It has been a long time since I wrote a blog. With a bit of a shock I realise it is almost 6 months. The entire winter. It is not that we haven’t been out amongst wildlife and nature, ringing or exploring, although our winter ringing sites were comparatively quiet this winter. I did get … More A great year for owls
It felt good to be back in such a familiar landscape. A long strip of bright blue sky stretched above the forest ride, flanked by green and browns of the forest on either side. Sunbeams danced through the branches and evergreen needles of the trees; new leaves were beginning to burst on the bushes that … More An Epic Day
Good Friday. Just. Only a few hours into the Easter weekend and we were rising from our bed before the sun and heading to our reed bed site to undertake another ringing session. The clear sky overhead was already getting lighter, no longer the deep black midnight sky, hinting at the sunny day to come. … More An Epic Easter Adventure
Night in the forest. Blocks of densely planted pine trees crowd in close to the track. Narrow trunks, spindly branches and prickly needles are illuminated by the white beams of the car headlights, before disappearing into dark shadows once more. Immense piles of felled trunks, still caked in snow, are stacked by the side of … More Oh W’OWL!
It was the last day of 2018 and I stood overlooking a Welsh valley. From the river running along its floor, closely followed by a road, to its rounded tops towering above, it was a patchwork of colours that on this rather grey, overcast day, were rather muted. There were dark greens and browns of … More The traveler owl
It had been a foul night as Storm Deidre swept into the UK. For many it brought snow and very strong winds. For us in Norfolk it was a night of wind and rain. The morning however dawned calm and bright, with a beautiful blue sky. After the nights battering the forest was soggy. Droplets … More Winter Checks
Night on a working farm is not quite completely quiet or completely dark. The surrounding fields are cloaked in darkness and the sky above is filled with stars. Across this nightscape we hear the ‘seep’ of calling redwing, returning for the winter. Tall buildings loom out of the black, their angular lines and features illuminated … More The Owl of Athena
The afternoon sun was low in a blue sky with just a few wisps of white cloud. Sunbeams slanted through the trees and bushes, turning the tops of the reeds, heavy with seeds, golden yellow. It was the last weekend in September and with the final early start at our reed bed site the following … More Pretty in Pink
The house sits on a slight rise, surrounded on two sides by fields of long grass backed by tall Breckland pines. On its other side is a cool, dark woodland with trees that creak in the wind and which merge into the shrubs and flowering trees of a garden. Behind the house is an enclosed … More The Owl Family
Despite the blanket of grey white cloud overhead, soft green light filtered through the forest canopy. Among the dark crinkly leaves and branches of the forest floor the occasional green fronds of new bracken growth had begun to unfurl. It had only been a few weeks but we were back in Thetford Forest checking our … More Forest Rounds
Wild Barley 