Standing up for Nature
Tim writes: Twite (Linaria flavirostris) are scarce and extremely localised breeding birds. The main population is in Scotland but in England they are almost wholly restricted to the South Pennines where fewer than a hundred pairs breed. They are one of just two British songbirds that feed almost exclusively on seeds, the other being…
Tim writes: Most people think of Nightjar as a bird of lowland heaths but this one was high in the Pennines at well over 1000 feet above sea level in Yorkshire. The second half of May is my usual time for Nightjars but ill-health meant I wasn’t fit enough this year. So I went…
Tim writes: I’m sure that many of you will have seen the surprising news announced recently that Britain has a new species of snake; Barred Grass Snake (Natrix helvetica). Without exception, every media source announced that this was an additional species for Britain, bringing the total to four (Barred Grass Snake, Grass Snake, Smooth…
Tim writes: This photograph was a lot more difficult to take than it looks. Once a Skylark has started to sing he rises up and rarely comes down. And when he does appear, it is usually too far away to capture. I photographed this one early morning after a night of heavy rain. This hay…
Tim writes: I suppose the most unusual thing about this photograph is that it was not photographed in a reedbed. In winter they are supposed to feed mainly on the seeds of Common Reed (Phragmites australis) but I found a flock feeding in a rough field near to a reedbed in North Lincolnshire. It…