Here’s the final addition to Wild June: Eddie Wild 30 June 2017

We’re running out of June. So Eddie and I decided to take a stroll onto the marsh, last time in Wild June and first time I had done so since the op on my knee last week. A bit of an adventure then. We took drinks, smoothie for Eddie and a beer for me, and… [Read More]

Here’s Eddie’s 13th Blog: Eddie wild 13

This week I had an operation on my knee. Cartilage. Rum business. Walking was getting difficult — now it’s fixed I can hardly walk at all. I’m supposed to give it time. Well, what else have I got? I could hardly go looking for wildlife in pursuit of my Wild June ambitions, but I at… [Read More]

Here’s Eddie’s midsummer blog: Eddie Wild12

Here’s Eddie’s 11th blog.Eddie Wild11

The best place for enjoying Wild June on these flaming days is from a hammock with a hat over your eyes. I have put considerable research into the question before reaching this conclusion. When you close your eyes the sounds leap into the foreground and hog the stage. The first thing you notice is a… [Read More]

Here’s Eddie’s 10th blog: Eddie Wild10

I’ve spend the last few days of Wild June in Morocco, chasing a few wild birds, so apologies for the break in transmission. I was travelling with my old mate Rod Tether of the travel organisation Natural High, and he told me this story. He worked for 12 years in North Luangwa National Park in… [Read More]

Here’s Eddie’s 9th Blog: Eddie Wild9

Here’s Eddie’s 8th Blog: 30 days8

As Joni rightly said, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. But here’s another truth: you don’t know what’s gone until it’s been gone a long time… We notice stuff when it arrives, of course we do: that’s deep in our natures to do so. We cheer when the swifts appear in our… [Read More]

I had to go to London, so I planned to write about the way June and the wild world affect even a hectic city full of people too busy to look up or down or about. But I was pretty hectic myself and the two tufties seen from the 209 bus and the lesser black-backed… [Read More]

The margins of the fields are tall and rich; the Raveningham Estate does such things properly. I rode past these tangled banks at a brisk canter: a couple of miles of wildness that flaunted and concealed at the same time. The vegetation concealed pheasants and hares and deer, all of which like to pop out… [Read More]

I’m worried about swallows. There don’t seem to be enough of them this year. Perhaps I’ve been unlucky. Or perhaps they have. I look at the sky and I fret. Not many swifts either. Of course, they might just be dodging the dodgy weather with a side-trip to the Bay of Biscay… If you like… [Read More]

Wild June moves into Day 5 and I’m spoiled for choice again. Shall I write about the swallows above the meadow? Or the hare in the garden? We saw each other at the same time and we both froze, holding a 15 yard stand-off for a full minute. Or perhaps I’ll turn to the butterflies… [Read More]

from Simon Barnes Cuckoo! Still calling, this fellow. Been hard at it since the last week in April. Eddie and I walked out onto the marsh and at once the cuckoo called cuckoo. Last chance, last chance in 2017 to meet a handsome cuckoo itching to make more cuckoos. They love this watery valley, the… [Read More]

Two miracles took place today. The first was that I correctly identified a plant. The second was the plant itself. Perhaps I should have put that the other way round. We’re all back from Alderney after an unforgettable week, and while we were away there’s been a serious attack of growth. In the fields the… [Read More]

I twisted my neck to the correct slightly excruciating angle and looked down as the little aeroplane left the lovely island of Alderney and swept out over the sea. I did this so that I could look for gannets. And of course, I found some. Couldn’t miss, really. A week on Alderney is a week… [Read More]

I have always liked the Wildlife Trusts’ idea of treating June as 30 Days Wild. Of course 365 days wild are even better, but limiting it to the short and lovely month of June does rather concentrate the mind. Eddie agrees with me  — and he contributes his own Wild June blog below.(For newcomers, Eddie… [Read More]