The Start

Introduction

This blog will contain short reports on my birding trips, locally, nationally and abroad and show some images.

A bit about me, I'm a retired ex IT person (mainframes) who has been a birder since childhood. In the mid 90's I had a period of employment with one of the UK conservation bodies, an experience that I enjoyed greatly. 

I remember getting 'Birds of the Wayside and Woodland' as a birthday present many years ago to supplement my Observer's 'Book of Birds'. The Observer book sadly fell apart many years, I still have the other one. By modern standards of field guides it is old fashioned but is still a treasured possession.

In more recent years I have added photography to my birding and happily combine the two together, although at the end of the day I would call myself a birder who takes photographs rather than a photographer. For me the birds always comes first.

I try and get out locally as often as possible in the local Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Derbyshire areas. I'll also venture further afield into North Wales, the Wirral and Norfolk. Annually I try to go up 'North' to Scotland an area very close to my heart and where we lived for just over 4 years on Islay. Scottish areas I hold close to my heart are the West Coast, Cairngorms and Dumfries & Galloway, but, overall the Hebridean Islands.

I've also birded further afield in New Zealand, Australia, Africa, North America and Europe. My more recent trips have been to Lesbos, an island that I enjoy enormously for birding. Unfortunately most of the earlier trips were pre digital photography so I have no images from them.

In this blog I will post some images from the trips I have made in the past and document recent activities. 

My first entries will document a recent trip to Lesbos.