It was the end of a hot September day, one of the hottest in over 100 years in fact. The brilliant blue sky overhead became gradually more washed out as the sun sank behind trees and houses, tinging the wisps of white cloud golden yellow. Under this sky a small group of people head across … More September Owlets
Ominous steely grey clouds were converging on the horizon across the marsh. The wispy white, puffy clouds over head were building, merging, growing, encroaching on the bright blue sky and beginning to block out the warm sun. In the pool just below my feet spots of rain soon began to ripple across the grey surface, … More Wader Day
Standing on crunchy white snow, looking up at the brilliant blue expanse of a vast sky stretching overhead uninterrupted in all directions. I close my eyes and just listen. There is no sound, the silence is deafening and perfect. Nothing can be seen for miles all around, just blinding white snow and ice. Beyond the … More An Antarctic Dream
They sit rather upright, like they are sitting to attention, alert and ready. Their eyes are large, and their short but broad bill has whiskers around the base to help catch the flying insects they feed on. These agile little birds take their prey on the wing, dashing out from a branch, snatching prey mid-air … More Catching the flycatchers
The country sweltered as bright hot sunshine blazed in the azure blue sky, steaming away the rain that had dominated the summer so far. Across the country people headed to the seaside, rivers, pools and lakes. And where there were none they dug out their paddling pools, filling them with cool, clear water, the sighs … More Misty Dolphins
Finally a dry, sunny, warm Sunday morning. Through a bright blue sky with only a few white fluffy clouds soar numerous, small, dark pointy winged birds with forked tails. As they twist and turn against the sky a brilliant white belly and rump flash against the dark back and wings. Their calls fill the air. … More The House Martins
Cranwich was sitting under grey clouds. What had happened to summer? A week of greyness and rain meant the water in the pools was up, and the puddles full so that those in wellies had to be careful when crossing through to avoid water spilling over their tops. The conditions though were actually pretty good … More You never know what you gonna get
Nope we didn’t have to go in disguise and there were not all the teddy bears having a picnic, but this time we were definitely in for a big surprise. Sunlight from a golden evening streams through the trees, the dried crunchy leaves and needles scattered on the forest floor glow in the dappled sunlight. … More If you go down to the woods today…
After taking people ‘virtual whale watching’ in the Azores for the last three WhaleFest events, I felt it was finally time to set foot on the archipelago myself. But when to go? The virtual whale watching experience at WhaleFest had focused on the sperm whale. For the people of the Azores this is The whale; … More Whale Watching in the Azores
On 31st May 2014, on a very misty, very early morning, I caught my first adult cuckoo. He was a stunning bird, and as well as having a metal ring with a unique number this cuckoo was also fitted with a satellite transmitter as part of a BTO project. I wrote a story about that … More Stanley
Wild Barley 