Nick Upton's Lensography

A Squidoo-baed Lens 

This lens features some totally fabricated definitions of those strange squidoo security words that you see here. It was me going a bit mad really.

Squidoo Security Words Definitions

One of the things I like about Squidoo are the daft security words that appear when you wish to create a lens or comment on somebody else's lens. I mean, why have boring random numbers and letters when you can invent your own words? One of...

My Birdwatching Equipment 

Having used a very wide variety of birdwatching products, binoculars, telescopes and the like, I decided that I could recommend the kit that I have settled on.

Birdwatching Equipment That I Can Personally Recommend

As a lifelong birdwatcher I have used a large number of binoculars, telescopes, cameras, identification guides and other birdwatching equipment. However, not all of it is exactly what one would hope for. In this lens I will talk about the equipment...

My Favourite Birds Lenses 

Birdwatching has been my hobby since the age of 7, when my father introduced me to the colourful birds of the Cornish coast. More recently birdwatching has become an obsession and a business; I am still amused every time someone refers to me as a "professional birdwatcher" but I guess that is now what I am.

I have travelled around many countries birdwatching and these lenses highlight some of my favourite birds from some of those countries.

Birdwatching in India - My Favourite Birds

Birdwatching in India can be a very rewarding experience. With the large size of the country and the huge variety of habitats, ranging from snowy mountains in the north to tropical rainforest in the south, there are a huge number of species to be fou...

Birdwatching in Thailand - My Favourite Birds

I have been birdwatching in Britain since I was just 7 years old, but in comparison, birdwatching in Thailand can be a most amazing experience due to the huge variety of species. Biodiversity is very high in tropical Asia and this is reflected by alm...

Birdwatching In Britain - My Favourite Birds

I have been birdwatching for almost 30 years now and a number of species have become favourites of mine. Most of my favourite birds make my list because of something personal to me and not because they are rare, colourful or iconic species; in fact t...

Some More Bird-related Lenses 

Great Gifts for Bird Lovers

Sometimes buying gifts for Christmas, birthdays or as a thank you can be really difficult. However, buying gifts for bird lovers is really easy, particularly those bird lovers with a garden, as a new feeder, table or other device to attract birds is...

How to be a Good Birdwatcher - 16 Tips.

I have been birdwatching for nearly 30 years now and have been a "professional" birder for almost 2 years and whilst I would not claim to be the perfect birdwatcher I hope that in this lens I can pass on a few tips and tricks that I have learned to o...

Birdwatching in Asia

Asia is a superb continent for birdwatching; extending across a vast area of the globe the variety of birdlife is incredible. With many countries in Asia being easily and cheaply accessible, birdwatchers can travel Asia for many years and always find...

10 Amazing Bird Video Clips

Birds are a most amazing group of species, the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, indeed there is evidence to suggest that they are dinosaurs. I have been watching birds since I was 7 years old, but it didn't take me long to see that bird behavi...

More Bird Lenses 

My Sunbirds in Bangkok

Olive-backed Sunbirds are common in Thailand, even in Bangkok where I live. I am often amazed that these beautiful little birds manage to thrive in such a polluted, busy, urban area but thrive they do and a pair frequently visit the few plants that...

The Life of Birds

The Life of Birds is a fantastic 10-part documentary BBC televison series first broadcast in 1998. Narrated by David Attenborough, The Life of Birds contains some of the most memorable footage of bird behaviour ever seen, including many species never...

Bird Book Lenses 

Every bird geek, I mean ornithologist, needs a good collection of bird books.

Helm Bird Identification Guides

The Helm series of Field Guides and Identification Guides are a superb set of resources for birders, birdwatchers and ornithologists alike. I have been birdwatching for more than 30 years and as I have become a more serious ornithologist I have beco...

My Thaibirding Lenses 

In September 2006 I released my first website: thaibirding.com. This was after years of messing around designing it and learning how to make a website; beforehand I had no idea and have a couple of friends to thank for pointing me in the right direction.

Thaibirding.com provides free information on birdwatching in Thailand and seems to consume an ever-increasing amount of my time but provides me with the bulk of my income; not bad for something that started as a hobby.

Birdwatching in Thailand - Information

Birdwatching in Thailand is a fantastic pastime due to the country's geographic location. Thailand's position at the junction of Wallacea, Indochina and Himalayan foothills means that there is a wide variety of bird species to see and by traveling ar...

Birdwatching in Thailand: Free Maps, Checklists and Trip Reports.

Thaibirding.com is a website that I designed to provide information on the best birdwatching locations throughout Thailand. The website contains free and comprehensive information on many locations, including maps, travel advice, facilities and the b...

