Tag: Wildlife photography
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Farming, factory farming, salmon farming and British Wildlife magazine
I thought the local Swifts might have left by now but I was transfixed by about thirty of them high in the sky yesterday evening when I stepped outside. The Jackdaws are very much back although in smaller numbers, so are half a dozen Blue Tits (where have they been meanwhile?) and I can still…
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Thistles, a lily, ceramics, a candle, A.A. Gill on sport, and some tv
I’ve posted a photo of these Globe Thistles before but they keep catching my eye in the garden. The bees and butterflies love them and the umbellifers. The other variety of Globe Thistle below is just starting to show its lovely bluish purple hue. There is a rose bush in the garden but the truth…
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Gannets, Dogs, Chris Packham, Bill Oddie, Sperm Whales, A.A. Gill, Lawyers for Animals and a couple of life’s irritations
This photograph of a Gannet was taken in Cardigan Bay a few years ago and was used in Animal Wild. See below for updates on the Guga hunt. Dogs and their ‘owners’ Firstly though, dog ‘owners’ again. It’s always the owners. I have written previously about one in particular. Inbreeding can be an unfortunate accident…
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A graduation, garden wildlife, British Wildlife Magazine and a tribute to Willmie Jalius
This was a beautiful Father’s Day gift from one of my daughters. The flowers are local to Liverpool where she has been at university. This week we attended her graduation at the beautiful home of the Liverpool Philharmonic, which was wonderful, full of pomp and ceremony, provoking that mix of tears and deep parental pride.…
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Wildlife in South Devon Days 3 and 4
Appealing to my enjoyment of words and wordplay, I have had look into some of the abbreviations and nicknames used by serious ornithologists and there’s a list of some of them here, some more pleasing than others. Birdwatching, Birding & Bird Travel, Birdfood & Binoculars Bird Nicknames & Abbreviations – Fat Birder In my head…
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Wildlife in South Devon Day 2, part I
Dolphins have been especially close to my heart for years for all sorts of reasons, including personal ones, and not least because of their sheer grace and power. So the boat trip in the hope of seeing even just one was always going to be the highlight of the trip for me. Firstly though a…
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Wildlife in South Devon Day I
This is my fourth trip with Wildlife Worldwide and they have all been terrific and very different from one another. Our leader was Mike Dilger, perhaps best known for his appearances on The One Show, also an author and expert on birds, dragonflies, damselflies and more, especially plants – his degree was in botany. I…
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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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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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Secret Africa and wildlife and other animal news
A delightful surprise visitor to the garden yesterday, a female Beautiful Demoiselle. She had moved on by the time I came back with my camera but this is a male I photographed in April 2024. A second wolf pack has been euthanised whilst we wait for the enquiry into the killing of the pack in…
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Various birds, wolves, maths and NASA
Dunnocks Bird of the day is the Dunnock. There are always at least two in the garden. I have said many times how underrated their complex and beautiful plumage is. I cannot imagine why both of the garden bird books (both publications from the British Trust for Ornithology) I have been drawing from of late…
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Mink, dogs, wolves and birds
Lovely to see the Marsh Marigolds, above, making their annual appearance. Mink The Hunt Saboteurs remind us that the mink hunting season is about to begin: Mink Hunting season due to begin. If the population does need controlling in some form, which is arguable, it should not be done like this – with dogs, drainage…
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A Chaffinch, planning this year’s bike trip and animal rescue
A Chaffinch was the first bird of today. Like Dunnocks, they are ground feeders. Their nests are described as neat, deep cups. Numbers here are more or less doubled by migrants in winter. When they are a part of a mixed flock with Bramblings there is no competition for food since Bramblings can take larger…
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Great Tits, Birdwatch Magazine, Tree Sparrows, Global Justice Now, Greyhound Racing and … Spring at last
After Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws, the first bird I saw today was a Great Tit. New to me from the garden bird books was the fact that the black chest stripe tapers off in the females but continues downwards and broadens in the males, for whom the width is a status symbol which attracts females…
