It seems quite incredible to consider that our rarest reptile, the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) was only recognised as a British species in 1859. A specimen caught six years earlier had been previously dismissed as a grass snake (or variant of) and it was a man called Dr J E Gray who got round toContinue reading “Smooth Operator”
Category Archives: Nature Blog
Sloughing heck it’s cold!
It has been a peculiar week. Eight days ago I drove home towards the setting sun, after an afternoon spent on a favourite patch of Dorset heathland. The air had been alive with birdsong – woodlark, pipits, stonechats, sedge warbler, dartford warbler, cuckoo and whitethroat. There were lizards (including a sand lizard) and slow wormsContinue reading “Sloughing heck it’s cold!”
New Colours
It would be lovely to slow time down in spring. So much can change in a day, while over the course of a week, an empty sky is suddenly thick with swallows, and the yellows of celandines and primroses have been swamped by the blues and purples of violets and bluebells. With the sun high,Continue reading “New Colours”
Shapes
With less than five weeks until the end of the fishing season, I am normally fishing frenetically in early February, but even on those odd days when the river has shrunk back within its banks the wind has howled and I have left the rod bag in the calm of the hallway. I did manageContinue reading “Shapes”
Coming up for Air….
I couldn’t have picked a better summer to spend sitting on my backside staring at a screen. With a book deadline looming I knuckled down and have spent every day of the last six or seven weeks embroiled. It was worth it – I hope – and the manuscript for Rivers Run is now sittingContinue reading “Coming up for Air….”
Waking Up…
Its been a slow start to spring. The weather has been reasonably settled but successive systems have channeled Arctic air from north, keeping temperatures down and many of our migrants south of the Channel. Normally by now we would be seeing a steady stream of swallows, chats and warblers arriving on the south coast, yetContinue reading “Waking Up…”
A glorious weekend in the country…
This weekend my friend Martin made his now annual escape from London life in order to kick back in the Dorset hills. In past years we have squeezed a bit of fishing in, but this time we spent two and a half days hunting birds. On Friday afternoon we were at Morden Bog hoping toContinue reading “A glorious weekend in the country…”
Year’s End
Well, at least it’s nearly year’s end and perhaps more symbolically, we have passed the Solstice and the days are beginning to ever so slightly stretch. The winter has been slow to arrive but those sheltered spots have remained frosty throughout these last few days and elsewhere in the country snow is laying. Spring seemsContinue reading “Year’s End”
Symbiosis
Whenever I’m creeping around the woods with a mushroom basket on my arm, my eyes regularly flick skyward. I’m not looking for birds, or checking for rain clouds but keeping in eye on the trees and more specifically the species beneath which I am walking. Fungal mycelium form a network of strands within the soilContinue reading “Symbiosis”
Sparra’s
Our local house sparrow population has boomed this year. They seem to have been turning out fledglings at a regular rate since April and even now, as we approach October, there are still a few youngsters whirring their wings to get fed. At my parents house in Beaminster the house martins made a late decisionContinue reading “Sparra’s”
Kevin Parr 