Blog
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Nature Notes
Hawking Bats. Late one evening, just after sunset, I thought I’d startled a woodcock into flight ahead of me; this most crepuscular of birds glanced low out of the edge of the wood and flew away down the ride with its characteristic twisting, bat-like flight. But I wasn’t sure, in the half-light; it was half […]
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Nature Notes
Autumn Senses. Autumn has an indelible patina loaded with meaning and memory – of old, sensory allusions, scents long forgotten and then suddenly revived, bringing you up short and unexpectedly sometimes. Every autumn of a life outdoors is a little like pulling on a favourite jumper that smells faintly of someone you love. There are […]
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Nature Notes
October Rabbit Kits. My daughter found a nest of baby rabbits in the back field. The dog had pointed them out, politely – our old dog would have golloped them down without asking. They are incredibly well hidden, but poorly protected. Some yards from the hedgerow warren, the doe has dug a shallow hole into […]
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Nature Notes
Spider and Quail If autumn has come early, it is a bountiful one; the blackberries thick and sweet on the brambles, sloes bunched like pieces of sky and rich umbrellas of elderberries drip like wine. Reaching out for a blackberry, a rosebriar catches my sleeve and for a moment, I am held. But as […]
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Nature Notes
King of the Mountain. On our last evening in Scotland, I glanced up to the mountain from the back door; a very large bird was circling. Heart thumping wildly, I called everyone together and grabbed my binoculars. Even at 3,000ft, there was no doubt: here were the ‘flying barn door’ proportions of a golden eagle’s […]
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Nature Notes
Walking off a Mountain The Glen Orchy Mountains filled the windows of the white croft that was to be our home for the next week, where crossbills with brick-red breasts teased open pine cones in a fir by the porch. On our first evening, we climb above Loch Awe to Duncan Ban McIntyre’s monument. Gamekeeper-forester-poet […]
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Nature Notes
Falling Off Fells Taking a few days to travel up to Scotland, we reached the quieter Western Lakes via the hair-raising Hard Knott Pass with its switchbacks, 1in3 inclines and a landscape that both dropped away and rose above us at the same time. The Cumbrian Fells were dizzying; breathtaking in weather that made them […]
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Nature Notes
Mole and Buzzard On golden stubble, a buzzard feather is trapped between stalks. I pick it up – it is a secondary flight feather; shorter, broader and more rounded, an ‘underarm’ feather that provides lift. The narrower vane of the leading edge is dark brown, with almost indistinguishable horizontal barring. Lightening to a dun on […]
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Nature Notes
Eels in the Classroom If, like me, you can remember the Nature Table at school, you may lament its perceived loss: much is said about how removed children are now from Nature. Yet there are imaginative teachers and organisations that realize what’s at stake if children are not immersed in nature. Which is why, instead […]