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Seashells, Hippos, Cheetahs, the trouble with birdwatching, corrupt politicians and an amazing panorama
Seashells These shells were no longer wanted in my son’s room and so I have relocated them to the summerhouse which is getting rather cluttered with wildlife books, objects and art. I had forgotten we had them and cannot remember where they came from. They made me think of my good fortune in being involved…
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Badger sett survey February 2026
I would go so far as to say that our survey yesterday was joyful. Signs of spring abounded: snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses and birdlife (although not so much birdlife as one would wish). Best of all was to feel the sun on our skins after so long in grey, dreary wetness. Surpisingly the ground was mostly…
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The Last Elephants, part II
The Last Elephants, compiled by Don Pinnock and Colin Bell, Hardie Grant Books, 2019. The photographs are again from Tanzania. ‘A tale of two elephants, working out elephant management in a private reserve’ constitutes chapter 6 and it’s another which brought tears to my eyes although I don’t much like the word ‘management’ in the context.…
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The Last Elephants, part I
The Last Elephants, compiled by Don Pinnock and Colin Bell, Hardie Grant Books, 2019. I have had this book for a long time and don’t know why I haven’t got to it before – possibly I worried that it would be depressing and heart-breaking (the title is less than optimistic) but that turns out to…
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Birds and a squirrel, more from ‘Pretty girl in crimson rose (8)’, travels in Sweden and Turkey and an alarming plane stopover in Russia, wildlife art, the monster across the pond
The Grey Squirrel has been at the feeder for ages this morning, really feasting on the peanuts. As I headed to the summerhouse I suddenly realised he or she was wonderfully close to me and had not heard me coming. When awareness of my presence did come, there was no panic or rush to get…
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Gordon Buchanan and Me; flea treatments for domestic animals; Peregrine Falcons, the illegal trade; George Monbiot
The image above is of a hand-coloured lithograph from Audubon’s Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, 1845-1848. I have pretty strong preferences when it comes to tv wildlife presenters. Ones I like and respect include Chris Packham, Liz Bonnin, Hamza Yassin, David Lindo and Steve Backshall. I despise the fraudulent Bear Grylls and my aversion to…
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RSPB Magazine & BTO News
RSPB Winter/Spring 2026 Chief executive Beccy Speight enjoys the “gentle purring” of Turtle Doves in Italy and takes from it a call to action and Yellowhammers are on the rise at RSPB’s Hope Farm. In both cases a primary factor in downturns has been intensive agricultural practices leading to a decline in wildflower seeds on…
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Birdwatch, Thylacine extinction, Penguins in prison, HS2, Pheasants and Woodcock, Ticks
Above, a little celebration of snow in the garden. The other photos in this post are from a folder on my PC which I had forgotten and were taken in 2018. I used a trailcam a lot then and seem mostly to have recorded squirrels, but I had not remembered the visits of a Jay.…
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Empathy and gratitude; foxes, raptors, swans, cows, deer, legal matters and more
The Kennet & Avon Canal played a large role in my year and my enjoyment of the summer in particular. The photo above and two of those below were taken in the cold winter of 2010 when the canal partly froze over. Wildlife rescue in the face of wildlife persecution A World We No Longer…
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Thames Water, Open Cages, Foxhunting, Rachel Reeves, and more Wildlife
The image above and those that follow are from the beautiful setting for food and drink after a funeral we attended last week for the father of a friend, The Old Mill just outside Aldermaston. It was a powerfully moving Catholic service and although I am not religious I do rather like the High Church…
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Sarcastic Fringehead
This crazy name came up in a short multiple choice quiz set by the £1m winner of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? It is, it turns out, a fish, so named for its highly aggressive, territorial behaviour. I suppose sarcasm can be a relatively gentle form of aggression but I still don’t really get…
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An oaken sett survey
Another adjectival word for oak trees is, delightfully, “quercine”. It’s an oak at the head of this post. For once I see no harm in revealing the location of our badger group’s planning and infrastructure related survey: Sandleford Park in Newbury. This has been hugely controversial since 2012. The original application was for 360 new…
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Bulls, foxes, auks
There is no particular reason for the bird pictures in this post other than as decoration but it was good to see the stunning Nuthatch and two Blue Tits on a feeder at the same time. The Sparrowhawk is still around – as usual I only saw her from the corner of my eye but…
