I completed a reptile survey on a local reserve last week, and found surprisingly little. There was a handful of slow worms, and a good scuttle of common lizards, but I failed to find a single snake which is a first for this site. I wasn’t unduly concerned. I deliberately opted to survey in theContinue reading “A flutter of wings”
Category Archives: Nature Blog
Campion-ing the Cause….
I have really enjoyed writing a monthly column for BBC CountryFile Magazine, not least because of the amount of things I have learned. Research can become lazy in the internet age, but digging around old books and then cross referencing with online resources can be fascinating. In the June edition, for Flower of the Month,Continue reading “Campion-ing the Cause….”
Coiled Spring
The final day of the fishing season was exactly as it needed to be. Lots of fun, plenty of fish, some decent tea making and excellent cake. It wasn’t particularly warm, but the catkins on the willow beneath which I sat were breaking into colour and gave the day a distinctive spring edge. As IContinue reading “Coiled Spring”
Too much…
Had the coarse fishing season ended a week ago, then I really wouldn’t have minded. Having book-ended the weekend with trips to a new stretch of canal, I found myself in such a contented state that the standard late season urge had all but gone. Friday had been damp, especially in the morning, but weContinue reading “Too much…”
Spring air..
As they respond to the late winter sun, so adders depend heavily on their carefully chosen hibernacula. Desperately sluggish in the cold, a snake will only move a foot or two away from winter sanctuary to bask, and if the world has changed as it slept then it will have insufficient energy to move elsewhere.Continue reading “Spring air..”
New Year
After a damn good knees up at the winter solstice, the Ancient Celts would return to their homes and hope to last beyond the forthcoming ‘Famine Months’. Spring would have seemed a long way away, and with food and fuel dwindling, late winter would see a dramatic increase of disease and starvation. The first ofContinue reading “New Year”
Buzzards…
To paraphrase a former Labour Party spin doctor, 2016 has been a good year to bury bad news. At least, it might have been if people were still worried about the need for dilution. What we have learned this year is that its okay to basically say whatever you want about whomever you want. ForContinue reading “Buzzards…”
Polarization
I often wonder how other people view ‘time’ in their minds. Mine shapes like a loop in a rollercoaster, blurred at the bottom, but specific dates (my birthday for one) always acting as an anchored point of reference. Rather like a compass needle, I ‘roll’ around the corkscrew to find my position in the year,Continue reading “Polarization”
The State of Nature
Today saw the publication of the latest State of Nature report – a ‘stock take’ of our wildlife made by over 50 of our conservation organisations. Unsurprisingly, the results do not make for pleasant reading. Well over half of our native species have declined since 1970 and one in ten are under threat from extinction.Continue reading “The State of Nature”
Waifs and Strays
August is an interesting month. Having been spinning in a post-referendum maelstrom, the Olympics (and a new football season) have provided a welcome distraction from the what-ifs, maybes and surely nots. Meanwhile, despite some decent temperatures and plenty of sunshine, there is a definite drift toward summer’s end. Heavy dews and a nip to theContinue reading “Waifs and Strays”
Kevin Parr 