As the year draws to a close, I find myself looking back on some of my birding experiences in 2021. Because of the pandemic, my birdwatching has mainly taken place in south-east Cornwall within a dozen miles of Looe, but there is one major and influential exception. My daughter and fa

In mid-May my daily exercise walk shifted. I forsook the cliff path and the beach: the spring migration was mostly over. I decided it was time to return to the estuary, and follow the fortunes of its resident breeding birds. I had spotted a Shelduck pair on the river in March and I wa

Welcome to the first of our monthly bird blogs by local naturalist Derek Spooner. February 12th. Early morning; I part the curtains and peer anxiously at the weather. For three days Looe has been hammered by Storm Ciara. I need to carry out a water-birds count on the Looe estuary, and