The Shortest Month

I once worked with a Sci-Fi nut who took pride in seeing everything, knowing everything and being first to everything. With a brand-new Star Wars film on the horizon he was saving pennies and beginning to bubble. And in order to ensure he saw it before anyone else he knew, he bought plane tickets toContinue reading “The Shortest Month”

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”

Smooth Operator

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”

Trumpet Blowing

A month has passed since publication day and its very much a case of so far, so good for Rivers Run. Sales have been solid, book shops have been ever so generous with their product placement (testament to the design team at Rider) and, most importantly, people seem to be enjoying it. Aside from theContinue reading “Trumpet Blowing”

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”

Countryfile magazine feature: Soaring Buzzards

From a population of just 5,000 pairs in the early ’60’s the buzzard is now our most common bird of prey, and has spread from isolated pockets of the west and north, right across the British Isles. Not everyone is happy though. Calls have been made for buzzards to be culled in order to preventContinue reading “Countryfile magazine feature: Soaring Buzzards”