Author: admin

I’ve been trying over the last couple of years to see all of Britain’s native butterflies and dragonflies. Plenty of people have done it before me, and indeed Patrick Barkham wrote a very good book about his personal quest to see all of our butterflies in one hectic summer. I think he was mad, and I suspect he would agree, although his quest did make for a good read. I decided to be more restrained  in my own plans, but …

It’s gloomy in the small woodland near my home. The air is thick and heavy, full of the musty smell of parched vegetation longing for relief, as a day of heat and sharp shadows has ceded a sullen, pregnant sky, full of threat and fine drizzle. Underneath the arched cathedral roof of spindly, overcrowded ash and beech, the wood is quiet, waiting.  I can hear the rustles of a foraging blackbird, the indignant bubblewrap sound of a disputing wren, and …

I went up to Whixall moss yesterday. It’s a massive 2,3888 acres of bog. It’s also about a three-hour drive from my home, so not a trip I undertake lightly. Why does any sane individual drive three hours to spend a day in a bog, I hear you ask? The answer is that acidic peat bogs like this one are rare animals indeed, especially south of Scotland. And this rare animal has many rare animals of its own. I went …

The weather’s been a little poor lately. Apart from some much-needed repair work around the house, I’ve been using the time to try and catch up, pruning out hundreds of unwanted photos that have been silting up my hard drives. I’ve also been trying to carefully identify all those “??” species, where I’ve taken a photograph of something, not been too sure what it was, and made a mental note to look it up when I got home, which I …

As our horizons have shrunk with Covid-19, so small victories have become something worth savouring. Today I had a small victory, along with a huge dose of luck. I disapprove of treating wildlife-spotting like stamp collecting. It seems disrespectful, somehow, to treat living things in this way. But the exhilaration that I get from seeing a creature I’ve never seen before, particularly if it’s rare or special, is beyond compare. It’s like finally meeting your favourite movie star, except that …

It’s the fifth month, which is not quite halfway around the year from Christmas, but close enough. And a song which has long puzzled me. Ironically, it’s not the fact that ten lords keep leaping or the quandary over why French hens are so much better than any other kind, but the two turtle doves. You see the turtle dove is a summer bird, flying here to join us for our summer and then returning to overwinter in sub-Saharan Africa. …