Freezing Easter

What is going on with the weather? Luckily I had an excuse to not go out and look for displaced birds as I was up for doing a small show with our band for a family party-Sophie's 30th Birthday. Half way through a load of kids invaded the stage and took control.

I had a bit of time to kill this morning so uploaded some old photos onto Surfbirds from a trip I did to India last November. Came across these photos of this Bengal Tiger- a female which we came across at Bandhavgarh.

The top photo is the moment she suddenly charged but fortunately we were in a jeep and also fortunately our driver didn't stall as we wheel spinned off.

We're going down?

Read the paper this morning- what is going on out there? It seemed like every other story was something to do with worldwide economic melt down. Anyway, I suppose slower economic growth means less demand on natural resources and habitats- which is good news for my feathered buddies.

There is a new series of 'The Apprentice' on TV soon which is one of my favourite programmes. I like games where the biggest bastard wins the prize but ends up alone and looses all their mates (he he).

New Websites

Finally got our new websites up which are linked between sites peteralfreynature.co.uk and littleoaktreecare.com so hopefully help to drum up some more work. Done a bit of re-structuring over the past few months so that we can handle more demand, so ready for it now.

On another note still working on a website for our music projects- got our first gig on Saturday for Sophie's 30th Birthday- been practising like mad and still sound rubbish.

Lapwing

I found this dead Lapwing on the footpath at Beddington. It had only just died so I thought I would take it home and keep it as a specimen. It had hit an overhead electricity cable and cut open it's trachea. However after a bit of investigation I discovered that Lapwing used to be a bit of a game delicacy so curiosity got the better of me and I russled it up in olive oil and some semillon sauvignon blanc. Very interesting indeed. A new species to my 'list of bird species I have eaten' which includes Moorhen and my favourite- Sooty Shearwater (or muttonbird- in New Zealand; very rich in amega oils but upset my stomach).

David Attenborough

Went to a book signing with David Attenborough a few days ago at the Natural History Museum. My favourite person in my favourite place- brilliant experience. There were about 500 people there and the rest turned away at the door. This event was part of a tour so it was interesting reminder to the obvious popularity of natural history to the general population. I was surprised to see a lot of students there aswell so good to see a lot of young people interested in wildlife- got to be a good thing.

Lighting conditions were awful inside the main hall but managed a few shots including one of Lee shaking the 'hand of God'. David Attenborough has a lot to answer for- if it wasn't for his wildlife documentary programmes I don't think I, or any of my birding/wildlife friends would have blissfully squandered their lives pursing encounters with nature at the expense of ......???? I can't actually think of any cost.