https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/ Recent content in Blog on UK Wildlife Ranger Hugo -- gohugo.io en Wed, 11 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999999/ Wed, 11 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999999/ Originally Mid-June, 2014 and the day before my daughter returned to the USA to reunite with her Californian boyfriend and attend his UC College graduation ceremony. Then, basically, it will be the two of them spending the next six weeks visiting, revisiting and exploring several of the more westerly and south-westerly States, including yet more of California’s west coast and its State Park plus sizeable portions of Nevada, Arizona and Utah…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999998/ Fri, 25 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999998/ Note the partially dislocated lower beak….Doubtless, excruciatingly painful and, ultimately, a death sentence for this unfortunate little bird. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999997/ Fri, 14 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999997/ That’s not fog, mist or low cloud in the background by the way, but sheet after sheet of rain! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999996/ Sat, 25 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999996/ ….Soon to be renamed Raindrops ! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999988/ Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999988/ Better known as insect eaters, Wagtails are often forced to visit garden bird tables to find alternative foodstuffs during extreme weather and with the British version of so-called ‘blizzard conditions’ currently gripping the Cotswolds, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see this little fella filling up on seed-mix at the tables in my garden first thing this morning (18th January). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999995/ Sun, 10 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999995/ Sunday, 10th November, 201 I nearly always prefer to pay my respects at a different war memorial site each year. Usually an off-the-beaten-track, less well attended one. This time around, I chose the little village of Ablington in the Cotswolds. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999994/ Sun, 10 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999994/ When Arthritis Attacks! Ernie is getting old and suffers badly with arthritis. He can barely manage to hobble a few excruciatingly painful steps these days before collapsing to the ground, but he struggles on, determined to make the best of it. “The poor thing should be put out of its misery” people say, but the thing is, Ernie still enjoys life and continues to defy the odds each year by doing his bit to help maintain Swan population levels…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999993/ Sat, 09 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999993/ Ernie and I share a little bit of history (I rescued him many years ago after he was savaged by someone’s pet dog and managed to get him all fixed up….except that he was left with a fairly debilitating limp and it’s the damage caused to his leg in the dog incident which has now developed the arthritis. The picture shows Ernie moments after collapsing in the middle of a fairly busy little road and while his long-time mate, Erica, had the good sense to continue leading her entourage safely across the tarmac, poor old Eric seemed unable to regain his feet. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999992/ Fri, 08 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999992/ ….but apparently none down in the towns at all. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999991/ Wed, 06 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999991/ 00 00 0 153 224 C.jpg Silver river running silent ….Surely….To the sea Going somewhere ….Slowly….Oh so slowly ….Just like me (Poem fragment by Daisy W, my Mum. Date unknown, but probably written when she was fairly young) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999990/ Tue, 05 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999990/ ….of being a Labrador unless you can get muddy every day? https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999989/ Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999989/ I only rarely do this sort of thing these days, but I did have an offer recently to produce a set of thirteen similarly rendered ‘broad spectrum’ (whatever that means) Cotswold scenes for use in a themed calendar. I politely declined, but I did have an offer recently to produce a set of thirteen similarly rendered ‘broad spectrum’ (whatever that means) Cotswold scenes for use in a themed calendar. I politely declined similarly rendered ‘broad spectrum’ (whatever that means) Cotswold scenes for use in a themed calendar. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999752/ Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999752/ ….and calculating overall numbers, determining gender ratios, establishing behaviour patterns and identifying territorial boundaries is the key to doing exactly that in the most effective way possible. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999986/ Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999986/ The current residents and regular visitors to this area, by the way, include two pairs of Heron, a couple of breeding pairs of Kestrel and Sparrowhawk, a pair of frequenting Peregrine Falcon, three species of Owl, several Snipe, a variety of seasonal Waders, countless Buntings, Twite, Yellowhammer and other Finch-type birds, breeding pairs of Kestrel and Sparrowhawk, a pair of frequenting Peregrine Falcon, three species of Owl, several several Snipe, a variety of seasonal Waders, countless Buntings, Twite, Yellowhammer and other Finch-type birds, migrant Redstart and Cuckoo, and a host of assorted overwintering Wildfowl. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999987/ Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999987/ As I understand it, the planning and development people (see also dumb-a*sed, greedy, self-serving sh**s) have decided to build at least two hundred affordable homes across these fields over the next five years! Well, I guess the best of them will at least look very nice featured on the cover of the sales brochures silhouetted by a lovely winter sunset just like this one….though probably with the hapless home-owners taking in the view from their brand-new affordable rooftops! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999983/ Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999983/ (AKA ' ' December Light Colt’s Foot) Plentiful this year (2012) and seemingly quite happy with the drier than usual spring conditions. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999982/ Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999982/ This is some of the not inconsiderable quantity of frog spawn that has appeared in my little wildlife garden pond during early March 2012. Meanwhile I’ve been rushing around all over Gloucestershire during past few days, transferring seemingly endless bucketfuls of both Frog and Toad spawn from (so far) eleven assorted large puddles and various sized natural ponds which, in normal years, are relatively full of water and which tend to remain so throughout the spring and well into the summer. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999981/ Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999981/ 00 00 0 1970 266 A.jpg Not exactly Yellowstone, but a small handful of wild acres that I promise you, will never ever, ever, ever be built upon….Ever! There’s even a little river running through it (though no, no Otter sign as yet) and, whether it’s ultimately successful or just a complete disaster, it will at least ensure for all eternity that I will never again have so much as an hour to spare or a penny to my name! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999980/ Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999980/ 23rd January, 2012 and nothing out there in the countryside seems to agree with anything elseas to whether it’s spring already….or not! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999979/ Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999979/ 00 00 AL 006 125.JPG The wing markings of individual adults can vary quite a bit, but there were a few of them flitting mostly amongst Cleavers in a hedgerow surrounding a wheat crop….and I do at least know that Cleavers is the preferred food-plant of the SGC’s larvae. The thing is, after sixty years of immersing myself in the natural world, I still feel a background in police detection work would be the most useful thing when it comes to fully identifying even some of the commonest insect species! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999976/ Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999976/ 00AA 012 122.JPG 00AA 027 266.JPG ….or Cuckoo Flower. A plant of the Faerie Folk and therefore, best left well alone. There were one or two May-Day (1st May) celebrations held in and around the Cotswolds this year, but if those responsible for making any of the wildflower garlands used in such celebrations happened to include any Lady’s Smock, then they clearly failed to understand the degree of menace traditionally associated with this harmless looking spring flower. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999974/ Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999974/ Finally, this woodland-based and very poisonous member of the Spurge family has begun to flower (I took these shots on the 12th April, 2010 in Gloucestershire). However, Dog’s Mercury needs to flower long before the leaf canopy fully appears in Spring (preferably sometime in February), leaving the woodland floor in comparative darkness, but it’s very late this year, probably as a result of the severe cold weather and heavy falls of snow that affected the entire UK in January and throughout February. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999973/ Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999973/ 00 00 A 009 004.JPG I’m very reluctant to even approach the nest-box that White-Wing and White-Eye have claimed as their own, at least when the birds are anywhere in the vicinity. The problem is, that White-Wing (the female) is a relatively new bird to my garden and isn’t really all that used to me yet. However, I did manage to get this shot of her earlier today as she sat on the four eggs that I caught a sneak look at a couple of days ago. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999972/ Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999972/ ….and during which time I spotted my first Swallow of 2010 ( 25th March), as it flew roughly northwards following the course of an old disused railway line, I heard my first Chiff-Chaff (24th March), glimpsed a Stoat enduringly (and somewhat mystifyingly) regaled in its full ermine finery (*!) (23rd March) and managed to watch at least a dozen old black and white movies on DVD, including such exquisite Ealing Studios comedy gems as, “Home and Away” (Jack Warner), “Barnacle Bill” (Alec Guinness), “The Best Days of Your Life” (Alistair Simm and Flora Robson) and “The Maggie” (with Paul Douglas as the much put-upon American)…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999978/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999978/ An extraordinary little drama played itself out in front of my eyes in the middle of a Gloucestershire woodland yesterday (20th May, 2010). Maddy was with me and I called her across to bear witness to the event…. It was a very warm, but very humid day (more like a day in late July in fact, than one in late Spring). Wood Ants were everywhere, going about their business in that very determined way that they always seem to display. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999977/ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999977/ A word to the wise….The only reason I was able to kneel down beside this little family group in order to take these photographs without causing considerable stress to the parent birds (both of whom were present at the time) is simply down to the fact that I am well known to them and have been a familiar and non-threatening figure in their lives for several years. I can assure you that I would never even attempt to do such a thing with any similar family group if I was not equally well known to them. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999975/ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999975/ Strange to think that, had I been standing in this exact spot little more than a month ago, my head would have just about been under water, but now, with Spring fully underway, the water has receded and the river banks are, once again, bursting into life! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999968/ Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999968/ “Ring around the Moon, rain around the corner” is an age-old country saying that predicts predominantly wet weather for the next day or two. In fact, the halo effect is most commonly observed when it appears to be encircling a full Moon (as above) and is caused by Moonlight passing through a build-up of moisture suspended in the Earth’s atmosphere. Meanwhile, I more or less managed to capture the halo shown in the above photograph just after midnight on the 1st March using just my little Ricoh pocket camera. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999971/ Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999971/ I know I’ve talked at incredibly boring length about Alders further below, but hey, what the Heck! Grey Alders are renowned for their strong suckering root systems that soon produce an attractive habitat for a wide variety of wildlife species, each seeking to take full advantage of the forest of dense, fast-growing stems that soon appear above ground. Alders in general meanwhile, are frequently used as an aid to reclaim otherwise unproductive landscapes with relatively infertile soils, such as those found beneath old rubbish dumps and former industrial sites. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999965/ Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999965/ At this point, she became even more agitated and kept jumping up at me and even barked a couple of times. Then I saw the Fox lying under the hedge. It was motionless, but I told Tess to sit and stay while I checked it out because it looked as though it might still be alive. Sadly, however, it had died only shortly before we arrived on the scene. The body was still fairly warm and flexible, while the tongue was still moist and the eyes only slightly glazed. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999967/ Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999967/ Weather forecasters had predicted localised snow showers for the 19th February, but I can’t believe that even they had anticipated just how “local” those showers would actually be, at least not up here in the Cotswolds. I took this picture just as one such shower proceeded to envelope a distant farm, but less than a minute later, the sun had taken refuge behind the mother of all black clouds and a veritable blizzard suddenly hammered into Maddy, Tess and me. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999966/ Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999966/ Normally, by this time of the year, our parks. gardens and roadside verges are ablaze with the yellow of countless Daffodils, but all the snow of late has held them back and these are the only ones that I’ve actually seen in bloom so far. They were growing on a south-facing grass embankment in Wiltshire, but even these have been taken by surprise by more snow that fell overnight and throughout this morning (19th February). