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When: Tuesday 15th September, 18.15. Where: Plaidy Room, Hannafore Point Hotel, Marine Drive, West Looe, PL13 2DG Please note the change of room at the venue. Come along to our friendly group meeting. There is no agenda as the focus will be on events for 2026. We invite you all to sha

When: Tuesday 20th October, 18.15 Where: Plaidy Room, Hannafore Point Hotel, Marine Drive, West Looe, PL13 2DG Speaker: Tom Inger, Dive Looe Local diving professional Tom Inger will open up the world of nudibranchs for us – sea slugs to you and me. They might be small but some a

When: 27th October, 11.30am Where: Hannafore Beach Come and join local experts as we explore the rocky shore, you’ll be amazed at what’s waiting to be discovered. Learn about starfish, crabs, fish, anemones and lots more at this educational event that is guaranteed to satisfy and enth

When: Tuesday 17th Nov – 18:15 Where: Hannafore Point Hotel Ballroom Speaker – Heather Buttivant Title:  ‘Looe’s Rock Pool Wildlife’   Dive into the wonders of Looe’s rock pools with this talk by local expert and writer Heather Buttivant. Meet the colourfu

When: 15th December (Time to be confirmed) Location: To be confirmed. All welcome at our social get-together to mark the end of another season of events. A chance to relax and celebrate our achievements. If you are interested in joining us as a member or volunteer, this will be a good

August 20th, 8am. My mobile pings. There is a message from Jan, a friend who lives in Seaton, a few miles east of Looe. The message comprises a picture of five White Storks in a field, with the simple caption ‘Downderry!’. This is a village adjacent to Seaton. The previous day I had s

The phrase ‘a wild goose chase’ refers to a search that is completely unsuccessful and a waste of time because the person or thing being searched for does not exist, or is somewhere else. In my latest Bird Blog I explore the chances of finding different species of wild geese in South-

In my latest blog for the Looe Marine Conservation Group I describe some encounters with raptors – birds of prey – in 2023. Many raptors spend all or part of their lives close to the sea. Casually scrolling through the Cornwall Bird Watching and Preservation Society’s Face

  First a confession. This blog is not just about birds. In mid-September Christine and I were given the opportunity to stay three nights on Looe Island, Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Nature Reserve. The oldest building on the island, Smuggler’s Cottage, had been refurbished, and was

For most of my life birdwatching was largely focused on identification, and (hopefully) seeing new and rare species: it was about list-making – life lists, locality lists, annual lists etc, as I illustrated in my last blog (March 2022). In my teenage years I flirted briefly with bird

The start of a new year. For many birders it is time to start a new list.. Keeping records of sightings is central to my birding. I have been keeping a natural history diary for about 20 years, and this generates my annual list of species. During the pandemic the numbers have diminish

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

The hobby of birding sometimes brings surprises. In migration seasons it is often the arrival of a rare bird – usually a bird that has landed up in the wrong place. In April I was surprised by the Hoopoe which went astray on its spring migration northwards and landed in a garden near

January 28th. Ping! An email message has dropped into my inbox from Claire Lewis, resident warden on Looe Island. She has seen the first Cormorant’s egg of the year! The seabird nesting season has begun! Cormorants are truly early birds and on Looe Island many start nesting in January

As November drifts into December and autumn gives way to winter, the focus of my ornithological attention increasingly moves offshore. I frequently visit the seafronts at East Looe and Hannafore. This is the time to scan the shallow seas for exciting visitors from the north. Divers! G

Autumn for John Keats was the season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’ but for the birders of Cornwall it is more likely to be cherished as the most exciting time of year for finding unusual birds; each day news comes via the internet of sightings of rare visitors dropping in during

My grandson sometimes asks me what my favourite bird is. He says his is Goldfinch. For the last decade my favourite bird has been Oystercatcher. The old English name for this bird (and one used in Cornwall) is the ‘Sea-pie’ – a reminder of its black and white livery. Perhaps Sea-pie m

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

For at least six weeks now, during lockdown, my day has started in much the same way. 7.00 am: a cup of tea at the kitchen window. I listen to the male Blackbird that is broadcasting his gorgeous leisurely song from a roof somewhere in the vicinity. Blackbird, the herald of the morn I

‘April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.’ So begins The Waste Land by Thomas Stearns Eliot. I first read this great poem when I was a sixth-former. I didn’t understand quite a lot of it then (a