Author Archives: Amanda Tuke
Thirty-minute birder column: Avon Calling
Always nice to squeeze in some birding when I’m visiting family in the West Country, & the Bristol birders were a very welcoming bunch.
Thirty-minute birder column: Tractor Birdwatching
A visit to my brother’s dairy farm inspired this feature in which I could showcase the amazing things bird-loving farmers do for our wildlife and share my concerns about the fate of agri-environment incentives.
Thirty-minute birder series: urge for going
Know that feeling when our summer visitors are long gone, winter visitors are arriving, and you just need to get away? So that was how I ended up in Southend-on-Sea, having a wader-tastic time and making new birding friends.
Wild Pavements Diary – Fun-guy. It’s so predictable.
It’s so predictable isn’t it. Mention fungi and you can guarantee that someone will produce the usual pun. My mate Daniel was leading a fungi walk in the park for a local society and I tweeted about it, sure to be really interesting and funny as Daniel himself is. Damn it – I walked right […]
Wild Pavements Diary – a trip to Greenland (Dock)
The area to the south of Canada Water station is one big car park. Literally. I skirt the stretch of water in front of Decathlon and pick my way through car park bays to some green I can see in front of Surrey Quays station. In a patch about the size of a couple of […]
Wild Pavements diary – [Evil laugh] My cunning plan to infect as many people as possible with an interest in urban botany is working…
It’s a sparkling autumn morning and eight people join me for a Wild Pavements walk. Mimicking the Crystal Palace walk I led earlier in the week, I’ve planned to follow the road triangle and to duck into as many side roads and alleyways as possible as we walk. We find many of the same flowers […]
Wild Pavements diary – plant-hunting in Crystal Palace
I’m standing outside Sainsbury’s wondering which, if any, of the people here might be waiting to join my pavement plant walk this overcast October afternoon. I wasn’t sure how popular an urban plant walk would be at five on a weekday, so I’m delighted when six others do arrive. I start by explaining that this […]
Thirty-minute birder series: work hard, play hard
I’ve been waiting for an appropriate moment to share my memories of birdwatching on St Kilda and this feature about inspiring bird scientists who still have the enthusiasm to birdwatch in their spare time seemed absolutely the right one.
Fabulous feathers feature – something a bit different…
I had a lovely time writing this deep dive feature into the world of feathers for Bird Watching Magazine, inspired by a Jay feather I found in Sydenham Hill Wood, my local patch.
Thirty-minute birder series: Inside Out
I often meet inspiring writers but Helen Jones is way up there. This month’s feature in Bird Watching Magazine, about birdwatching through the window was the perfect opportunity to share her writing with the magazine’s readers.
The Urban Naturalist 