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999964/ Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999964/ The sun made an unexpected appearance in the bluest of bright blue skies in Gloucestershire today (9th February), though it was quite late in the afternoon. Still, it gave me the opportunity to take a few landscape-type pictures, including the one shown above and the four efforts below. It had been an eventful day too, especially with regards to the weather because Tess and I had already been subjected to heavy spells of rain and snow during the morning while working among the high rolling hills of Herefordshire. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999969/ Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999969/ My absolute favouritist British bird, but once hunted almost to extinction mostly by fruit farmers throughout the 1950s and 1960s simply because it once numbered in its millions across the UK and hundreds at a time would descend upon fruit orchards each spring and devour huge percentages of the trees' fruit buds. Then they continued to decline even more drastically during the 1970s and 1980s due to the excessive and badly thought-out applications of intensive farming methods. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999962/ Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999962/ The poor old Alder tree was, for centuries, considered to be the embodiment of evil, playing host to the malignant spirit of the much-feared Alder king, King Erlkonig (more commonly known in popular literature these days as the Elf King). I should imagine though that this was a legend simply born out of the fact that when you cut into the wood of the Alder tree with a knife, it goes a deep orangey-red colour rather as if it’s bleeding (the wood that is, not the knife), a feature particularly noticeable when it gets wet. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999970/ Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999970/ Most people know of Bibury because of its famous Arlington Row, its old woollen mill or its trout farm situated beside the River Coln. However, if they were to only make the effort to walk no more than a quarter of a mile uphill, they’d soon discover that the picturesque little village so beloved of tourists from all over the world is actually surrounded by some of the most attractive open landscape to be found anywhere in the Cotswolds, if not the whole of England. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999963/ Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999963/ … but Frequently Invaded by Dark and The Bright, Crisp, Late-Winter Light Cast Deep Impenetrable Shadows Across the Farmer’s Patchwork Landscape. Heading Home at Last. Ever Longer Shadows Striding ‘cross the earth Fleeing from the setting sun For all that they are worth Yet night-time soon will meet them And greet them as a friend https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999961/ Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999961/ I’ve already spoken a fair bit about Long-Tailed Tits here and there on my websites, but I added these two pictures (taken in daylight this time) to compliment the two night-time shots below. It wont be long however, before all the little flocks of Bumbarrels will be separating into pairs and disappearing from our gardens back into the countryside in order to build their extraordinary flask-shaped nests so beautifully constructed as they always are of moss, lichen and spider’s silk and in which they lay as many as a dozen eggs. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999954/ Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999954/ This little sweety-pie showed up in my garden just a couple of weeks ago and is already very tame. In fact, I was able to take these pictures from no more than a metre away as I topped up the bird-feeders this morning (19th December). Meanwhile, I have a sneaking suspicion that she might be one of White-Eye’s offspring from last summer because you only have to watch her for a few moments with White-Eye around to realise that she’s still very much daddy’s little girl. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999960/ Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999960/ (First Effort, but Possibly with the Camera Positioned a Little Too Close to the Bird-Table) The Sparrow Terrace-type set of nest-boxes that I put up under the lower eaves at the front of the house a couple of years ago soon proved to be an enormous success….if only with the Blue Tits. In fact, most, if not all, of the nesting compartments have been occupied by several different pairs of the feisty blue and yellow reprobates throughout each breeding season. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999953/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999953/ The first (shown above), which I photographed yesterday (10th December), was a typical December, “red dawn in the morning” type of sunrise, but which actually heralded a beautiful sunny day, the first half of which I spent with Tess at the Cotswold Water Park in North Wiltshire and the second half on Cleeve Common above Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. I snapped the second dawn image however (pictured below), the following day about an hour or two before taking my Daughter to school and then driving on to Herefordshire. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999930/ Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999930/ A big, bold and beautiful beast of a bug, the Southern Hawker is presumably so-called due to the fact that it can be found just about anywhere from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle (so you work it out).Anyway, I saw this one (about the length of my middle finger) “resting” in a hedgerow half-way to the top of St Agnes Beacon and managed (I don’t quite know how) to get close enough to get a few shots without it sensing I was there and flying off. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999911/ Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999911/ My wife had a multitude of tests last week to determine whether or not she’s progressed at all since her intensive chemo session during her time in hospital last March/April. Well, it seems to be very good news so far and the medical team are extremely pleased with her, praising her positive attitude and sheer determination to overcome such a potentially devastating multiple myeloma.We’re not out of the woods just yet however, but the tests have shown that, not only has her platelet count returned to normal, but her haemoglobin production is also as it should be once again and her neutraphils are practically in overdrive! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999909/ Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999909/ Taken in the back garden yesterday evening (29th June, 2009), Tess will be ten months old on the 1st July. She’s lost most of her physical puppy characteristics now, but mentally and emotionally she’s still very much a child. . …She’s also one of the brightest dogs I’ve ever known and intelligence just shines out from those big, dark. doe-like eyes. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999906/ Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999906/ I have just returned from eight days working in beautiful South Devon (early June 2009) from my motor-home and I took my wife and Daughter with me to give them a bit of a break. The Swallow photo above is just one of hundreds of photos I took while I was there and I’ll be uploading some of them (including a couple more Swallow shots) mostly to the “My Office” page over the next few days as I gradually manage to sort them out. