Bird watching for this Rock Star

Birds of play take flightGuillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfield dreamed of a pan-generational, multinational pop group. Then he had to make it a reality, finds Johnny Dee.

'We know too much about music' ... Guillemots We're not cool. But maybe being uncool is the new cool." The 25-year-old man pondering this is sat in a cafe spilling onto the pavement of Camden Lock, London's tacky epicentre of Euro alt-lifestyle, scratching his bouncy non-hairstyle and looking at his feet. Caught amid the milieu of hash pipe dealers, Swedish punks and noodle sellers, the pierced lips and tattooed navels, he cuts a very square figure indeed. His name is Fyfe Dangerfield - the first name is real, the second intended to give him the air of a 1920s spy - and he is the lead singer and master beard behind Britain's brightest and most exciting new proponents of off-kilter wonder pop, Guillemots. They are about to release an album, Through The Window Pane, the reviews of which seem to be worrying Dangerfield unnecessarily. "If people listen to it just once they won't get it, you need to live with it, go to sleep listening to it." In brief, Fyfe is a genius and musical maverick. But to the kids that surround us he must look like a librarian or junior employee of Birmingham Midshires.Article continuesRock'n'roll's a state of mind, isn't that right? "I'm actually quite boring," says Fyfe. "I'm always the first to bed."

Guillemots make an intoxicating mix of folky mood music, 1960s MOR, experimental jazz, orchestral movie scores and timeless piano pop that will at first grab you with its Coldplay-shaped melodies before tugging you into a dreamlike world of multi-layered strangeness. Their target is to make music that "captures the feeling of lying on a beach at midnight looking up at the stars". Lately, as their popularity has grown, Fyfe has found himself indulging in the odd bout of wild behaviour, imbibing a small bottle of brandy throughout their live set in order to perk himself up. He has also taken to wearing a red suit together with red shoes and successfully pulled off a gentlemanly pimp look. However, such abandon is offset by the fact that he has also taken to timing a wee break with a particularly long drum solo. Rock stars don't wee in the middle of songs surely, unless it's over an American flag or a Westlife album obviously. Further cool points are deducted for the band's name.

"I went bird-watching with my mum and dad a lot as a kid and I have these really good memories of colonies of sea birds along the cliff edges," he says. "There's a band called Kittiwakes already, razorbills sounds like a heavy metal band and puffins are shit. So Guillemots it is."

So much for sex and drugs. Yes, if uncool is the new cool, Fyfe Dangerfield is the coolest popstar on Earth.

...even rock stars are doing it...

Guardian Unlimited Arts | Arts features | Birds of play take flight

technorati tags:bird, watching, Guillemots

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Bird Watching a White Tailed Eagle

Getting up close and personal with a white tailed eagle, also called a sea eagle, is an awesome experience. With an average wingspan of 244cm - that's nearly 8ft - they've been dubbed "flying barn doors" by the bird watching fraternity, and at the world's only live and direct viewing site in Mull, visitors can appreciate first hand the sheer size, power and beauty of these massive raptors.

A bird of prey that size has no natural predators to worry about, but human activity involving shotguns, poison and egg-stealing, collectively saw off the last of Britain's native sea eagles around a century ago. The last recorded native white tailed eagle was shot in Shetland in 1917, and to add insult to injury, it was a rare albino.

Fortunately, sea eagles survived in areas like Scandinavia and a reintroduction programme began in the mid 1970s, when imported Norwegian birds were released along the west coast of Scotland.

...it's a beautiful thing to see...

Scotsman.com Living - Travel - Hide and seek

technorati tags:bird, watching, white, tailed, eagle

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Where to drink when you are twitching in North Wales

By Richard Brass

Among the many creative excuses for disappearing into the middle of nowhere and avoiding responsibility, bird-watching is a corker. It’s healthy, it’s environmental, it shows a sensitivity to the natural world and, best of all, when you grab your binoculars and shoot out of the door muttering something about a red-necked phalarope down at the allotments, it’s hard to be disproved. The drawback is that it can also involve long, silent hours in damp hides drinking tea from a Thermos and watching the wind blow. But right on the spectacular Mawddach estuary in North Wales is a place where you can have quality twitching action from the comfort of licensed premises, without even needing to lower your voice.

What’s it like?

Even if there were no feathered critters for miles, the George would be worth a visit. Out on its own in gorgeous country, this fine whitewashed 17th-century stone building faces straight across the tidal Mawddach towards the mountains of Snowdonia. The light twinkling on the water and the coming and going of the tides on the golden sands are enough to keep plenty of punters entertained, but there’s also a pretty wooden toll bridge, a railway signal left over from when a line ran in front of the hotel and, crucially for the twitcher, an RSPB box right next door, complete with telescopes and impressive lists of birds that have been spotted from here, authenticated and duly recorded to avoid punch-ups.

What to drink?

Unlike the purists out in the field, you can’t smell what the birds had for breakfast at the George, but you get a similar set of feathery sightings and there’s significant compensation in the form of the delicious Brains SA from Cardiff. You may not be head-down in the reeds, but with a pint of Brains to hand, house martins swooping from the eaves above and the resident greylag goose foraging for chips below, you too can feel a part of the landscape.

George III Hotel, Penmaenpool, Dolgellau, Gwynedd (01341 422525)

....neat excuse...

Where to drink when you are twitching in north wales - Food & Drink - Times Online

technorati tags:bird, watching, bird-watching, twitching, North, Wales, George, Hotel, Penmaenpool

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