Birdwatching in Thailand - My Favourite Birds

I have been birdwatching in Britain since I was just 7 years old, but in comparison, birdwatching in Thailand can be a most amazing experience due to the huge variety of species. Biodiversity is very high in tropical Asia and this is reflected by alm...

Birdwatching in Thailand - Where to Watch Birds in Thailand.

Beautiful scenery, good food, low prices, friendly people and warm weather all make Thailand a very popular destination for holiday makers. Almost 1000 bird species, many of which are fantastic colours and huge sizes, also make Thailand a wonderful p...

Thailand Lenses 

I first came to Thailand as part of a round-the-world trip in November 1996. Soon after I returned to work as a teacher of English as a foreign language, working for language schools and then in a private Thai school as a geography and science teacher. I returned to the UK in April 2004 but came back to Thailand in January 2008 and I am still here.

In these lenses I try to pass on some of my knowledge and enthusiasm for Thailand.

How to Use the Skytrain in Bangkok

Bangkok is a famously congested city. Never-ending traffic jams that sometimes continue round the clock can be very frustrating and stressful. However, since the opening of the skytrain there is a quick and hassle-free way of travelling around the ce...

Birdwatching in Thailand - Where to Watch Birds in Thailand.

Beautiful scenery, good food, low prices, friendly people and warm weather all make Thailand a very popular destination for holiday makers. Almost 1000 bird species, many of which are fantastic colours and huge sizes, also make Thailand a wonderful p...

Thailand Travel Advice: 10 Things To Avoid Doing In Thailand

This lens provides travel advice on ten things that one should not do in Thailand and why one should not do them. Thailand is generally a laid back country where people don't get uptight about small things going wrong and daily inconveniences; this...

Thailand Travel Advice: 10 Memorable Things to Do in Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand and is famously polluted, congested and hectic. Perhaps the last of those is its strong point because whatever else it may be, Bangkok is never boring. I have lived in Bangkok since 1997 and although there are t...

More Thailand Lenses 

Thailand Travel Advice: Lopburi, A Town of Temples and Monkeys

The town of Lopburi in central Thailand is only one and a half hours from Bangkok but a town that is largely ignored by tourists. This is a shame as there is quite enough of interest for a day's visit with its plethora of ancient temples, interes...

Bangkok Photo Album

I have been living in Bangkok since mid 1997. It hasn't changed very much in that time, it is still a huge city, full of traffic and people and always entertaining. There are aspects of living in or visiting Bangkok which make it a pleasure; ther...

Food & Cookery Lenses 

As you can see from this list of just one lens, cooking is not my forte, although eating is. Fortunately I have my lovely wife who cooks delicious Thai food for me. Thanks dear!

How to Make Thai Green Curry

Thai Green Curry (Gaeng Kieow Waan) is perhaps the most popular of all Thai dishes with foreigners, certainly after thirteen years living in Thailand it is still one of my favourites. Indeed at various times Thai Green Curry has been voted the number...

A Lens I Got Paid For! 

Not bad hey! I had an enquiry for an advertising banner to be placed on a page of thaibirding.com and I added creating a squidoo lens as part of the deal to get a better price.

It doesn't get much traffic though; please take a look and breathe some life into it.

Chiang Rai Guesthouse: Bread and Butter Cottage, Chiang Saen, Thailand

Bread and Butter Cottage is a Lanna-style guesthouse located in a traditonal Thai village in the low hills close to Chiang Saen Lake in Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand. The cottage is simple but comfortable with four bedrooms, catering for...

Environment Lenses 

From September 2004 to April 2007 I studied Wildlife and Countryside Conservation, earning a first class honours degree. Quite frankly it was easy for me as a mature student considering I have spent my whole life being interested in wildlife and the environment.

Here are few lenses on the environment, I really must get around to making some more.

Adopt a Wild Animal for Conservation

Animal adoption has become a popular way of supporting charities that care for endangered and threatened species. By adopting a wild animal one can help finance conservation research, the upkeep of the animal, anti-poaching patrols, habitat protectio...

How to Reuse & Recycle Envelopes Using Sticky Labels

Envelope Recycling has caused some people real problems, with some local authorities deciding that stamps, gummed edges and the dreaded plastic windows mean that envelopes are not suitable for recycling. After reading about the dilemma of envelope re...

Save the Rainforests

If you have ever been to a rainforest then you will know what an amazing habitat it is, full of life, thick with vegetation and hot and humid. Rainforests come in a variety of types; tropical and temperate rainforests, cloud forest, lowland rainfores...

Methane and Climate Change

Greenhouse gases are gases in earth's atmosphere that trap solar radiation and warm the atmosphere in the same way that a greenhouse increases the temperature within its bounds. Carbon dioxide is probably the most well-known greenhouse gas and the b...

Card Games 

As a child I loved the Top Trumps series of card games. For those who don't know, these games involve comparing facts about various things (cars, boats, monsters etc) in order to win the whole pack. I memorised loads of useless facts by playing these games and have made a few sets myself.