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999902/ Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999902/ The nesting season has begun in earnest and with three pairs of Blue Tits, GT and GTi the Great Tits, A Pair of Dunnocks and DT the Blackbird and his missus already nesting in my back garden (plus a pair of Mistle Thrushes sitting on eggs just beyond the back fence), there’s an awful lot of frantic activity going on, especially when it comes to the Blackbirds who managed to fledge three youngsters yesterday and who are all currently scuttling about in the garden undergrowth or on the patio and making a great deal of noise! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999901/ Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999901/ I’m confused about this specimen. I photographed it yesterday (20th April) alongside a disused canal and immediately took it for an oleracea fresh out of hibernation, but now I wonder if it’s actually a paludosa (such is the excitement in my life).Anyway, it turned out to be an interesting day insect-wise because I also saw my first Mayfly of the year and what looked like a female fusca (though it was my wife who spotted the latter no more than two minutes after I’d said I’d not seen any Damselflies thus far in 2009). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999601/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999601/ The five pairs of Blue Tits that have raised or are currently raising families in various nest-boxes dotted about my garden so far this year, have laid a total of thirty-three eggs….That’s an average of six point something or other per nest, of which eleven have failed to hatch….That’s a bleepin' third! Normally, five nests would yield somewhere in the region of forty-five eggs, with no more than perhaps five or six failing to hatch! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999810/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999810/ Ratty.JPG Sunbright 002.JPG Seedhead.JPG Scraps 103.JPG So-called because of the unusual blotchy mark rather than the more familiar dark streak on his breast feathers….Blotch is one of the birds currently showing an interest in nesting in the Sparrow terrace nest-box at the front of the house. He also nested in there successfully last year. A lady from a village just over the hill from me tapped me on the shoulder at my local garage a couple of weeks ago and asked if I knew anything about rats because she’d got one! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999925/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999925/ I was just about to get in the shower when I heard my wife calling up the stairs, “My beloved….Come quickly! Come and see….Out on the patio….Bring your camera!“Wondering what on earth it was she’d seen, I immediately snatched up small toweling eight sizes too small dressing-gown and sought to put it on back-to-front like one of those “open all areas” proctologist’s examination gowns….not simply for the reason I don’t actually either possess a dressing-gown of my own or understand the rudimentary mechanics of wearing one, but more because it was the only thing to hand that went at least some way towards covering my otherwise shameful, full-frontal nudity! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999676/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999676/ Chicken 001 170.JPG Now looking extremely happy and healthy, Chicken is one of many Birdline UK success stories. Meanwhile, I have a few old Cockatoo anecdotes from the old days that I might get around to adding to these pages one day, including a very funny JM one! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999684/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999684/ A chance to play is vitally important for any dog, but especially for one who otherwise works all day. Tess loves to swim and to retrieve sticks and balls and she’s never more happy than when she’s doing either (or both) no matter how far she’s walked or for how long.The week we spent working in the Crackington Haven area of North Cornwall from Widemouth Bay down to Boscastle in mid-September was very productive from a work perspective and we enjoyed fantastic weather as well, but it wasn’t entirely without unpleasant incident for Tess and I shall be writing about it in my diary on the . https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999646/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999646/ Thelma and Louise Gallery 001.jpg I saw a little leaf High up in a tree And behind it was a bird Who was looking down at me "Hello there" I did call As I waved my hand at it Then it flew down on my head And promptly had a...very nice chat with me! by Daisy W (my Mum) 1997 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999563/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999563/ RNLI web-button (1).gif The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is the only one of our emergency services that is entirely funded by charitable donations. In fact, 95% of the boat crew personnel and the vast majority of the support and administration staff are all volunteers. Between them, they save hundreds of livesaround the shores of the UK every year!Meanwhile, I like to encourage visitors to my websites to endorse my daughter’s idea of donating the cost of a cheap magazine to the RNLI (or to one of the other charitable organizations mentioned hereabouts if they prefer) or, better still, to become an RNLI member themselvesI got a card from the Anstruther “Kingdom of Fife” Lifeboat crew this Christmas…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999761/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999761/ Birds 9002.jpg In complete contrast to the Pheasant and Blackbird above, this desperately unhappy little Chaffinch has had a thoroughly miserable time over the past few weeks….His problems began back in February when he broke his left leg really badly somehow (possibly on one of those lethal little net bags that people put balls of suet in and hang out for the birds, but which snag their claws as they fly away)! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999835/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999835/ …have always been lovers of damp and dark places, but some individuals can be extremely inquisitive….so much so that some people who notice these things (usually those without any kind of significant social life….including me) believe that they have quite well-developed individual personalities. This one was quite obviously enjoying a few minutes relaxation in the warm Spring sunshine and refused to employ the characteristically defensive Earwig ploy of dropping from wherever they might happen to be down to the ground when disturbed and then scrambling as fast as they can into the nearest crack or crevice. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999645/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999645/ “So, if I stick my wet, snotty nose that I’ve just been using to sniff my own bottom, on the glass part of that circular sticky-outy thing on the front of your camera, will that help at all?” https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999606/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999606/ Goose 003 820.JPG Delicate 001 1079.JPG Jack-Go-to-Bed-at Noon So-called because of the fact that its flowers like to open really early in the morning, but close again around midday. Sadly, this folklore-rich relative of the humble Dandelion became alarmingly scarce during the 1970s and 1980s and continues to struggle to make any headway thirty years on. However, for a few years now, I’ve been doing a little bit to help them by ensuring that the seeds belonging to many of the ones I stumble across are relocated in the most appropriate places…and, I pleased to say, it seems to be working! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999857/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999857/ While Two-Tone the Blackbird was struggling so hard a few weeks back, (apparently all by himself) to feed his newly fledged family, it appears that Mrs Two-Tone wasn’t dead after all, but fully preoccupied with sitting on her next clutch of eggs. That’s an unusual degree of overlap (even for Blackbirds), to the extent that I was convinced at the time that something untoward had befallen her! However, it turns out that she was fine and dandy the whole time, but completely unable to help the exhausted Two-Tone feed the voracious and relentlessly demanding fledglings from their first brood…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999815/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999815/ Looking a bit old, grey and grizzled these days, Tubby has been a regular visitor to my garden for years and knows all the tricks for getting into the bird-feeders. Note the small scar just above his nose….He acquired an injury long ago (probably in a confrontation with another Squirrel) which became infected for a while and could easily have been the finish of him, but he got through it ok in the end! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999619/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999619/ Devoted to the point of exhaustion, Two-Tone the Blackbird has fulfilled every one of his responsibilities as a husband and parent to the nth degree. From March, right through to the end of July, he’s thought of nothing else but the welfare of his mate and the youngsters he helped bring into such a totally unforgiving world. Now, he’s a mere shadow of his former self and I’d guess that he’s probably lost as much as 25% of the weight he was in early Spring! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999955/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999955/ 00 00 Winter Woods 001 022.JPG I love to be out and about in these kinds of conditions and this sort of weather, but the light was so subdued all day today and so much of the landscape covered in snow and ice that virtually nothing seemed to have any colour. The photo above for example, came out almost completely monochrome, while the one below looks more like an old-fashioned sepia print. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999958/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999958/ 00 00 Ruby 001 058.JPG The enigmatic and persistently distant Ruby….Mate to White-Eye and probable parent to pretty little Holly. Ruby was one of the first to take advantage of the many scoopfuls of birdseed I spread liberally around the garden first thing this morning. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999805/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999805/ Talking to a friend this morning (no not my pretend one….he’s on holiday at the moment), I happened to mention how often I’ve been seeing Wasps while out and about….in fact, I’ve been seeing them since December! Not surprisingly, he was slightly skeptical, not having seen one himself so far this year (remember, none of the Wasp species are really due to be particularly active until later in May). Quick as a flash, I decided to smear some of my special home-made, top secret, extra-strength Wasp and Bee attractant, “WBA #A1” (cunningly disguised as runny honey! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999888/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999888/ Rime Frost Tree 001.jpg I think this has a kind of Middle-Earth quality to it and is the first photo I’ve taken so far in 2009 that I like and for that reason. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999735/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999735/ 00 00 AL 003 019.JPG Normally the sort of thing you’d expect to see attached to someone’s face in a Sigourney Weaver film, this creature is, nevertheless, a horror story in its own right, but if you want to know more about it, then I suggest you try Googling “American Signal Crayfish” because I simply don’t have the time to begin even scratching the surface when it comes to this particular ecosystem disaster area! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999669/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999669/ Red Clover roots contain a bacteria capable of turning nitrogen in the air into salts essential for the plant’s growth and it is now possible to transfer this nitrogen-fixing bacteria to crops such as wheat, thus saving farmers in some parts of the world a small fortune on fertilizers, some of which can be harmful to the environment.Meanwhile, Clover has always been valuable to livestock farmers as a source of fodder and to crop farmers as an enrichment plant when ploughed into the soil. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999657/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999657/ February through to May is just about our busiest and most work-intensive time of year. We’re all out from dawn to dusk almost every single day, covering (almost entirely on foot) as many miles as we can physically manage in as wide a range of habitats as possible, including ancient mixed, coniferous and deciduous woodland, farmland, moorland, coastal, wetland, flood plain, mountain and urban.We take thousands of photographs, scribble countless notes, make little marks on maps, draw macabre diagrams, collect root, stem, bark, soil, sand and water samples plus a host of other things far too numerous to mention, but all of which have to be thought about, located, acquired, itemised, listed, categorised, uploaded, edited, downloaded, batched and transported ready for analysis by our laboratory team in France. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999850/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999850/ “What do you mean….‘A Chicken’! If you must know, I happen to be a Fenning Sussex!” https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999663/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999663/ Tess is showing a remarkable ability to find Bumble-Bee nests and is always drawn to foraging individuals. She drew my attention to the Red-Tail shown in the photographs which I would otherwise have missed and, since she gets a treat every time she draws my attention to Bumble-Bees on the ground, she’s always keen to discover more.I’m afraid that I don’t recognise the species of what I assume is some kind of Mite on this particular Bee, but I do know that it’s not the devastatingly harmful Varrua Mite which currently cutting a swathe of destruction amongst Honey Bees on both sides of the Atlantic. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999680/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999680/ 01 AA Ragwort 001 147.JPG A lover of disturbed ground, the poisonous Common Ragwort has been the bane of horses for centuries where it frequently grows in pasture-land churned up by their hooves. It’s also the favoured nursery plant of the Cinnabar Moth caterpillar which has learned to absorb its poison as a means of defending itself in both its larval and adult Moth form against insect-eating birds. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999942/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999942/ Two people this time, a very rude (to my way of thinking) man and his wife, went out of their way today to tell me that they think Tess is an unattractive-looking Labrador. What’s wrong with everybody these days? Well, I must be seeing a completely different dog to all these idiots or maybe I’m just biased. Mind you, the man looked a little taken aback when I replied that he didn’t make a particularly attractive-looking Labrador either, but that at least his bitch probably loves him! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999885/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999885/ We had two or three degrees of frost here in the UK last night and to listen to the news on the radio this morning, you’d think we were on the brink of a new Ice Age! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999803/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999803/ An Afternoon at the Wildlife Park on the Survival Guide Thingy page atwww.wildliferanger.comas well as Cleopatra? on the Diary and General Stuff page Crimson and CreamTulips….looking like a sunset over Sydney Opera House….or maybe just a bunch of flowers Tulips….looking like a sunset over Sydney Opera House….or maybe just a bunch of flowers! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999758/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999758/ A Very Unpleasant Occurrence, End of January, 2014 Not really commensurate with the kind of thing I normally put on my websites, but the two pictures shown above plus the two immediately below (I took well over three hundred altogether plus several videos) do at least help to illustrate the senseless and sickeningly awful demise of what had previously been a quite petite and fairly young sow Badger probably no more than two years old. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999756/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999756/ This is not, incidentally, an altogether uncommon scenario here in the relentlessly picturesque and touristy Cotswolds….Signs of a shockingly grotesque so-called ‘sport’ indulged in by complete and utter local morons who absolutely delight in almost any opportunity to inflict as much pain, suffering and indescribable terror on a completely helpless wild animal as they inhumanly can. It began for Tess and me late in the afternoon on Thursday, 29th January with Tess drawing my attention to a well-trodden though, in places, equally churned-up area of semi-scrubland. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999946/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999946/ ….though heavy rain was already on its way. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999944/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999944/ Taken at altitude, a Dapperling of some sort perhaps and probably quite poisonous therefore. Fortunately, the Boss employs a number of very clever, mycologically-orientated people further along the line who are far more expert on identifying such things than us and who usually correct our data when we’re wrong which, sadly, tends to be all too often in my case. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999687/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999687/ “Now hang on a minute” I hear you say….“How do you know it’s not a Cordulegaster bidentatus?”. Well, obviously, the occipital triangle just behind the eyes is yellow and not black plus it has the additional narrow banding on the abdomen not present in C bidentatus.At least, I dare say that such a thing will be “obvious” to the countless, googling, armchair-bound “experts” out there in the ether who apparently take (I’m reliably informed) great delight in drawing attention to my (admittedly) almost trade-mark identification mistakes featured throughout these sites. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999927/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999927/ The fact is, I’m not entirely sure, but I reckon it’s probably the former. However, there seem to be things about it that are right for both as well as things that are wrong. Anyway, I spotted it in one of the fields behind my house on the 10th August, 2009 while walking Tess, but was struck by the almost electric intensity of the blue bleeding from the upper-wing surfaces into the hair on the creature’s body as well as part way across the under-wing surfaces. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999750/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999750/ A long, all-day walk in the high hills during the last week of February 2013 and as the mid afternoon weather deteriorated rapidly and light snowfall turned into a veritable blizzard in less than ten minutes, Tess and I decided to move from the more exposed fields into the relative shelter of a nearby woodland…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999934/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999934/ Tess discovered and quickly drew my attention to this very confused and fearful Rabbit. Completely blind and unable to scent, it was obviously in excruciating pain, but then, that’s pretty much par for the course for any Rabbit suffering from myxomatosis. I decided, by the way, to spare you some of the potentially more upsetting shots that I took of the animal. It’s face and genitalia were in the most awful state possible and I’m fully aware that at least a few children visit my websites from time to time. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999689/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999689/ ….A subtle, living tapestry of infinitely complex interweaving movements, scents and sounds. A place for standing and waiting. A place to be silent and to listen. A place to take your time, always and to give your senses the chance to work in the way that millions of years of evolution meant for them to work. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999671/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999671/ I suppose it’s because I’m looking for them most of the time now that I’m finding so many sickly-seeming Honey Bees and Bumble Bees. Their behaviour is increasingly out of character and the only way I can think of to describe them at times would be to use words like moribund, torpid or sluggish. It’s not just to do with cooler temperatures or protracted spells of heavy rain either because other Bees appear to remain unaffected. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999825/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999825/ I grew up calling them “Crowtoes”, but people just stare at me as though I’m not quite all there if I try to use such an age-old country name for Bluebells these days. Meanwhile, if I’m quick enough and people are unable to get away from me in time, I treat them to a couple of “interesting” facts about this threatened and therefore highly protected little Lily….1….Bluebells are only native to countries fringing the Atlantic Ocean! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999584/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999584/ I wasn’t at all surprised to see a pair of Wheatears catching insects to feed to their young well before the end of April. The nest (typically) was concealed inside a Cornish drystone wall that surrounded a field covered with a liberal and (to a Wheatear) highly attractive sprinkling of insect-nurturing horse manure! Wheatears are amongst the first of our returning migrants to arrive in the Spring (usually around mid-March) and tend not to waste any time in their efforts to begin a family. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999775/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999775/ Love them or loathe them, when you hear a Herring Gull you can’t help but think of the seaside. For many people, they are an out and out pest, especially in some of our inland towns and cities where they’ve taken to breeding in significant numbers. Interestingly (to me at least), the claws on the town birds aren’t quite as sharp as those on their coastal cousins and that’s due to the fact that the “townies” spend almost all of their “ground” time on either concrete or stone and it tends to wear their nails right down. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999643/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999643/ This is just part of one of the larger murmurations of Starlings (around 20,000 birds) that showed up today to perform one of Nature’s most spectacular aerial displays of mass coordinated flying prowess that you could hope to witness anywhere. In fact, there were at least five times as many birds altogether (it can be double that), but my wife and I had to wait initially for the pouring rain to ease off a bit because the birds were preferring to head for the ground in a nearby field, where they stood, more or less motionless, just staring at each other and making very little sound…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999693/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999693/ I guess I’m only putting these photos on here as a riposte to the middle-aged lady who came rushing up to me completely out of the blue yesterday to tell me what an unattractive-looking Labrador Tess is and then to ask if she might possibly be a cross-breed of some sort! Mind you, she couldn’t talk as there was definitely something about her face that reminded me of a baby Degu I used to look after at the zoo many moons ago! