Four spotted chaser I must admit I’ve been a bit busy lately and have only just got around to checking out the ponds near my house. Someone has put fish into the one nearest, which is not good news for the great crested newts which, apparently, will desert that pond…
Short-eared owl As I write this, I’m watching a video of hundreds of mice running around a barn in Australia. There’s a plague of these little critters there which is causing havoc in communities and causing millions of dollars of damage to farming produce and even to domestic habitats. Some…
Wren What’s in a name? Quite a bit you might say if you’ve just had your first child and you’re wondering what you’re going to call them for the rest of their life. I have been photographing wildlife for around 12 years and watching wildlife for a bit longer. During…
For those who were interested in the story of the nesting tawny owls in my Huddersfield garden last year, you might be interested in the news that they’re back (in fact, he never left) and they’re raising chicks. My trail cam picked up the male owl visiting the nest box…
It’s ‘Hedgehog Awareness Week’ 2nd – 8th May 2021 and there is a great article about these beautiful little animals in the spring special issue of BBC Wildlife. For those of you who do not have access to the magazine, here’s a few snippets of what it is saying: The…
A couple of weeks ago when I was suffering from serious man-cold, I took to reading Bill Bryson’s ‘The Road to Little Dribbling’, which is about this American/Brit author’s adventures pottering about the UK. It’s an interesting and amusing read, and one of those where you can easily have a…
You can always find time to do a favour for a friend, right? A bit of DIY, a lift with something heavy, some technical know-how with the computer, even lend a kindly ear to listen to a problem. Surely, everyone can find a little space in their busy diary to…
No, I haven’t joined the Guild but my wife has been an avid embroiderer for donkeys’ years. In October 2019, the Yorkshire and Humberside regional guild set a challenge for their members to produce an artistic interpretation of any image(s) from my website. Regional members had a whole year to…
Sparrowhawk The great British weather. Yesterday it was awful, wet, cold, grey and desolate. Today, blue skies, sunshine, singing house sparrows in the hedgerows and a field full of fieldfare. On the drab winter days, even the birds hunker down and you could be forgiven for asking, ‘where are they…
It’s been a few years since we were able to take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch. At this time of year, we’re usually off on our travels so it was nice to take part this morning and spend an hour recording our avian visitors. As it happened, we had…