Finding the Fluted Bird’s Nest fungus
There’s a fungus I’ve never see before at my feet in the woods of Orley Common in South Devon. It’s tiny, almost …
Chaffinch
This female Chaffinch is in bright sunshine against a sky like a painting: This male has wonderful bright colours. He’s in full …
Violet Oil Beetles
In Dunsford Wood there are glades and clearings full of wild daffodils. As I meander around them, stepping on Ramsons and sniffing …
Oop oop, Oop oop, Oop oop
It’s a noise like no other. I know it isn’t a pigeon or a dove. It’s a loud insistent “Oop oop.” I …
Mandarin
There’s a male Mandarin Duck, Aix galericulata, steaming towards me over the lake: It’s hard to imagine the evolutionary pressures which have …
Robin Orange-Breast
Robins don’t have red breasts; they are orange, surely? Maybe they are called red because it’s alliterative with Robin. Maybe they’re called …
Great Spotted Woodpecker
There’s a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the tree in front of me. It knows I’m here because it’s keeping to the other …
Blue Tits
Blue Tits weren’t always called Blue Tits. They were once called Titmice or Titmouse. The mice or mouse in their name doesn’t …
Seaton Wetlands
Sunshine; warmth; the feel of spring in the air. It’s a while since I’ve felt that; and that’s also true for wildlife. …
Dry rot’s wild cousin
I’ve owned a house which had dry rot. It’s not something I’d wish on anyone. Having the fungus, Serpula lacrymans, creeping through …
A solitary Goosander on the canal
Goosanders are such wonderful birds. They have amazing sawtooth bills to grip slippery fish underwater. I can see the solitary individual still …
Knowledge is over-rated
There’s a Treecreeper, Certhia familiaris, on the tree in front of me: That’s very exciting. I creep a little closer to the …
King Alfred’s burnt his cakes
There’s a seriously weird fungus growing on this fallen tree trunk. It looks the shape of bubbles, as if it’s been forced …
Spring and the Prime Rose
We’re walking along the gushing river in Dunster in Somerset. It was snowing last week. This week the English Primroses are in …
Cherries growing on Oak trees
There are Cherry Galls, Cynips quercusfolii, on the fallen Oak leaves here in Bridford Wood. They are the tree’s defensive reaction to …
Searching for an unusual Easter egg
Easter Sunday was spent with my Hungarian friends going on a fungus hunt. As you do. Or should that be, as I …
Mute
I never get bored of Mute Swans, Cygnus olor: There’s something about their size, their poise and their steady pace that enthrals …
A Bloody-Nosed Beetle on the march
If ever a beetle gave the impression of being a wind-up clockwork toy, it’s the Bloody-Nosed Beetle, Timarcha tenebricosa. Today they are …
Stock Dove
There’s a pigeon above me. I think it’s a Wood Pigeon but it looks far too small and scrawny. It’s silhouetted in …
Fresh bedding
This Squirrel has a message to all dog owners at my local country park. It’s a polite request to keep dogs on …
The secret writing on a lichen
In Bridford Wood there’s a tree. On the tree is an unusual lichen; it’s called Graphis scripta, the Secret Writing Lichen. It’s …
A reason to clear up under your bird feeder
It’s late and the light is dull. There’s nobody around at Stover Country Park apart from me and this female Great Spotted …
The wild Daffodils of Dunsford Wood
Today was a wonderful day for walking on Dartmoor. On the very far east of Dartmoor is the valley of the River …
Poisoned and shot and their nests destroyed – the Pintail Duck
Have you ever noticed that birds have no teeth? These handsome Pintails at Exeter’s Bowling Green Marsh have none: Having no teeth …
Spawn of the Frog
Will future generations have the same thrill of recognition as I do when I see a mass of frog spawn in the pond at Holden Clough?
Scarlet Elf Cups in Holden Clough
A large part of my childhood was spent walking many miles to a small steeply wooded valley, known in the north as …
Snow upon snow
Snow is a problem for people when you don’t prepare for it. It’s also a problem for wildlife. I’m wearing boots, waterproof …
Blue Tit in the snow
Snow has been falling all afternoon and delicate powdery flakes have been cushioning the world into a different, eerie, soft and soundless …
Seal haul
In Pierowall on Westray in Orkney, the seals haul themselves up onto the rocks in the Bay. They lie scattered like the …
The Snare of the Fowler
I’m enjoying leafing through a copy of Lilliput magazine from February 1955. ‘Lilliput is a man’s magazine’, it declares on the cover. …