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Ivy flowers, WordPress nags, a canal journalist, chuckwallahs, Wild Justice, planning, autumn leaves, penguins in prison, a butterfly healer, Hamza Yassin, Hitchens and Fry on the Catholic church, and first fungi of the year
I have often read that ivy is a superb food source for pollinators late in the year but never really witnessed it. But the ivy in the garden this year is absolutely bursting with flowers and literally abuzz with insect life. I think these are mostly hoverflies. There was a white-tailed bee too. I haven’t…
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Savernake Forest: fungi, lots of fungi and a Treecreeper
Savernake Forest, just outside Marlborough, Wiltshire, is privately owned and seems very well looked after for its wildlife, in spite of its being managed by Forestry England. The Marquess of Allesbury and his son the Earl of Cardigan are the owners. It has SSSI status for the diversity and in particular ancient oak trees and…
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Boris, Spider Webs, Country Music, Fungi and the Animal Cruelty Prism
Heathcote Williams’ book about Boris Johnson duly arrived. Rather than Boris Johnson: The Beast of Brexit – A Study in Depravity, 2019, which was what had attracted me, I have instead the earlier Brexit Boris, from Mayor to Nightmare, Public Reading Rooms, 2016. I tired of it pretty quickly – too much has already been…
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Return to Farmoor, Ragwort, Slang, Starmer and Digital ID, RSPB Magazine
I much enjoyed my first visit to Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire at the beginning of the year: Farmoor Reservoir – Animal Wild I planned to return and having acquired an electric bike in the interim much looked forward to cycling round, easily covering the distance so that I could be where the birds were. Thames…
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Elephants, Cane Toads and a Southern Oak Bush-cricket
I took the picture above on my first safari in Tanzania and it was almost the first of the trip and I think one of my best, not because of any skill with the camera but because of the way it depicts the profound and emotional relationship between the two elephants greeting each other with…
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Wasps
Wasps. The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect, by Eric R. Eaton, Princeton University Press, 2021. The author has worked as an entomologist for institutions including the Smithsonian and is the lead author of the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America amongst other claims to fame. Who hasn’t been annoyed by wasps on…
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From the heart of Bath to the outskirts of Bristol; the Sparrowhawk; Fergus the Silent; Patrick Galbraith
The Bristol and Bath railway path was the first major project undertaken by Sustrans. It’s more or less flat of course and asphalt all the way. I didn’t feel the need to continue on into Bristol – this had already been my most urban bike ride this year by far – so I turned around…
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Phoenix Trail, a double rainbow, a Sparrowhawk in the garden and a bird murder raffle
The Phoenix Trail I parked just outside Princes Risborough and easily picked up the Phoenix Trail which runs on variably surfaced paths to Thame, about a fifteen mile round trip. It was very peaceful and runs through wooded sections and arable fields, with great views of the Chiltern Hills. It’s also a sculpture trail with…
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AI Reggae, Radioactive Rhinos, BTO News and the Art of Andy Goldsworthy
BTO News Autumn 2025, Issue 356 I am glad the gulls on the cover are identified inside or I wouldn’t have a clue – they are Herring Gulls. This is an exceptional issue of the magazine from the British Trust for Ornithology. Right away there’s a link to the Cuckoo tracking site, Cuckoo Tracking Project…
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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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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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British Wildlife magazine May 2025, BirdGuides and other wildlife news
Volume 36, Number 6 This issue opens with “Next steps for the GCSE in Natural History” by Mary Colwell. A fantastic idea , first made public in 2021. Progress has been painfully slow and there have been many hoops to go through but it does look as though it could yet become a reality. It…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part XI
Caen to Seend Cleeve I did not get nearly as far as I had hoped yesterday, having been aiming for Trowbridge. I’d been delayed leaving by a flat tire on the bike – only my second puncture so I haven’t fared too badly. But the bike came with very few instructions and it took me,…
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Runfold Ridge
This made for a lovely morning, low-key and laid-back and all the more charming for it. The only blight was the arrival of three extremely noisy dogs who barked at everyone and everything and, incredibly, were not kept on leads in such a sensitive area – and it is still nesting season. The attitude of…
