Cormorant in breeding plumage
I’ve never seen a Great Cormorant in breeding plumage before. When I spot one far off in the channel of the River …
Flotilla
It’s a beautiful, placid scene. It’s gorgeous light on the River Teign as I spot a Mute Swan flying and then landing …
Dartmoor birds
A lockdown lifetime ago we went to Dartmoor for a walk. I say ‘a walk’, but it was more an amble from …
The Hall of Einar – Sunday Review #4
Sunday Review: Piepmatz – Little Songbirds – card game and Diary of a Young Naturalist – Dara McAnulty.
Old Broken-Beak is back
In my local park, a short walk from my house in South Devon, is a rookery. Rooks are highly social birds and …
Return to Daisy Nook
In a time before the lockdown I visited Daisy Nook Country Park. It’s in Failsworth, which is a great place to have …
Thumbs up
Wood Pigeons may look ungainly on the ground, but when they fly, they are elegant. Although this one is carrying a heavy …
J1P4
Before Instagram was a thing I used to crop many of my photographs square. I do love the balanced composition of a …
Peregrines v Buzzard
A bit of daily exercise means a walk up the hill and back. I’m trying to avoid the Grand Old Duke of …
The Pigeon bath
The Feral Pigeons are having a bath. They’re bathing communally. Apart from this one: It looks like me getting in the sea, …
The Hall of Einar – Sunday Review #3
Sunday Review: Ernest Journal and Mark Smith photographer,
Practise on Pigeons
I’m keeping close to home at the moment. A short wander from the house is the historic town Quay with its GWR …
Gulls
This Herring Gull is magnificent. Look at the beak. It must be really missing chips and intimidation. This Black-Headed Gull is altogether …
Pigeons at the Quay
People interfering with nature have left their mark everywhere. It’s not just in the landscape or in the extinction of species. It’s …
One’s for sorrow
There’s a Magpie on a roof on the industrial estate nearby. It’s been busy tearing the moss off it. I’m not sure …
Deer
I feel slightly giddy thinking I was here: I suspect I may have been indoors too much recently. We were in the …
Crocus
The world turns, the sun burns and life returns. Purple and orange is such an extreme colour scheme.
Skies, blossom and monumental trees
We were in the north of Italy before the pandemic. Flowers were out in profusion on trees on the terraced hillsides. The …
The claws of the world’s oldest euphemism
We’re in the Orechiella National Park, Parco dell’Orecchiella, in the north of Italy. Here, there are bears. There are only eight species …
Shag
There’s a perky looking Shag at Brixham. What an exceptional bird. That lemon-yellow gape and oil-black plumage is set-off by a jaunty …
The adventures of Dick and Titty at Brixham breakwater
There are long lenses galore at Brixham harbour. A flock of twitchers have arrived. They’re perched at the end of a jetty, …
Surely that’s got to scratch on the way down?
A few days ago I had my first experience of a Great Northern Diver. I was disappointed with my photograph of it …
Ruddy Turnstones
Ruddy Turnstones. No, I’m not cursing, that’s their name. There are several at Brixham Breakwater which I’ve come to enjoy greatly: They …
Hermes
Back in Brixham, looking for Great Northern Divers, I see a large shape out to sea. I look closely with my binoculars …
The Brixham diver
I’ve decided to have a trip out to Brixham in South Devon. Yes, again. It’s a beautiful town, with fishing and tourism …
Dolphins and a Great Northern Diver
I’m at Brixham in South Devon again, looking out to sea. It helps that I’ve met a couple of great people who …
Teignmouth
I spent many of my childhood holidays in Teignmouth in South Devon. I love it here. It was the last place in …
The Madeira outtakes
On the way to Madeira I sit next to a couple and they chat. I say ‘they’ chat, when I mean ‘the …
Clinging on
At 1,800m the clouds are below me and above me on Madeira. I’m a cloud sandwich. On the slopes is a wizened …
Fire and water
I’m off on a trip to the far west of Madeira. There’s a lighthouse at Ponto do Pargo which sounds great. Firstly …