Special guest appearance - Tom Gale, 14

TOM'S BIRD and WILDLIFE DIARIES, age 14.

Tom Gale is the son of a John Gale, a friend of mine and well known Devon birder and wildlife artist.  I first met Tom when we both found a Bee Eater at Porthcurno a couple years ago - he was at one end of the road and I was at the other.  I chanced upon his excellent photo of a Bluethroat at Portland.  This prompted me to take a look at his other work.  It is quite simply superb and well worth publishing to a wider audience.  A short bio in Tom's own words are relayed below. The link to his web page is here > TOM GALE Not only is the photography superb but his bird art is excellent as well.  Please take a look at his work.

I have been writing my bird watching diary ever since I was 7 and record all the birds and wildlife that I see in it. I also draw and paint pictures of the highlights of each trip.   I try to write up what I have seen every time we go out so I don't forget it. I really enjoy bird watching and have now found quite a few scarce birds, including Yellow-browed warbler, Red-breasted flycatcher and a Glossy Ibis.     We have had some really good days and some rather unlucky ones, but that's what makes it fun. You can never tell what you will see! My most exciting moment was when we found a Bee-eater in Cornwall.   I have seen 369 species of bird in Britain.The last new bird I saw was a Whiskered Tern on the23rd of April at Durleigh reservoir in Somerset.   My favourite places I go birding are the Land’s End area in Cornwall, The Isles of Scilly, Portland, and Ham Wall reserve in Somerset. I also go to Wales to visit my grandmother and enjoy looking for birds and wildlife there as well. I find painting birds great fun and really enjoy it. My father is a bird artist and I learn a lot from him.   I find seawatching very exciting and in the late summer and early autumn we go to Land’s End and seawatch from Porthgwarra or Pendeen. In August 2011 I saw a Great Shearwater for the first time from Porthgwarra. I was thrilled as I had been hoping to see one of these birds for several years. Later on in the day, after leaving the site, we were told that there had been another 30 birds seen.   We rushed back to Porthgwarra and were amazed as over the next 2 and a half hours, we saw over 1000 Great Shearwaters.   I live in Haldon forest in Devon and Firecrest is one of my favourite birds.     An example of Tom's diary is shown below plus one of his favourite images of Capercaillie.