Month: August 2025
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The Kennet & Avon Canal Part XIII – mission accomplished
Trowbridge to Bath Spa So, I have done it. Every inch, except for the part owned by the Oracle shopping centre in Reading where I was not allowed to go (it seems to be run as a sort of autonomous police state), and most of it twice, once in each direction. As I reached my…
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Birdwatch magazine September 2025 – and my animal rescue volunteering comes to an end
Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue was due no volunteers at all on Monday afternoon so I went in. Usually it’s Wednesdays for me. But from now on it will be not at all. As I wrote recently I have been volunteering for well over a decade. I left Trindledown and HART for a variety of reasons (more…
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A Robin in the Summerhouse; a Drunken Wasp; Birds, Beasts & Bedlam (book review) and a bit of Star Trek
It’s hardly the first time I have fished a wasp out of a pint of lager. They do, apparently, become intoxicated by alcohol (not the case for all animals). I fetched a spoon, fished him out and tipped him onto the table as gently as possible. He seemed to stagger around for a bit, giving…
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British Wildlife Magazine June 2025
Volume 36 number 7 This is the first of two issues I have waiting for me. I love the magazine but it takes a fair while to read and digest. The Yellowhammer on the cover seems to be there purely for the joy of it. I have only seen two and those were distant glimpses.…
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The Starling: a Biography
The Starling: a Biography, by Stephen Moss, Square Peg, 2024. Stephen Moss is a prolific author and I have read and enjoyed many of his works. And I am extremely fond of Starlings. The stunning dust-wrapper image is from: Lilford (Lord, Thomas Littleton Powys). Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands. Seven volumes. …
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Do Giraffes Grieve? The Inner Life of Animals.
WILD LIONS of Tanzania HUNT GIANTS | Full Wildlife Documentary Do giraffes grieve? Yes, with not a scintilla of doubt in my mind having watched this beautiful if sometimes harrowing documentary – nature red in tooth and claw. We see lionesses hunting and killing a giraffe – almost nothing goes to waste, other predators and…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part XII
Seend Cleeve to Trowbridge The canal and its banks were lovely as ever but this was the least enjoyable section of my journey. Only ten miles all round but I am finding ten miles of extreme rattling and shaking is becoming increasingly unpleasant. The bike has been stellar and it is amazing that I have…
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Birdwatch, BBOWT, BTO and RSPB magazines, Camp Beagle and a little bit of wonderful news
Beginning with the good news, two Dorset hunts, following convictions for illegal activities, have been asked not to to attend an agricultural show. I have only ever been to one and absolutely hated it. This might seem a small victory but it seems significant to me. They parade their appallingly abused hounds at these events,…