Standing up for Nature
Minke whaling in Iceland has stopped (London – 27 July, 2018) – Hunting of minke whales has ended in Iceland. Media sources reported today that cost and poor profits has made whaling no longer economically viable closing the local whaling industry. “This is very good news for minke whales and Iceland,” said Sigursteinn Masson, Iceland…
Please read to the bottom of this post. The recent comment from Linda about whaling, Iceland and holiday tours has really put some cats among some pigeons and generated some good comments from regular commenters here. I’ve had an invitation from one tour company to have a chat at the Bird Fair, a call from…
July is the dullest month for birding – it’s a well-known fact! That’s why birders get interested in dragonflies! Or is it the dullest month? Maybe it’s the best? It may be the best if you are keen on dragonflies. This blog’s 2018 writing competition is to make the case that any particular month of…
Sometimes there are comments on this blog which are so good that they deserve elevating to a post in their own right so that they get a wider audience. In response to my recent short post on the Bird Fair (but also relevant to this post on Iceland, and to this one) there was the…
There’s a little box next to this blog which allows you to enter your email address and you will be sent an email each time a blog is posted here. Except, several of you have now told me that it isn’t working very well. And now you’ve pointed it out, I’ve noticed it isn’t working…
Having completed almost a full year of local gleaning and browsing I thought I’d round off this series with one of the best of all wild foods – one that can be found widely, if rather sparsely, across most of the country. If they are not quite a match for the taste of wild strawberries…
I used to think of the Bilberry (often Blaeberry north of the border) as an upland plant – something available for browsing in high summer when crossing wide expanses of heath or moor. In recent years I’ve found it along local hedge-banks and within deciduous woodland in the dairy and sheep country of the lowlands,…
This is a delightful plant, especially at this time of year when there is every chance it will be dripping with irresistible red berries. It has the sharply-serrated, trifoliate leaves typical of all strawberries, and delicate white flowers which give way to the perfect, albeit tiny, red fruits. In all respects it is a diminutive…
Pignuts are umbellifers (in the carrot family) and are like miniature versions of the more familiar Cow Parsley. To help confirm the identification, look closely at the finely divided leaves, especially those towards the base of the plant. If you grow your own carrots you may notice the similarity in leaf structure. In favoured meadows…
This is a common and widespread bracket fungus often found in the summer on dead or dying deciduous trees. It can grow to a huge size, perhaps as large and heavy as any British species. The problem is the large and easy-to-spot specimens are not much use as food as they quickly become tough and…