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999732/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999732/ at least https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999878/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999878/ I must have asked a dozen people at random the same question today….“Does the name Warrenpoint mean anything to you?”….and all but one person said “No mate, never ‘eard of it” or “No, sorry, what’s that then?”. The one person who had heard the name before, asked me “Is that where all those soldiers were killed in Northern Ireland?”. She was possibly in her late fifties or early sixties and probably the oldest person who I’d attempted to approach. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999622/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999622/ I’ve seen these gorgeous purple beauties growing in many a private garden over the years, particularly in the South-West, but I noticed several of them this month (August 2008) for the first time ever, blooming quite happily in a few sunlit, out of the way places not far from the North Cornwall coast path….and a significant distance from any cultivated gardens! Of course, there’s always the possibility that someone actually planted them there, but I’d say that it’s unlikely in view of the fact that all but one of the locations was virtually inaccessible! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999940/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999940/ Supposedly edible when young (and necessarily white all the way through when cut in half), by the time the little spines have completely dropped off these specimens, they will be yellowing slightly and have become distinctly inedible. Nevertheless, I’ve always been fascinated by Puffballs and I remember how, more than fifty years ago back in my primary school days, I took several mature brown specimens in at the start of the Autumn term for the class nature table (for which I was always responsible) and to demonstrate to the other children how clouds of minute spores could be forced through a hole in the top of each fruiting body simply by squeezing gently on the sides. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999753/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999753/ ….Whispering the sounds of past summer days. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999644/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999644/ It looks very nice, but it’s practically Winter now (10th November) and the vast majority of leaves are STILL clinging to the trees! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999700/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999700/ This and the following three shots of various locations on Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsular, are all places (amongst others) where I had multiple sightings of Choughs this time around (October 2009). In previous years, I have personally only had far-off sightings of Choughs either above Kynance Cove or as far north as the stretch of coastline between Porthleven and Praa Sands. ….and yes, I do know the difference between Choughs and Jackdaws, even from afar. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999776/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999776/ It rained this morning….hard! Not to worry though because that meant that Baz would almost certainly be perching, one-legged style (to keep one foot warm and alternating feet every ten minutes or so) on his most special of rocks atop his favourite Cotswold stone wall. He nearly always does it when the rain is heavy and he usually turns up around 1000hrs. So it was just a case of getting there before he did…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999763/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999763/ Bubble here, has a brother and a sister….Alan and Squeak! Drawn initially by the copious amounts of birdfood, they have adopted my garden as some kind of play-park. Mostly they love to tease my dogs and outrage the Jackdaws who, as far as the “Terrible Trio” are concerned are there purely to provide them with endless entertainment. They also happen to be the offspring of “Tubby- the-Nutter”, long-time resident in the wood at the end of my garden. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999637/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999637/ I took my wife and daughter for a stroll around the beautiful Batsford Arboretum near Morton-in-Marsh yesterday (14th October). Sadly, it was very overcast most of the time and rained occasionally, but both my daughter and I took lots of pictures anyway and I shall soon be adding some of them to my other website www.wildliferanger.com https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999853/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999853/ Hover Fly 004 289.JPG ….On the other hand, the metal alloy face-plate and thorax body-armour does tend to give it away as an alien spy-bot! Mmm….hang on a minute though, I think that idea might have come from a sci-fi short-story I wrote way back in the mid-1960s, based on an identical bug that I’d examined through a school microscope! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999949/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999949/ As late Autumn moves inexorably towards early Winter, the sheer profusion of berries throughout the forest warn of a bitter Winter to come, but as an old country saying also argues that “a cold November heralds a warm Christmas” and since, https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999706/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999706/ 00 00 Tess 010 081.JPG Three times in as many weeks, other dog owners have remarked to me that I’m being unfair, if not cruel as far as Tess is concerned. “It’s too much for her” they said, “Why does she have to be out with me all day?”. “Should a dog be forced to cope with so much work and training? https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999560/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999560/ henhouse_logo.jpg This is a small charity dedicated to rescuing battery hens from the mostawful of conditions and providing them with a better life.They are well worth a visit and can be found at….www.bhwt.co.uk https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999674/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999674/ “Birdline Parrot-Rescue was founded in 1992, initially to rescue and care for birds in the Warwickshire area.Expansion soon became an urgent necessity, resulting in recruiting various people who specialised in all species of birds from Finches to Macaws.A network of helpers and area co-ordinators, all of whom work from their own homes without payment in order to provide a nationwide structure, was quickly organised, thus permitting the organisation to offer a loving secure home to a wide variety of birds. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999704/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999704/ Cockleshell Heroes.jpg Just as the call of the Herring Gull is synonymous with all things of a seasidey nature, the so-called call of the Black-headed Gull is synonymous with that of the headache, with possibly only the Jay being able to compete with the sheer armour-piecing volume of its nerve-jangling tunelessness. