The First Ladybird Book of British Birds #1 – The Yellowhammer
During January I’ll be exploring this 1950s Ladybird book of British Birds and their nests to see what’s changed in the last …
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 …
Cud
The sheep on Westray are hardy beasts. Here’s one with a white face doing what a sheep does best; chew:
Driftwood
There are precious few trees on Westray. Wood for buildings was a scarce material and driftwood was always salvaged by Islanders and …
Hoverflies on the Biting Stonecrop
Biting Stonecrop is a wonderful plant. It grows on the stone walls at Einar, creeping along the stone with small succulent leaves …
Foam and spray
The coast of Westray on any day is invigorating:
Too much for dinner
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
Life is precious. One of the most emotional experiences for me in 2017 was a visit to Beachy Head. I was there …
Oyster-of-the-Woods
Winter is still a productive season for wild food if you know where to look. Out on Dartmoor, along the River Teign …
Velvet shank
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 a steak growing on a tree
There’s what looks like a raw steak growing out of a tree in the woods on Dartmoor: It’s Beefsteak Fungus, Fistulina hepatica. …
Pink Ballerinas cavorting in the grass
If there are pink ballerinas on your lawn they could be one of only two things: 1. Actual ballerinas, dressed in pink; …
Crimson Waxcaps
Waxcaps live in unimproved grassland. That means they are often only found in graveyards as the rest of the grassland environment has …
The sort of Plums and Custard you can’t eat
Looking back in my photo archive of curious and wonderful fungi I find photographs of Tricholomopsis rutilans, Plums and Custard: According to …
A mushroom to crow about
Walking along the River I spot an interesting mushroom. It’s a Magpie Ink Cap.
Violet Webcap
There are only a few fungi which are bright purple and this is one of them, the Violet Webcap, Cortinarius violaceus: It’s …
Lichens on Hunters’ Path
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 …
Waxcaps in the meadows
There are Waxcaps in the meadows in Devon: Meadow Waxcaps. I’m looking through some old photographs of fungi and see these Meadow …
Mushroom clouds
There are Clouded Agarics, Clitocybe nebularis, all over this wooded slope at the National Trust’s Killerton House. They are chunky mushrooms, with …
Real life Griffons
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. …
A Charcoal Burner in the woods
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 …
What’s in a name?
Here’s the most wonderful fungus growing on a decaying slime mould growing on a piece of tree bark smaller than my finger …
Plastic ocean
The coast of Westray is beautiful. Beautiful, but blighted. It’s the recipient of plastic rubbish from across the ocean. There are more …
Shaggy Scalycaps, gout and squirrels
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 Medusa of the Oak
The Oak Medusa Gall, Andricus caputmedusae.
Orange Peel Fungus
I’ve been going through some of my archive of photographs and delighting in some of the finds I made many years ago. …
The Boar War
A few years ago I went on a cycling holiday in France with my elder son. In the woods I spotted what …
Branch lines
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
Stinkhorns are fascinating fungi. You can normally smell them before you see them. It’s the putrid smell of rotting flesh or something …
The Secret Diary of Hadrian’s Mole Age 1,879
There’s a huge castle in the city of Rome. It used to be the highest building in the city. It was built …