We stopped to ask a dog-walker about bee-eaters. With weary patience he told us all we needed to know, and so we drove round three sides of the quarry and parked after paying a fiver to the RSPB. Strolled down to the quarry edge and waited, chatting occasionally to others, also… [Read More]
Archives for July 2022
Happy birthday to me…
I don’t think you ever really grow out of the idea that life needs to make a special effort on your birthday. It’s only right and proper that for 24 hours everything should be touched by magic. And it was my birthday yesterday, so we set out – me, wife Cindy, sons… [Read More]
Just a little green…
You never know what you’re going to get — and quite often you don’t know what you’re getting while you’re getting it. I was paddling my kayak on the local river in the Broads when two waders flew across just ahead of me, dipped towards the water and flew off. I had… [Read More]
Weightless, suspended, unmoving…
A hammock is one of the better places for tuning into nature. Admittedly your view tends be a little restricted, especially when you close your eyes, but as you lie suspended between heaven and earth, your altered sense of perspective takes you away from the humdrum. And there above me, also… [Read More]
A hummingbird in Norfolk…
Last year my neighbour planted a lavender hedge for three good reasons: it looks great, the deer don’t munch it and nectaring insects love it. It’s grown up a treat and is always worth a long look as you walk past. The more you look at wildlife the more its patterns get established in your… [Read More]
A Sunday celebration of the gloriously small
Last Sunday I was asked to speak at the 20th birthday party of the excellent and gloriously small wildlife charity the Little Ouse headwaters Project — https://www.lohp.org.uk/ Here’s a little of what I said. “Nimbyism — an acronym for Not In My Back Yard — is supposed to be a reprehensible thing: standing in the… [Read More]