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Fledglings
As I returned home from work yesterday evening, I was delighted to see the local pied wagtail feeding four fledglings on my back lawn. I sat in the car for 15 minutes watching them as they stood...
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Finally, a half-decent swallow photo!
It's very difficult to take a half-decent photo of a swallow. Believe me, I've tried. They're fast little blighters. But, this morning, I finally succeeded, by hiding behind the sheets on my washing...
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Darwin's octopus
Charles Darwin to John Stevens Henslow (18-May-1832): St Jago [modern-day Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands] is singularly barren & produces few plants or insects.—so that my hammer was my...
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Darwin's beetles
The University of Cambridge Zoological Museum has a rather wonderful box of beetle specimens collected by Charles Darwin when he was at the university. The young Darwin had an inordinate fondness for...
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Darwin's wen
Darwin's wen. I have a bit of a soft spot (no pun intended) for Charles Darwin's wen: that fleshy little bump slightly to the right of his nose—or to the left of his nose as you look at it. You must...
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Oystercatchers
I show the following photograph, taken in Anglesey last month, for no other reason than I like it: A flock of oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus).
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Cold snap
A cliché yesterday: Robin (Erithacus rubecula). A Merry Christmas to one and all.
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Ethereal nature
Around this time of year, I like nothing better than to stand outside at dusk and admire the small local population of bats as they flitter around my head. It really is a wonderful and surprisingly...
View ArticleSwallows feeding their young
I love swallows. Check out my previous swallow posts if you don't believe me. This evening, a pair of them were feeding their young on the power-line outside my house, so I took a few photos. Here is a...
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How the wheatear got its name
Note: Thanks to GrrlScientist for using this post on her Guardian Science blog, thereby quadrupling my daily readership count to at least four. Lapwing, dipper, swallow, robin, curlew… I've never drawn...
View ArticleBee haviour
Yesterday, as I was trying to photograph bees on some unknown shrub in my garden, I noticed that none of the bees was actually entering the flowers of the shrub; the flowers were too small to...
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The slug slayer?
Last week, I wrote: For the first four years that I lived in this house, the garden was literally plagued by slugs: thousands and thousands of slugs. But, for the last two years, the number of slugs...
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You can keep your Serengeti…
your Great Barrier Reef, and your Galápagos Islands; a British wood in autumn really takes some beating: A British wood earlier today. If they were good enough for Darwin, I reckon they'll do for me....
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I use the phrase 'survival suit' somewhat loosely…
Nunatak over at the Beagle Project blog throws down the gauntlet and demands photos of disturbingly handsome people 'in fantastical and/or embarrassing fieldwork gear'. Herewith my entry, taken...
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Spotted in my garden yesterday
Female Orange-tip Butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) sitting on one of its favourite food plants, Lady's Smock / Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis). Fantastic camouflage. As my partner Jen remarked,...
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Swallows' feeding habits
One of the joys of summertime is watching the swallows feeding near my house. Old country folklore says that, the higher the swallows are flying, the better the weather. As usual, the folklore holds...
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Parr for the course
Martin Parr is one of my favourite photographers. He's a great capturer of Britishness, and has taken many wonderful photographs in two places very dear to my heart: the Wirral peninsula where I was...
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Not exactly a toothy grin
Charles Darwin aged 43, with his eldest child, William. Browsing, as I often do, through Darwin Online yesterday, I came across this famous photograph of Charles Darwin with his eldest child, William....
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