Month: June 2026
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A Deer Sanctuary, Geezer Butler and the Ridglan Beagles, the Badger Cull, Fire Kites
I posted this in December last year: Finally news from my favourite animal rescue, Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk (passim). Ten acres of unprotected woodland were up for sale by auction nearby and could have been purchased by developers. Hillside drew deeply on their reserve funds and stepped in. The land will be fenced to…
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Cosmos, Contact, Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan has long been a hero of mine. It just occurred to me that Brian Cox is a modern-day version and indeed Cox has said that Sagan’s TV series Cosmos changed his life, inspiring him to dedicate it to science. Another hero, Richard Dawkins, is quoted as saying that he wishes he had written…
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Lime Quarry
My membership of the local wildlife group is lapsed but they kindly allowed me to join them yesterday on a visit to a disused lime quarry, now a chalk grassland nature reserve. I will be renewing my membership – it was a glorious and rewarding afternoon. The nearby cottages are the Lime Kiln Cottages and…
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The Birds and the Bees – a little bit more
Yesterday seems to me worthy of being thought of as Fledgling Day. But this morning has not disappointed either. I was up at first light and the Grey Squirrel, Dunnocks, the ever present Jackdaws and the almost worryingly plump Robin below all put in early appearances. First of all though was this juvenile Great Spotted…
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The Birds and the Bees
Having seen the first fledgling Blue Tit of the year at the feeder, a small Cinnabar Moth with his or her stunning, bright red wings and a second Beautiful Demoiselle, I have had a few absolutely bumper days for wildlife at home. There is a bees’ nest in the roof of an outbuilding, I am…
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Beauty of the Beasts
Beauty of the Beasts, rethinking nature’s least loved animals by Jo Wimpenny, Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2026. The author has an easy, down to earth style which makes this fascinating and thought-provoking book a real pleasure. She is right in her preface I think to say that many of us who care about wildlife live in something…
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Feeding the birds, Global Justice, battery cows, and British Wildlife Magazine
I knew this was a laurel in the garden but AI tells me it is a Portuguese Laurel or an English / Cherry Laurel depending on which version you believe. Either way the cascades of pretty white flowers are apparently known as racemes. I think this is the first year it has flowered. Feeding the…
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A mouse, snakes, bulls, penguins, palm oil, cows, dogs, bears, fossil fuels, and the Danish numbering system
A mouse Emptying one of the water tubs I use for solar irrigation of various pots in the garden, sadly I found a drowned mouse. I left it on the ground intending to come back, pick it up with a recyclable plastic bag and put it in the dustbin. Soon after there was that horrible,…
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Lost Paths, part III
The Lost Paths, a History of How We Walk from Here to There, by Jack Cornish, Penguin Books, 2025 (first published 2024). Firstly and not entirely tangentially, I posted this in June 2024: Rural vandalism near me – Animal Wild I gave this account of one individual’s taking of liberties: “Just across the railway line,…