Here is one to start with.

Free Printable Card Game - Animal Trumps

On this lens there are 40 printable cards to download which when put together create an animal trump card game. This game is a version of the classic "Top Trumps" series; a version that I have created and is available on this lens and nowhere else....

Movie Lenses 

One of my favourite ways to relax is to watch a movie, either at home on DVD or at the cinema. My favourite movies are comedies but I like all sorts of other genres.

Ten Great War Movies

My Grandfather fought in Europe in World War 2 and all things military stayed in his blood until he passed away. When I was young, my grandparents used to take care of me on Saturdays when my parents were working and I ended up watching loads of old...

The Best War Movie Battle Scenes Of All Time

In this lens you will find video clips of some of the best movie battle scenes of all time. Epic battle scenes are becoming more and more common in movies due to modern special effects, but there are some notable battle scenes from older movies - ba...

10 Great Mel Gibson Movies

Mel Gibson has become something of a controversial figure over recent years due to what people have perceived his views to be on certain religious groups; this is not something I want to dwell upon here, this lens is all about movies. I have never r...

Ten Great Comedy Movies

I enjoy movies of all types but I particularly like comedy movies. Some of the best comedy movies make me laugh over and over, particularly those that have lots of little things happening in the background that might be missed first time around. I ap...

More Movie Lenses 

My Top Ten Movies

I love watching movies, either at the cinema or at home on TV. I have a huge collection of movies on VHS and now DVD and the ones I love the most are those that I can watch again and again and still be enthralled. I guess my favourite movies are com...

Fifth Element Movie Clips

The Fifth Element is a Sci-Fi movie starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich released in 1997. The first time I saw it, I wasn't sure what to expect, but its combination of action, humour and interesting story had me captured and I still enjoy wa...

Monty Python and The Holy Grail; Video Clips & Merchandise

The Knights who say "Ni", Brave Sir Robin, the Trojan Rabbit, the Black Knight, King Arthur and many other crazy characters are a feature of the zany movie: Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is one of those movies that...

Star Wars Lensography

I have been lucky enough to see all the Star Wars movies at the cinema on their release and somehow I still seem to be waving that light sabre that my parents bought me after seeing the first installation. Fortunately, I don't seem to be the on...

Book-related Lenses 

Another of my favourite pastimes is reading and this one I have my mother to thank for. When I was small I was pretty hopeless at reading but thanks to my mum's hard work I was above average by the time I was 8 and I am still an avid reader; in fact I find it hard to fall asleep if I don't read first.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss

Green Eggs and Ham is one of Dr Seuss's most enjoyable and amusing books, with a clear message to unadventurous children and adults alike. With wonderfully strange situations in which to try Green Eggs and Ham, superb rhyming text and the surrea...

Asterix Books by Goscinny & Uderzo

I have loved the Asterix books since I was a child and continue to enjoy reading them into adulthood. As a youngster, the combination of colourful illustrations and Roman bashing adventures were enough for me, but as an adult the books reveal a lot m...

My Top Ten Books - Fiction

Here are my top ten fiction books. I have enjoyed all of these books enough to have read them more than once and all have left a permanent impression on me. When I was very young I struggled at first with reading but with a lot of help from my mother...

The Best Five Books by Dr Seuss

Dr Seuss books are some of the best children's books ever written. Dr Seuss's books are illustrated with the whackiest drawings depicted bizarre worlds with even stranger characters. Dr Seuss uses rhyming text, usually with a low number of...

The Twits By Roald Dahl

The Twits is a revolting tale of two disgusting people written by the prolific children's author, Roald Dahl. The Twits is rather a short book, with short, simple chapters and is suitable for fairly young children in this respect. There is much to am...

More Book Lenses 

Book Reviews - Ten Quick Reviews

I have enjoyed reading since I was a child of about 6 years old, encouraged by my mother, and have amassed a very large collection as I find it difficult to part with books. In August 2007 I began a project that had been in my mind for some time; to...

Asterix the Gaul - The Characters

A little Gaulish village on the Armorican coast still holds out against the Roman forces in 50 BC by the fortune of having a village druid who has discovered a potion to give the Gauls superhuman strength - this is the premise for over 30 graphic nov...

The Sneetches by Dr Seuss

The Sneetches is one of Dr Seuss's most underrated books and for some inexplicable reason it is not widely known. The Sneetches is a superb tale of two groups of creatures, separated by class, differing only by a star on the belly or not. The star...

Authors - Send Me Your Book For Review

Over the past few years I have been reviewing books on my book review blog. I review books that are in my extensive book collection but increasingly I am reviewing books that authors or publishers have sent me as part of promoting their new book...

