I’m standing in the middle of Southwark Bridge. It’s just after ten in the morning on a chilly but bright autumn day.  Facing west I can see a train pulling into Blackfriars station. To the north is the City of London, not quite a square mile, where neoclassical pillars jostle and jar with stripped down […]

Finding a blue feather from a jay’s wing is like finding treasure – I’ve had one in my wallet for a couple of months now. If the feather’s gorgeous blue wasn’t enough, then looking at the structure through a hand lens is extraordinary. Tiny hooklets, on barbules, on barbs, on a quill, rachis or shaft […]

I went in search of Yellow-legged Gulls and left instead with a photo of the purple-pencilled flowers of Gipsywort, which I found growing alongside the boardwalk. Finally nailed a Willow Warbler with confidence, so progress on my birdsong and call journey. Oh and there was a good showing of by a Marsh Harrier too.

Having finally emerged from the dark hole of coronavirus, I dragged myself out to the little patch of acid grassland on Bramley Bank. I didn’t have much energy for serious botanising so was even more delighted to find a patch of tiny Birdsfoot (Ornithopus perpusillus). BSBI atlas records suggest it hasn’t been recorded here in […]

Crows nest in the wood opposite our house but this year a pair choose one of the oak trees in our communal garden. From our back bedroom window I can see them building their nest as the leaves aren’t properly out. That nest soon disappears into the green. There’s not much evidence of them, or […]

A male Kingfisher is sitting on a fence post, preening in the early morning sun, until something in the water below catches his attention. After bobbing his head a couple of times, he slices through the lake surface and emerges with a silvery prize. A squadron of Swifts skim across the water’s surface, calculating their […]