Category Archives: Lockdown Diary

Everything seemed perfect… got up early, the weather was cool with a light breeze and no rain, and we set off for St Margarets and other parts near Dover. There were certainly plenty of migrants about with a steady stream … Continue reading →

We had started the day at Margate Cemetery which is a very large area that surrounds the crematorium and is largely very old graves. Part has been designated a nature reserve. We thought it would be ideal for fungi especially … Continue reading →

Maggie most enjoys the hunting aspect of our nature outings; whether it’s finding new birds for the year, spotting dragonflies or finding fungi. Walking to the wet woodland at Stodmarsh NNR did not produce fungi, or at least none close … Continue reading →

Another fungi foray took us to fields, copses and hedgerows without a single fungi to be found… was I wrong in thinking now is the best time of year for fungi? Still, it was definitely not a fruitless outing. No … Continue reading →

Normally when we chase wild geese we are being literal. In yesterday’s case the search was for fungi. It was fruitless (no pun intended). Our location was a small wood on a reserve that looked ideal for fungi. There are … Continue reading →

When Maggie went off to find the fungus she had spotted… I moved the car into the wood. Fifty feet away was a fallen tree and I squinted at it as it looked as ‘though someone had left a posy … Continue reading →

It’s odd how frustration and a general love of the wild world can push one from being a birder without focus to a naturalist always having something to look out for. I’d spotted a nice picture of a toadstool on … Continue reading →

You don’t get many leopards in southeast England… or do you? We’ve had leopard slugs for a while now but I’d not seen any for ages. My theory was that our artificially high frog numbers was keeping them down. I … Continue reading →

In a departure from my normal practice, and because of the annoying weather… I thought I’d share my dish of the day! Fatbirder’s Vegetable Curry Ingredients Spice Mix 2 Teaspoons Cumin            1 Teaspoon Cardamom Powder … Continue reading →

More than sixty years on and I can still remember being bored and miserable, nose pressed to the window, watching the rain pelting down on a day when we should have been free to ‘play out’. It feels the same … Continue reading →