Update - 21/11/2005

Icy trip to Pennington Flash.

Some updates to the Galleries, including: Cowslip, Common Gull, Rough Hawks-beard, Grey Heron, Lesser Celandine, Primrose, Garden Snail, Snipe.

Latest Update - 30/09/2005

Some updates to the Galleries, including: Blackbird, Reed Bunting, Carrion Crow, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, 7-Spot Ladybird, Magpie, Wood Mouse, (more) unidentified Fungi, (European) Rabbit, Robin, House Sparrow, Hawthorn Shieldbug, Common Field-Speedwell, Starling, Song Thrush, Long-Tailed Tit, Bohemian Waxwing, Green Woodpecker.

I've also added an image to the front page that will be chosen at random, every time you visit, from a selection of our favourites.

Update - 28/09/2005

A catch-up entry in the diary with a few snapshots from the past few months. We got caught up in a protracted and awkward house move which left us unable to do much birdwatching or photography (or even website updates). We are now almost back to normal, and in Merseyside, so expect to see some North Western shots in the next few weeks (weather permitting ;0).

A batch of old photos are still to be added to the various galleries which I'll add soon.

Update - 05/06/2005

Diary entry for June: Still at home with the fledgelings.

Update - 30/05/2005

More Diary entries for May: At home with the chicks.

Still working on a lot of pics for the galleries, weather's starting to turn and the bugs and blooms are, well, blooming again. Hope to get some of them up soon. Busy!

Update - 18/04/2005

Diary entries for April: Willen Lake/Tongwell lake and Walton Park/Caldecotte Lake.

Update - 16/03/2005

Diary entry for March: OU/Walton Park.

Update - 24/02/2005

I've finally admitted defeat on some Dragonfly and Fungus identification and created some Unknown categories. If you can identify any of them please let us know! Also a slight enhancement to picture navigation.

Update - 22/02/2005

Diary entry for February: OU/Walton Park.

Update - 19/02/2005

Diary entry for February: Caldecotte Lake.

Update - 22/01/2005

34 species added/updated in the galleries:

Birch Polypore Fungus, Blackbird, Blood-stained Bracket Fungus, Brachytron pratense (Dragonfly), Snow Bunting, Burnt Polypore Fungus, Cauliflower Fungus, Clavulinopsis_luteoalba (Fungus), Common Earthball Fungus, Curlew, Dung Roundhead Fungus, Little Egret, Fieldfare, Fly Agaric Fungus, Black-tailed Godwit, Grey Coral Fungus, Black-headed Gull, Magpie, Barn Owl, Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, (European) Rabbit, Redshank, Robin, Sanderling, Grey Seal, Shaggy Ink-Cap Fungus, Hawthorn Shieldbug, Skylark, Snipe, Red Squirrel, Sulphur Tuft, Song Thrush, Wren.

We still have loads of fungus photos we can't identify. They just change so much during growth we sometimes find a match in one book only to find it looks nothing like it in another!

Update - 04/01/2005

Diary entry for January: Formby.

The Favourites section now has our favourite pictures in it.

The site navigation has (hopefully) been improved. All sections are now contained in a menu bar at the top of the page, with each subsection being placed beneath, so that it is much easier to move between sections without having to navigate up and then down the menu heiarchy. It also has the added bonus of not wasting lots of space down the side of the page like the old side menu bar (where the top of the side bar would have links in it and then pages and pages of blank space below).

Update - 28/12/2004

Another Diary entry for December: Freiston Shore.

Update - 24/12/2004

Another Diary entry for December: Donna Nook (again).

Update - 23/12/2004

Another Diary entry for December: Donna Nook. All picture galleries should function correctly now, and all Bird gallery entries now have full species information (where possible).

Update - 20/12/2004

New Diary entries for December: Frampton Marsh(18th), Gibraltar Point(19th) and Freiston Shore (20th).

Bird galleries now have slightly better navigation for the photos in each species section. This has made the other galleries only show thumbnails for now, I'll fix this soon.

Update - 07/12/2004

New Diary entry for December: Grafham Water.

25 species updated in the Bird galleries:

Blackbird, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Carrion Crow, Tufted Duck, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Egyptian Goose, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Pochard, Redwing, Robin, Rook, Snipe, Song Thrush, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Willow Tit, Treecreeper, Woodpigeon.

18/11/2004

New diary entry in November for Caldecotte Lake.

24 species updated in the bird Galleries:

Blackbird, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting, Coot, Curlew, Fieldfare, Goldeneye, Brent Goose, Greenshank, Black-Headed Gull, Common Gull, Great Black-Backed Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Grey Plover, Redshank, Robin, Skylark, Spoonbill, Starling, Stonechat, Song Thrush, Turnstone, Pied Wagtail, Wren.

08/11/2004

After some months of neglect the Diary section is being updated. September, October and January through to May are complete, and we're working back over the months filling in the gaps. A few more photos in the galleries. In future, now that the mountain of files to process has shrunk, the updates will list which species have been updated.

29/09/2004

Another update, with 33 pictures added (although some are replacing older, rougher photos). Still have 78 more to be properly identified (including 31 mushrooms, 10 dragonflies and 8 spiders). And more coming in when the Sun decides to show itself for a change. Something a little out of the ordinary has shown up in one of our photos. We appear to have photographed a 'Flying Rod'. It can be seen in this picture:

This was taken through our scope (Zeiss Diascope 85 T* FL, at 20x magnification), at 1/110s, f3.5, ISO100. The bird is a tree sparrow of approximate length 14cm, to give a scale reference. A photo taken around 1s earlier showed the same scene but with no rod object (bird had moved). What it is we don't know. Falling twig/leaf? Insect flying in front of lens? Alien observation device? All we can say is that it is in the photo and wasn't a second earlier. We didn't see anything odd at the time. Make your own minds up (or go see http://www.flyingrods.com/).

23/09/2004

Big update, with 80 pictures of various birds, bugs and beasts added (and a few of the old naff ones deleted). About 70 more to go, once they've been properly identified. Hope you like them. [JB]

08/09/2004

The site is being updated after a long delay caused by moving house, bad weather and all sorts of other stuff that took priority. A backlog of photos is now being worked on and with the recent acquisition of a Zeiss Diascope 85 T* FL , Manfrotto 055NAT3 tripod and 701RC2 head we should be taking better pictures than ever.

We also now have an EagleEyeUK 5x lens and close up lenses, which will hopefully make taking macro, closeup and action shots easier although we're still getting used to how it works with our CoolPix4500. At some point this will all be in the Equipment section.

31/08/2004

We are now award winning photographers, taking first prize in the Rambler's Association (Merseyside Branch) photography competition (Humorous section), with this photograph: