Tim Melling – Red Admiral

  Tim writes: It is a myth that the name Red Admiral is a corruption of Red Admirable. The earliest recorded use of Red Admiral was posthumously by Thomas Moffet in 1634 (Moffat died in 1604 so the name must have been in use by the early seventeenth century). The name Admirable was first used…

Wild food (23) – Velvet Shank by Ian Carter

The Velvet Shank is unusual amongst fungi in that it is a true winter species, thriving in the coldest and darkest months of the year. It is named after the velvety texture of the stems, ‘shank’ here referring to these rather than the more usual meaning of ‘leg’ – as in Redshank for example. The…

This blog heading in to 2018

Happy New Year! This blog had a quieter year in 2017 compared with 2016 – 880k pageviews compared with 1.2m pageviews – but that was to be expected.  It does represent over 2000 pageviews/day every day of the year and I know that the readership includes politicians, journalists, conservation professionals and some normal people too….

Oscar Dewhurst – Three Red Deer

Oscar writes: This is another image from Richmond Park, taken towards the end of September. It had been a cold night, so frost covered the ground, and I saw these three deer standing where I could get the flats in the background. Luckily they all kept the same pose for a while, giving me time…

Guest blogs of 2017

I welcome guest blogs here – they provide a change of pace, a change of perspective and the possibility that different issues will emerge. Thank you to all who have taken up the offer and written a guest blog. In 2017 there have been 53 of them. Guest blogs here by Birding for All, WWT…