A visitor to my backyard mountain ash tree the past couple of days (February 9 and 10, 2023) a Townsend’s Solitaire (myadestes townsendi). It is a thrush, usually found further inland along the Pacific Northwest but rare on the coast, especially in winter. a UPDATE: February 13, 2023. The Townsend’s solitaire back on Monday afternoon. […]
Saturday morning, September 9, 2022 was my last day in London. With an afternoon flight, that morning, I walked down to the Thames from my hotel, enjoyed the late summer sun and photographed the birds gathered along the low tide shoreline. There were boaters and scullers on the water and people walking along the shore […]
Just to the east of Exmouth, Devon, you find the “Triassic Coast,” the western most part of Britain’s famous UNESCO World Heritage “Jurassic Coast.” Wikipedia says of Orcombe Point “At the base are cross-bedded sandstones. Towards the top, the rock types are those deposited by quieter, slower-flowing waters (i.e. siltstones and mudstones). The sediments are markedly […]
During my trip to Topsham, Devon, I visited the Bowling Green Marsh Nature Reserve. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Bowling Green Nature Reserve is on the junction of the River Exe and the River Clyst, close Topsham. The Lookout Hide viewing platform is described as “an ideal spot to watch birds up […]
In August 2022, I finally (after Covid travel delays) was able to explore my ancestral home of Topsham, in Devon. (These images were taken over several days, back posted to August 30, 2022 to keep the blog in chronological order), For two centuries, sailors from the Pennell family on my father’s side lived, worked and […]
During my visit to London, I met veteran videographer Brian Kelly, who took me and my nephew Christopher Christou on a tour of the famed Highgate East Cemetery. (My second great grandfather George Hugh Doherty Pennell (1832-1902) is buried at Highgate but due to post Covid staffing issues, it wasn’t possible to locate the grave […]
Cue the Dr. Who theme. During my visit to London and my old haunts from the 1980s in Earls Court, I spotted an old blue police box just by the tube station. I had been back in London for a day or so and was coming out of the Greggs on the right (excellent egg […]