BLOG

Ecologists like myself often have a bit of a blindspot for diseases. We don’t see their impacts very often in wild populations – this may be a particular failing of ornithologists. But there are some good examples of diseases having big impacts on populations – usually, of course, introduced diseases that arrive in a new…

Social Distancing Week 3. Missing-sector Orbweb Spider Paul writes: Sometimes a spider’s web is more interesting than the spider itself. You don’t have to look at this web for long before realising how the spider got its English name. The left hand side section of the web contains no spiral threads, hence the missing sector….

I’ve been terribly remiss in not bringing you any news of John Riutta’s book reviews for quite a while, but he went a bit quiet for a time. I see he is back in the swing of things again now. Here are some books reviews by him that made me think in general, and think…

It’s quite difficult to keep up with reading Stephen Moss’s books – I wonder how he writes them so quickly. But what we have come to expect is good writing with good knowledge of natural history. That is what we get here. The theme of this latest book is urban, or at least man-made, patches…

Tim writes; Grey-hooded Fulvettas (Fulvetta cinereiceps) are endemic to China and occur in high altitude forests with a bamboo understorey. Its scientific name translates as little tawny bird with an ash-coloured head, which describes it quite nicely. I photographed this pair on a frosty twig at about 3000m asl at Labahe in Sichuan. In winter…