Steve Deeley

I discovered the natural world later in life. And like most love affairs, it’s become an all-consuming passion that has turned me from someone who spent his every spare hour in front of a screen, to someone who spends it out of doors, getting up close and personal to some of Britain’s best-loved wildlife. I don’t generally like captive wildlife and almost everything I write about and photograph is living out in the wild. I’ve been six inches from a wild badger, and sat down in the middle of a herd of roe deer. I’ve watched a wild boar sow suckle her young and a had a kingfisher perch on my shoulder. I’ve had puffins walk over my feet, had a bird fly seven thousand miles just to smack me in the head in the middle of the night (it can be an odd life, being a naturalist).

Sadly, the UK ranks as one of the world’s worst countries for biodiversity loss. A staggering amount of the wildlife that our grandparents knew and loved is either gone, or going. But there is still wildlife out there, and if you have a dose of patience, a bit of fieldcraft, and an enormous amount of luck you can still find it. 

But in all the places I’ve been, and with all the creatures I’ve seen, I have one rule, which I urge you to follow: leave only footprints. I leave both the wildlife and their habitat as I found them, completely undisturbed. Nature has enough to cope with, without me adding to its problems.

So now I photograph and write about the natural world.  Every day I learn something new about it, and every day my awe and respect for the species we share our planet with increases. Remember – this is our planet. These are our fellow creatures. They are our responsibility

 

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