My annual encounter of the year award 2024. What species wins the prize?

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I’ve renamed this annual round-up as ‘Encounter of the year’ because my emphasis these days is less about photography and more about appreciating the plants, birds and animals that Britain has for what they are. There were times in 2024 when I thought my year would be a blank sheet of paper. It could so easily be called the ‘year with no summer’, or perhaps the ‘year with too much weather’.   I have a garden filled with nectar-bearing flowers, but

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The power of the cuckoo

ruby-tailed wasp

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.

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