2017 highlights of a wilder Orkney life
2017 was a wonderful year for wildlife experiences in Orkney. In July the seabird city at Noup Head was a whirling, wheeling …
2017 was a wonderful year for wildlife experiences in Orkney. In July the seabird city at Noup Head was a whirling, wheeling …
The sheep on Westray are hardy beasts. Here’s one with a white face doing what a sheep does best; chew:
There are precious few trees on Westray. Wood for buildings was a scarce material and driftwood was always salvaged by Islanders and …
Biting Stonecrop is a wonderful plant. It grows on the stone walls at Einar, creeping along the stone with small succulent leaves …
The coast of Westray on any day is invigorating:
The seals on Westray always look in such good condition when I see them: I’m hoping that’s because the seas are clean …
Life is precious. One of the most emotional experiences for me in 2017 was a visit to Beachy Head. I was there …
Winter is still a productive season for wild food if you know where to look. Out on Dartmoor, along the River Teign …
Would you expect the Japanese workers who grow Enokitake mushrooms to have lower rates of cancer deaths than the general population? That’s …
There’s what looks like a raw steak growing out of a tree in the woods on Dartmoor: It’s Beefsteak Fungus, Fistulina hepatica. …
If there are pink ballerinas on your lawn they could be one of only two things: 1. Actual ballerinas, dressed in pink; …
Waxcaps live in unimproved grassland. That means they are often only found in graveyards as the rest of the grassland environment has …
Looking back in my photo archive of curious and wonderful fungi I find photographs of Tricholomopsis rutilans, Plums and Custard: According to …
Walking along the River I spot an interesting mushroom. It’s a Magpie Ink Cap.
There are only a few fungi which are bright purple and this is one of them, the Violet Webcap, Cortinarius violaceus: It’s …
We’re walking on Dartmoor along the Hunter’s Path towards the National Trust property Castle Drogo: Castle Drogo is another self-indulgent act of …
There are Waxcaps in the meadows in Devon: Meadow Waxcaps. I’m looking through some old photographs of fungi and see these Meadow …
There are Clouded Agarics, Clitocybe nebularis, all over this wooded slope at the National Trust’s Killerton House. They are chunky mushrooms, with …
Britain used to have vultures. Yes, real-life vultures, I’m not talking about high pressure mobile phone sellers; I’m talking about the birds. …
There’s a purple mushroom on the forest floor. No, not purple, lilac. No, not lilac, it’s blue; and it’s pink in the …
Here’s the most wonderful fungus growing on a decaying slime mould growing on a piece of tree bark smaller than my finger …
The coast of Westray is beautiful. Beautiful, but blighted. It’s the recipient of plastic rubbish from across the ocean. There are more …
Looking through my old mushroom photographs there’s a very distinctive one; it’s Pholiota squarrosa, the Shaggy Scalycap which I found in Bovey …
The Oak Medusa Gall, Andricus caputmedusae.
I’ve been going through some of my archive of photographs and delighting in some of the finds I made many years ago. …
A few years ago I went on a cycling holiday in France with my elder son. In the woods I spotted what …
Today I’m in the grounds of a large rambling mental health hospital in south London; and before you ask, it’s because I’m …
Stinkhorns are fascinating fungi. You can normally smell them before you see them. It’s the putrid smell of rotting flesh or something …
There’s a huge castle in the city of Rome. It used to be the highest building in the city. It was built …
Hooded Crows are one of my favourite birds. Noisy, sociable and inquisitive, they have colonised large areas of central and northern Europe, …