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November 2017

Lichen on the rocks - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Trouble With Lichen

There’s lichen everywhere on Westray. It shows how clean the air is here, how salt-tolerant lichen is and also how difficult it …

Italian Sparrows - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Italian Sparrows

The Italian Sparrows in Rome are dwarfed by the feral Pigeons: The males are incredibly handsome birds, with glorious colours on their …

Small Copper - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Small Copper Butterfly

There’s a deep orange butterfly flying quickly across the fields in a park in Rome. It’s a Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas: Nothing …

Green Shore Crab - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Green Shore Crab

Have you ever noticed that crabs have their head inside their body? That can feel a little weird if you think about …

Love Balloons - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Love means…

It was Tuesday 21 November when we saw a balloon seller with these Helium balloons in Rome: I didn’t buy one. It …

Monk Parakeets - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

The Monks of Rome

We’re wandering around a park in suburban Rome and there are squawks filling the air. I’ve seen the Ring Necked Parakeets here …

Raven's Nest - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

The linguistic displacement of Ravens

There’s a Raven’s nest in this ruinous building on Westray:
Ravens are special because, just like humans, they display linguistic displacement; they can communicate using language about objects far away in space or time.

That’s what I’m doing now, with you.

Peacock Butterfly - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Peacock

Here’s my photograph of a Peacock Butterfly, Aglais io, from 2017: Here’s a photograph from my holiday scrapbooks from forty years ago …

Speckled Wood - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Speckled Wood

It’s late in the year but a little sunshine has brought out the butterflies. There’s a wonderful Speckled Wood butterfly, Pararge aegeria, …

Cormorant - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Cormorants in the city centre

In the centre of Bristol, just next to Prince Street Bridge, is a small group of Common Cormorants. They have been fishing …

Herring Gull - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Wild and Urban

Bristol is a city with a truly urban environment. There are stone pavements, tarmac roads and tall steel-framed buildings. Through its heart …

Vanessa atalanta - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Vanessa through the ages

This summer I saw a Red Admiral butterfly in high winds feeding on Westray in Orkney: The scientific name of the Red …

Adonis Blue Butterfly - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

An Adonis

There’s an Adonis Blue Polyommatus bellargus on the rocks: Then there’s one on the plants: What an incredible colour they are. It’s …

Curlew - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

The last call of the wilderness

Curlews are a familiar site on Westray. Their distinctive ‘Whaup whaup’ can seem very eerie when it echoes around the Island. The …

Ring Tailed Lemur - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

A trip to London Zoo

There’s so much wildlife in The Regent’s Park that paying to go into London Zoo seemed almost wasteful. There were the Herons …

Bristol - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Bristol and the Colston bun

I’ve spent a few days in Bristol city centre recently, going to music and theatre events and wandering around with my camera. …

Asian Short Clawed Otter - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Small Clawed Otter

There’s one main reason why London Zoo and many other zoos and animal collections keep Small Clawed Otters. It’s not the ongoing …