I’ve just returned from a couple of weeks on the Shetland Islands. Lying in deep waters a 12-hour ferry ride from Aberdeen, these islands are the most northerly outpost of Britain, closer to Norway and Iceland than they are to London. Their isolation, and the food-rich waters that surround them, mean that they are a wildlife haven, home to Europe’s greatest population of otters, as well as mountain hares, seals, visiting killer whales, and thousands of seabirds, as well as …
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First off, a shout out to the English teacher who made me learn the word “onomatopoeic” at school because I’m about to use it in a real sentence – for only the second time in 62 years. Ready? Here goes: We all know about the cuckoo, whose onomatopoeic name derives from its well-known call. Interestingly, the cuckoo only ‘cuckoos’ here, in Britain. It’s a mating call, and the bird doesn’t use it for the rest of its year in Africa. …
You can almost guarantee it. It’s that time of year when someone will post a picture of a birds’ nest in an unlikely place – a watering can in the garden, a tyre in a garage. My personal favourite was a family of buetits who always nested in the top of a local streetlight. Another example is this wren, which had chosen to nest between two upright posts of an open-backed bird hide in RSPB Foulshaw Moss. Now it’s an …
[trigger warning: this post discusses some distressing details of animal harm] You don’t have to be interested in British nature for very long before you hear the words “schedule 1”. It’s a reference to part of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the very thin piece of paper which is all that sits between Britain’s wildlife and those who wish it harm. The recent news that people from the UK were involved in a “baby monkey torture” group, paying individuals …
Although you might not realise it from the weather, it’s late Spring, almost Summer. That makes it time for all of the new life that is entering our world to make itself seen. It’s also that time when parent creatures are driven frantic by the need to deliver food to growing families. The parents of this pair of little grebe chicks were in constant motion, finding insects and even small fish to feed to their pair. The effort involved …
It’s National Mammal Week, and with the latest David Attenborough series “Mammals” showing us just how diverse a group of creatures these are, who wouldn’t want to take a moment to celebrate them? Britain has a healthy range of mammals, occupying all spaces from our seas to our mountaintops. Regular readers will know that I have a deep love of hares, those long-eared, long-footed super-sized rabbits who sit out in the countryside and take whatever the weather throws at them …
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