Book Review Blog 

I started a blog some time ago where I feature short reviews of books that I have read. One of the first lenses I made (and it shows) was this one to promote the blog. It hasn't really worked and I need to think of ways of drastically improving the lens. Any ideas?

Online Book Reviews

Book Review Blog is my attempt to write short book reviews on all the books in my large collection. Since I have been collecting books since I was about 10 years old this could prove to be something of a massive project. The project began in Septemb...

Art 

One of the things I loved to do when I was young was to draw. When I was 5 years old I won a drawing competition with a picture that featured cowboys and indians being bombed by World War 2 aircraft!!!!!

As I got older my favourite things to draw were birds, butterflies, flowers etc. but I haven't really done any artwork for some time, maybe I will try my hand again sometime soon.

Royalty Free Animal Coloring Pages To Print

On this lens you can download animal coloring pages and print them free of charge. These animal coloring pages to print were all created by myself for use in the classroom when I was teaching English through basic natural sciences to 6-8 year olds in...

Royalty Free Bird Clipart

I have used clipart for many purposes over the last few years. My first encounter with it was when I was teaching and then I used clipart frequently to illustrate worksheets for my students. When I went back to university I made some of the followin...

Mythology 

I won't profess to being a spiritual person or someone enthused by mythology, but I was interested in this mythological creature because it is a bird.

I had never heard of this myself but it is quite interesting, take a look

What Is The Adarna Bird?

Have you ever heard of the Adarna Bird? Well, for those that haven't, don't worry, neither had I. As a lifelong birdwatcher and ornithologist I was a little surprised at that, but when I discovered that the Adarna Bird is a mythical creature from an...

Royalty Free Photos 

These lenses contains loads of royalty free photos that can be used on websites, blogs, squidoo lenses etc. I will make some more lenses like this in the future.

Royalty Free Photos - Dragonflies and Damselflies

Here you can obtain royalty free photographs of dragonflies and damselflies for use on your websites, blogs, squidoo lenses, hubpages or any other online content. I have had a lot of help from others in the past, allowing me to use their photos on my...

Royalty Free Photos - Flowers

Here you will find a large selection of royalty free photos of flowers that can be used on websites, blogs, squidoo lenses, hubpages and any other online device. I was lucky enough to get lots of help from many photographers when making my first web...

Royalty Free Photos - Butterflies

Over the last few years I have had considerable help from a number of photographers in creating websites when I did not have suitable photos to use. equally I have used lots of photos here on my squidoo lenses that have been placed on the public dom...

Royalty Free Photos on Squidoo

This lens showcases other Squidoo lenses which provide photographs royalty free in exchange for a simple link back to the page of origin. All the lenses shown here display the photos that are available for use royalty free on them; you can see the ph...

More Royalty Free Photo Lenses 

Royalty Free Photos: Buildings

Here you can obtain royalty free photographs of buildings for use on your websites, blogs, squidoo lenses, hubpages or any other online content. I have had a lot of help from others in the past, allowing me to use their photos on my websites and dec...

Royalty Free Photos: Insects

On this lens you will find a selection of my royalty free photos of insects that can be used on websites, blogs, squidoo lenses and any other online device. When I was in the process of creating websites a few years ago I received help from many pho...

Royalty Free Photos - Bangkok

On this lens you can find royalty free photographs of a variety of things around Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, for use on your websites, blogs, squidoo lenses, hubpages or any other online content. I have had plenty of help from other photo...

TEFL Lenses 

From July 1997 to April 2004 I worked as a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher. As I often worked in schools with no resources of their own I became pretty adept at making them myself.

Somehow I have only made 3 lenses on this subject, I really should get around to making more as I have lots of materials available.

ESL Lessons: Story Writing for Elementary Students

Attempting to get students with only a basic command of English to write a story sounds like a pretty ambitious project to begin with. However, by breaking the process down into different stages, it becomes possible to obtain short pieces of writing...

ESL Lessons: How to Make Quality Flashcards

On my first day of my first job as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, I was given the "new boy" task of constructing flashcards. This sounded like a job that even the most useless of simpletons could excel at and so, with littl...

ESL Lessons: Using Food Chains, Webs and Pyramids in Language Teaching

  Many teachers may feel reluctant to use scientific concepts to teach language due to the confusion it might cause the students or, more likely, the teacher. However, the concepts involved in food chains, webs and pyramids are so simple that...

Dartford Waffler Lenses 

This was another of my first lenses which I primarily made to create a backlink to my blog Dartford Waffler. It did that but has achieved little else really.

Birdwatching and Wildlife Blog - Dartford Waffler

There are millions of people who enjoy watching wildlife in some shape or form, however, many species of birds, insects, mammals, plants etc are poorly understood due to the fact that relatively few people actually record their observations. Since Ja...