Much more often heard, often at night, than seen, the Corncrake was once found in every county in Britain and Ireland – that’s about 150 years ago. But it made the mistakes of nesting in grasslands and needing to produce lots of young every year to survive. Corncrakes are short-lived – only 25-30% of adults…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Bird song (43) – Woodlark
Skylarks have wonderful songs but so do Woodlarks. Both have tuneful songs but they are very different so you won’t get them mixed up with each other, nor, really, with anything else. Woodlarks often, but not always, sing on the wing but instead of the Skylark’s normal hovering flight Woodlarks are always on the move,…
Primates 2
The gibbons were particularly funky. And it’s the birthday of the primate narrator of this series today. Happy Birthday Chris Packham!
Nine years ago…
Nine years ago I was in Washington DC with jet lag but with 7 weeks to cross the USA in a hire car and chat to waitresses in diners. And The Guardian published this piece from me – which is interesting for me to re-read and perhaps for you too. It was a Janus moment…
Paul Leyland – Hairy-footed Flower Bee
Social Distancing Week 7. Hairy-footed Flower Bee. I’ve been watching a colony of these beautiful bees since the middle of March. I initially noticed them in one of the flower beds in my village five years ago and now I watch out for them each year. Hairy-footed Flower Bees (Anthophora plumipes) are one of the…
Voting for your favourite
I received over 40 entries to this blog’s Lockdown Nature-writing challenge – you can choose your favourite. Here is a list of the dozen shortlisted entries, with links, so that you can reach them all from here. Entry A Entry B Entry C Entry D Entry E Entry F Entry G Entry H Entry I…
Entry L – by Sharon Pinner
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Lockdown Birdwatch In between wondering just how much chocolate I must buy to make it last a whole week and working on university assignments, I have spent many hours during lockdown in the back garden waiting for birds. Waiting with my camera to hand. I probably shouldn’t have my camera – that would, after all,…
Entry K
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Covid19 Lockdown Diaries – The Unexpected Guest. Lockdown, day in, day out, day in, day out. Break for Lunch, break for Tea (I’m Northern I don’t do Dinner or Supper!) Breakfast, a break from my fast, oh yeah, I get it now! Meal to meal, drink to drink, is it too early? Who’s watching anyway?…
Entry J by Mauro Hernandez
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Don’t Look Back Whether there was a fig tree in the garden, I just can’t remember. I do recall, though, the grapevine roofing over our summer afternoon patio with grandma and my friends. “Had I stayed,” I told my sister via Skype, “I now could have been self-isolating with you, mum, and dad in grandma’s…
Entry I
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S is for Solitude The mantra is that your daily lockdown walk is good for your mental health, so am I alone in thinking that walking in solitude in the countryside increases one’s sense of isolation? I have read a considerable amount of new nature and mindfulness-inspired writing. Now the covid crisis has prompted newspapers…