Seaweed on the shore
All it needs is a little rough weather and the beach at Grobust is filled with beautiful seaweed.
All it needs is a little rough weather and the beach at Grobust is filled with beautiful seaweed.
It’s forty years since I started my nature notebooks. I was twelve years old and lived in a tiny terrace in Oldham. …
This seal is having a snooze in Pierowall as Turnstones parade across the wet rocky shore. It doesn’t look as interested as …
One end of the Brough of Birsay in Orkney is very different from the other.
Visiting Westray as a tourist, one thing must strike you; You’re on holiday on someone’s farm. There are beautiful beef steers everywhere. …
I grew up in a tiny two-bedroom terraced house in Oldham. There, any bird in the back yard was a delight. Sparrows …
I can see a male Kestrel in the treetops as the sun sets near Liddington Castle. It’s forty years since I saw …
Hearing an Eider Duck call is something you won’t forget. It’s hard to describe to someone without the same cultural references. It’s …
Water Rails are such skulking birds. They seem so shy and secretive. In fact I’d never seen one until today when I …
Orkney used to be a lake. Most of its rocks are from the mud at the bottom of that lake or from …
I found a shore crab on a Westray beach and then I lost it again.
When I was twelve years old I drew this Wren: Now it’s forty years later and I’m fifty-two years old and I …
I love the thistles on Westray; just not on my ankles.
Here’s a magnificent Viking longship in stained glass in St Magnus Cathedral. Viking longships were ships of war and built for raiding. …
Forty years ago I was twelve when I sketched these Blue Tits. It’s a parent feeding a juvenile bird: Today I’m in …
In Orkney, when it’s damper inside than it is out you have a problem.
The wall at the top of Einar looks beautiful in this light.
Hooded crows are fascinating birds. Here’s one I photographed in the magnificent grounds of Villa Borghese in Rome. Forty years ago I …
Yellow wheel on Lamb Holm.
Finding a new home is always a struggle. There’s the emotional wrench of leaving your old home behind, the uncertainty of whether you’ll fit into your new place and the difficulty of finding somewhere suitable when there’s so much competition. It’s difficult for people in the same way it’s difficult for Hermit Crabs.
There are millions of Wrens in the UK and yet they are so elusive. Today’s cold weather seems to have brought them …
It’s forty years since I first saw a Reed Bunting. I was so excited about seeing such a rare (to me) bird …
It was bitterly cold out on the Exminster Marshes this morning.
Shaggy Ink Caps are a common fungus. They are white with brown scales on the cap. Here’s the entry I made in …