Month: June 2025
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Wild Boar – Groundbreakers
Lyons (Chantal). Groundbreakers, the Return of Britain’s Wild Boar. Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2024. Book review. Truly wild boar were hunted to extinction in the UK in the thirteenth century, but now, through a long history of releases and escapes, they’re back. And Chantal Lyons really loves them. A lot of delightful new words for me in…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part X
Newbury to Reading I hadn’t expected to manage the 21 miles in one trip but did have the advantage of coming back to Newbury by train. With a bit of judicious parking I was able easily to access Victoria Park and thence the canal exactly where I had left off last time. The landscape was…
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Seven Red Admirals
The absence of butterflies is a huge concern again this year but I was delighted to see seven fresh and bright Red Admirals all at once in the garden the other day. The lovely illustration above is from: Humphreys (H.N.) and Westwood (J.O.) British Butterflies and their Transformations; British Moths and their Transformations. Three volumes.…
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Starmer, Reeves, Michelle Mone and the House of Lords – and king Charles again
Starmer and his rivers of blood I wrote earlier in this post, Being a gosling chauffeur; Tumuli and White Horses; Birdwatch magazine and Lucky Dube vs Keir Starmer – Animal Wild: “Talking of Keir Starmer, of “island of strangers” fame, inviting comparisons with Enoch Powell and his rivers of blood, isn’t it funny how governments…
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The Birmingham Bull
The safe capture of a bull on the loose in Birmingham has received a lot of media coverage. The Express newspaper is predictably, reliably hysterical in its tabloid reporting, talking of “carnage” and the bull’s “rampaging” through either a suburb or Birmingham city centre depending on which part of the report you believe. No carnage,…
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How to Speak Whale
How to Speak Whale; a voyage into the future of animal communication, by Tom Mustill, William Collins, 2023, a book review. I am not sure about the title of this and nor is the author – he expresses misgivings a couple of times. I am just not sure it quite works. Nevertheless this is a…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part IX
Kintbury to Newbury Having learnt from the extremely useful website Home – Sustrans.org.uk that the towpath from Thatcham to Reading and from Devizes to Bath has been widened and surfaced, I thought I would tackle the roughest section left, about six miles each way. The path was very narrow in parts and I nearly knocked…
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King Charles is displeased, pheasants, licences to kill, badgers, camels, plastic, water and animal sentience.
Pheasants I don’t read Hello! magazine, but someone at Protect the Wild does and has reported with great wit on a piece which records that Charles (king) is “devastated” and “livid”. I am stealing from the PtW writer’s style, but about what could it be? The rise of the Far Right in Europe, the war…
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Gifts of Nature: The Return of the Starlings; A Wren’s Nest; Other Birds, a Ladybird and Flowers
Flowers Vibrant carpets of Buttercups and Oxeye Daisies: The alliums have gifted generously this year too. This is strikingly coloured Honey Garlic, or Sicilian Honey Garlic, Allium siculum. These are Drumstick Allium or Round-headed Garlic, Allium Sphaerocephalon: The colours couldn’t complement each other better it seems to me. Here they are just a day later:…