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 …
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 …
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, …
Killerton House is a National Trust property near Exeter in Devon. I’ve visited quite a few times and seen some wonderful fungi …
I’ve got a few hours spare this afternoon and the weather is bright. The forecasts are for dull weather for days, so …
There’s a mushroom with a bright red cap in the woods. It’s such an unearthly red and the stem and the gills …
Identifying butterflies is stressful; especially when you’re not in your own country. Everything looks like something else you’re familiar with. I was …
It’s forty years since I first saw and photographed spangle galls on an oak tree. I noted it down in my Nature …
I’d never really considered why Mistle Thrushes are called Mistle Thrushes. It is, of course, because they eat Mistletoe berries. I discovered …
When I was a child I kept a series of detailed nature notebooks. I also had a Daler art pad of cartridge …
We find a delicate mushroom on our fungus foray. That’s a relief, because this mushroom season has been very poor, with the …
Dartmoor is a wonderful upland area of Devon. It is based on granite rocks which frequently outcrop on high tors. I’m having …
Here’s an Oak tree in the making. It is just at the start of unleashing the incredible chemical power stored within it: …
There’s lichen everywhere on Westray. It shows how clean the air is here, how salt-tolerant lichen is and also how difficult it …
We’re walking along the road in Abruzzo when we see two Kestrels hunting on the brow of the hill. I decide to …
The Italian Sparrows in Rome are dwarfed by the feral Pigeons: The males are incredibly handsome birds, with glorious colours on their …
There’s a deep orange butterfly flying quickly across the fields in a park in Rome. It’s a Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas: Nothing …
Walking along the River Tiber in Rome, or the Tevere in Roma, as the Romans call it, is a shock. It’s in …
Have you ever noticed that crabs have their head inside their body? That can feel a little weird if you think about …
It was Tuesday 21 November when we saw a balloon seller with these Helium balloons in Rome: I didn’t buy one. It …
We’re wandering around a park in suburban Rome and there are squawks filling the air. I’ve seen the Ring Necked Parakeets here …
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.
Here’s my photograph of a Peacock Butterfly, Aglais io, from 2017: Here’s a photograph from my holiday scrapbooks from forty years ago …