Paul writes: Demoiselles are large damselflies and are easily told from other species by their coloured wings. There are two species in Britain, the Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) and the Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens). The Beautiful Demoiselle, especially this male, is exactly what its name suggests. It is best seen on a sunny day; in…
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Book review – Swifts and Swallows by Mike Unwin
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Reviewed by Ian Carter This is another book in the burgeoning RSPB Spotlight series, this time dealing with a duo of well-known and superficially similar species. I can see the merits of covering both birds in the same book but it seems odd that the House Martin misses out. It shares the association with our…
Sunday book review – Atlas of Poetic Botany by Francis Halle
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This is not an atlas and it has no poems, but it is certainly botanical. What we have here is a delightful book about tropical botany. Originally written in French, by a rainforest expert, this introduces the reader to a few dozen remarkable tropical plants, many of which are trees. The illustrations, by the author,…
Tim Melling – Golden Plover
Tim writes: I really like smaller images of birds that show them in the context of their habitats. This Golden Plover was taken on remote blanket bog high on the Peak District moors where they are common breeding birds. You can see the Hare’s Tail Cotton-grass and Bilberry that is so characteristic of their breeding…
Book review – Hedgehogs by James Lowen
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Reviewed by Ian Carter Aficionados of the humble, yet hard-pressed, Hedgehog are spoilt for choice these days. Hedgehog books are multiplying, as the animal itself becomes ever more difficult to track down. This mirrors a general trend in natural history writing. We have a rapidly expanding library of information at our finger-tips but, with every…