Time on the riverbank is always a pleasure and on an evening stroll through the meadows and paths that follow the River Rib last evening we were accompanied by clouds of butterflies – Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Ringlets and the occasional Cinnabar Moth to add a flash of red to…
It is last light on Monday evening and we are sitting in the garden drinking a cup of coffee. A faint snuffling catches the ear coming from below the bird feeders. It’s no surprise to find it is a hedgehog and I guess it is not beyond the bounds of…
The full moon was heading towards the west yet still bathing the valley with it’s silvery light from a cloudless sky as I crept passed the last houses in our hamlet and headed north. Trying to avoid the crunching gravel that accumulates in the centre of the lane, I walked…
We first heard rumours that ravens had arrived in the locality last winter and sightings through the spring and summer confirmed a resident presence. As summer started to turn to Autumn a few weeks ago the calls of ravens in the air began to become a regular occurrence around the…
I first found a Roesel’s bush-cricket in the summer of 2009 in the long grass of some set-a-side land behind the string of houses in our small hamlet. That land is now consumed into a garden, but I digress. I came across one again the other week in the warmth…
Canadian wildlife sound recording artist John Neville has been recording wildlife and the birds of his native Canada for a number of years. When he made contact asking to use a recording I had made of a Nightingale in a presentation on the dawn chorus at this year’s International Ornithological…
Regular readers of this blog will know that for eighteen months or so we made a close acquaintance of our garden robin – a relationship cultivated and maintained by a steady supply of live mealworms – you can read about it here. Our Robin, as she became to be known,…
There is no getting away from it. If you want to be up before the birds in the spring, there is no getting up at all. For my particular body clock, the best strategy is to stay up through the night and do your best to catch up on sleep…
Two kingfishers flew away down the ditch, peeping as they went as we turned the corner by the mill. The monochrome palette of the pre-dawn light helped us pick a path around ice-crisped puddles and find a spot to place microphones, hidden by a bank and close the edge of…
