those not into Marvel characters, Loki is the Norse god of mischief! As someone said to me on learning his name, be careful what you wish for! Weimaraner are know as the ghost dog due to their grey fur and steely blue eyes.   I’ve spent lots of time in the past 4 weeks looking after and starting to train him. Luckily, this has coincided with a summer lull in “lifers” to twitch but last week a first summer Black Stork was found on the Lincolnshire coast. So on Friday, as soon as the Stork was reported, I l...