I’d a lovely day on Saturday, delivering a workshop on poetry and birds at Jubilee Community Farm, which is Northern Ireland’s first community-owned farm. We looked at a range of poems about birds, and then spent a couple of happy hours rambling the fields, looking at and listening to the variety of species that are making their home in and around the farm. More of that anon. Many thanks to Matt Williams and Portia, and to all the participants. Special thanks also to Geoff Newall, formerly of Jubilee Farm, now (or again!) of the Belfast Hills Partnership, who originally engaged me to give the workshop, and who also did me the honour of returning to attend it!

However, in advance of International Dawn Chorus Day, I’m giving a shout-out for two upcoming events.

I run an annual “Learning the Songs of Birds” half-day workshop as part of Queen’s University Belfast’s Opening Learning programme. This year, that workshop is next week, on Wednesday, May 1st, 10am till 2:45pm.

The same workshop is taking flight later on this month, and migrating to Portadown! While there, it will mutate a little. I will be giving this version of my Learning the Songs of Birds workshop over 2 two-hour sessions on Saturday 11th & 18th May at the fabulous Millennium Court.

For further details on these birdsong workshops, check out my Birds page.