2019 highlights of a wilder Devon life
2019 has seen me explore Devon a little more. I’ve been out onto Emsworthy Mire on Dartmoor a few times to enjoy …
2019 has seen me explore Devon a little more. I’ve been out onto Emsworthy Mire on Dartmoor a few times to enjoy …
The turning of the year is always a great time for reflection. Celebrating the darkest day with the thought that longer days, …
I try my luck again to get some decent photographs of the Ring Ouzels at Emsworthy Mire. I have a large flask …
Limpets are incredible organisms. They can withstand the heaviest seas, can live despite being baked by the sun and desiccated on hard …
It’s the middle of winter. It’s time to rest and appreciate another year gone. It’s time to see distant family members, or …
1. One and a half million Robins are killed by cats in the UK every year That’s a statistic based upon a …
Amanita muscaria; the Fly Agaric. Magical, aren’t they?
Eight years ago I was offered half a day’s work in Australia, all expenses paid. That’s not something I was expecting. All …
I’m at Bovey Heathfield. It’s not quite Dartmoor and the heath is a lowland heath. There are plenty of spiders blocking the …
I’ve collaborated with the musician John Bentley to create this video for his song ‘You’re Next’. It’s a song-list of extinct species, …
There are Parasol mushrooms in the fields at Emsworthy Mire. They are huge, but not as huge as the dinner-plate sized Macrolepiota …
A walk from Emsworthy Mire. Dartmoor is an impressive landscape of human destruction. It’s been cut and burnt and grazed. And thousands …
I’ve heard there are Ring Ouzels at Emsworthy Mire. Ring Ouzels are thrushes which nest on high moors and upland crags in …
We’re on a trip to north Devon, near Lynmouth, on an organised fungus foray. I’m particularly excited about the grassland here as …
Trees have hormones just like people. As the length of days shorten, so leaves produce less of a hormone called auxin. That …
I stop the car in a small valley on Dartmoor. There’s an enormous fallen Beech tree and it’s covered with fungi. Glistening …
I’ve finally managed to have a trip out to Bovey Heath. It’s a tiny remnant of the heathland which would have covered …
Dunsford Wood is almost empty. It’s raining and only a few intrepid dog walkers are emptying their dogs along the River Teign. …
There’s something of the Medieval torture instrument about conkers. There’s that casing which looks as if it should be attached to a …
It’s cold and I fancy a walk. There are Black Headed Gulls at Stover Country Park. I love the way their toes …
Waxcap fungi thrive on damp, ‘unimproved’ grassland, or rather grassland which hasn’t be ruined by artificial fertiliser or herbicides. A trip to …
Challacombe Farm is on Dartmoor. It’s part of the 135,000 acres owned by the Duchy of Cornwall to the benefit of Charles …
There’s time for a quick trip to Emsworthy Mire on Dartmoor and I’m delighted with the Dusky Puffballs there. Their scientific name …
There are Pestle Puffballs in the churchyard outside my house in Devon. At least that’s what I think they are. I’d better …
Being delicious to humans has been one of the most successful evolutionary strategies of recent times. Farm animals now outweigh wild ones, …
Churchyards are often great places for finding fungi. Why? I suspect it’s got to do with their relative protection from pesticides, herbicides …
If coal is natural, why isn’t it still being produced now? How come we can burn coal and more isn’t being made …
There are many False Death Caps, Amanita citrinum, in the woods at the moment. Their strange white bodies litter the ground, eerie …
I’m walking through the woods when I see Chestnut leaves. There’s also a fresh empty burr. Where did the chestnuts go? Here …
While I’m searching for Parasitic Boletes I stumble across a Brown Birch Bolete. They’re lovely mushrooms. They have scaly stalks, small tubes …