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Badger sett survey June 2025
A blisteringly hot Sunday, which I don’t mind at all – I love the heat – or, if you are a fan of The Fast Show, it was scorchio! For much of the day though the woods offered cooler shade. We had covered this area near Reading before, in 2021, but the setts are especially…
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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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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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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:…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part VIII
Horton to Devizes & Caen Locks I have wanted to see Caen Locks ever since I have lived in this part of the world. They did not disappoint. First though, from the Bridge Inn at Horton where I left off last time, the usual narrow towpath and more picturesque bridges, this being Laywood Bridge. Then…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part VII
Honeystreet to Horton This was the longest ride yet, six and a quarter miles*. Not very far but the first mile or so was pretty tough in terms of the usual hazards of the towpath. Knowing, with my new strategy for the ambition of riding the entire canal, that I would be making the return…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part VI
Pewsey Wharf to Honeystreet Which sounds as though it might be the title of a novel or a poem. On my way to Pewsey I came to a rapid halt. Two tractors and a couple of other farm vehicles were working a field. This attracted no fewer than twenty-two Red Kites. Quite a spectacle. My…
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Greenham Common, Bowdown Woods
Greenham Common I first wrote about Greenham Common here: Sett survey September 2024 – Animal Wild My daughter has now submitted her dissertation and although it is perhaps not for me to say, it is brilliant and very moving. I learnt a very great deal from Greenham Women Everywhere: Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp Ideas,…
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RSPB Magazine, Spring/Summer 2025 and a time-lapse Water Lily
Chief Executive Beccy Speight opens with a no-nonsense attack on the grouse and gamebird (what an awful word) shooting industries and the destruction they cause, especially of birds oḟ prey. Heather Mathieson, Investigations Liaison Officer, writes on the same subject in more detail in an article “Stop the Killing”. ‘Birdcrime’ is specifically used to refer…
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Heron
I have already posted these but feel they deserve a separate post of their own. From: The Kennet & Avon Canal part V – Animal Wild). Burbage Wharf to Pewsey Wharf – including a fabulous surprise.
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part V
Burbage Wharf to Pewsey Wharf – including a fabulous surprise Eleven miles there and back, which doesn’t sound a lot especially on an electric bike, almost effortless, but you really do have to concentrate to avoid the worst of the roots, stones and overheard branches and other hazards, such as where the towpath narrows worryingly…
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Gallimaufry: Badgers, birds and birdsong, royal hands, Coyotes, an Oak Tree, a Colossal Squid, a Slow Worm & aliens
Gallimaufry is a great word. A colleague at an antiquarian bookshop was very fond of it and various other synonyms for miscellany. It’s a French stew. Olla podrida is a Spanish stew (pot pourri is the direct French equivalent), also used by the book cataloguer to my mystification at the time, salmagundi and macédoine are…
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Alderney wildlife
Even during such an emotional trip (see previous post) I did not of course forget about the wildlife. My first stop was the Alderney Wildlife Trust’s (AWT) centre and shop. I had hoped to meet the new warden at the observatory as well but timings unfortunately did not allow. The Trust is very active, organising…
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Nature Boy
Seán Ronayne, Nature Boy; a journey of birdsong and belonging, Hachette Books, 2024. Book review. I didn’t want to finish this book, in the sense that I didn’t want it to end. It had me in tears too many times to count and from the beginning I was sure that it was going to be…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part IV
Great Bedwyn to Burbage Wharf Another boneshaking but wonderful ten miles or so, there and back. The new electric bike seems remarkably robust so far, although there were some squeaks of protest for the last couple of miles, so I think some tlc is in order. On this stretch alone, which continues the southward direction…
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Badgers & Development; British Steel & Thames Water; Trump and his tariffs
Apologies for the uneven appearance of sub-headers in this and recent posts, a WordPress issue which they are currently trying to resolve. Development “Bats or great crested newts?” “Neither because I want growth.” This was Rachel Reeves in an interview not so long ago. She may as well have said “money” instead of “growth”. Starmer…