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999608/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999608/ Nobby, our bug expert, is adamant that, in his next life, he’s definitely going to come back as a Bonking Beetle…He reckons it’s all they ever do! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999710/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999710/ Totally picturesque, but almost completely devoid of visitors during all the bad winter weather. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999721/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999721/ ….Just like being at a MacRonald’s, but with an infinitely more nutritious offering on the menu! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999868/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999868/ Larinioides Cornutus 001 051.JPG ….or “Larry” to his mates. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999705/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999705/ As the extraordinary weather continues right across the West and North-West of Britain with only the briefest of respites punctuating an otherwise desperately miserable time for so many people, ten of the others are now helping out with bits and pieces in some of the foulest of conditions to hit the UK in living memory. Meanwhile, only Dave (in Wales) and myself (in the South-West) remain on stand-by with my own, more “normal” ranger work taking a bit of a back seat during the last week or so as I continue to divide my time fairly evenly between the stuff I’m doing in Herefordshire and the dramatic increase in the intensity of Tess’s training. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999778/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999778/ Brynn the Magnificent.JPG Following on from the “Baz” item below, Jenny H (in Dublin) and a Mr. T (no, not that one I don’t think) have taken the time to e-mail me to ask about my Buzzards….Well, they’re not actually “my” Buzzards, but I have studied them for a long time and have even given them all names (for ease of identification). Buzzards are all different in their plumage, personality and behaviour traits and I’ve grown to know this bunch of feathered reprobates pretty well. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999801/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999801/ Ok, birds yes, flowers alright-ish,, but insects are definitely not my strong point! Still, I “think” that this is a Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris) and I took this shot this evening (18th February) after it had flown into the bedroom and settled on the lamp-shade. I’ve been seeing several of the White-Tailed variety (B. lucorum) through the winter (and one Yellow-Banded (B. hortorum), but this fantastic little creature has no right being out and about before April! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999872/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999872/ “Camp” as in “bell” I guess (campanology etc) and, judging by the look of these bell-shaped flowers, I should imagine that they’re a fairly close relative of the European Bellflower, a pretty blue wildflower found locally across the South and South-West of the UK and pictured elsewhere on my websites I think. I’ve put another shot of this flower on the “Garden” page. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999668/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999668/ I like to grow a reasonable amount of Phlox in the garden because the flowers are such a favourite of Butterflies and Bees. They can also grow so prolifically that they begin to take over entire sections of your garden if you’re not careful….A bit like Nettles and Buttercups if, like me, you like to mix wild stuff in with the cultivated.I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere about the time I helped one of the Cotswold’s A-list celebrities to remove a couple of Roe Deer from her mini-estate. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999826/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999826/ Snow Shots VI Scrap 001.JPG Nearly two inches of snow fell last night (6th April) and came as a bit of a shock to a great many of us who were just beginning to get used to the idea that Spring had well and truly sprung! “Scraps” (above) looked pretty fed up with it all and the fact that I had to sleep out in it last night high up in the hills in just my bivi-bag on a bed of pine branches with my roll-mat placed on top just about summed it up! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999895/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999895/ A rather fuzzy digital SLR photograph of an old print of Chloe (aka Chlo-bags) taken somewhere in the Lake District circa 1987. I’ll dig out a much better effort sometime, as I do have more than a hundred forty-page albums, each crammed full with my old photos….and I’m not even beginning to count the thousands of slides I have stored away in various boxes, many of which I took at folk gigs and rock concerts or while I was in the military. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999894/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999894/ This is a better image than the one above, but I’ll keep that there anyway. I think I’ve already put this on the other site somewhere. It was taken on the Scottish Isle of Jura. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999937/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999937/ One of the advantages (usually) of having a dog with you if you’re interested in birds and when you’re out and about, is that many species are prepared to come much closer to you than would normally be the case simply because they’re nosy little blighters and want to know what the big four-legged furry thing is up to. This particularly applies to most Corvids and even some species of Raptor and the Chough shown in the picture above was one of a pair who proved to be a lot nosier than most. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999766/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999766/ This exquisite little character happens to be one of the UK’s rarest birds and tends to be confined to just one very small area of the South Devon coast. I was down there for about ten days in the summer of 2006 to do all sorts of ranger stuff, including a snap-shot survey of Emberiza cirlus here. I managed to count 41 of them while covering 110 miles of coastal footpaths, bridleways and woodland trails. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999898/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999898/ Tess Portrait.JPG You’ve either got it or you ain’t . https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999559/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999559/ coffee_house.jpg After a protracted and very thorough internal re-vitalization, the Brewery Arts Centre has at last re-opened. There’s a brand-new cafe and it’s all looking very smart. Unfortunately, they no longer have my all-time favourite, lemony-butterbean soup on the menu….All is not lost however, because they do offer what must surely be the best potato and vegetable soup in the entire county! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999666/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999666/ Colts Foot 002 279.JPG I’m fairly certain that I’ve gone on about Colt’s foot elsewhere on my websites, so I’ll only add a little bit of information here….Flowering as early as February and even during the hardest of winters, the merest hint of sunshine is likely to encourage this plucky little member of the Daisy family to burst into flower and add one of the year’s first splashes of colour to an otherwise barren-seeming landscape. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999928/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999928/ Here’s a shot of a male Common Blue from my archives for comparison with the little male depicted in the two photographs below. You can make your own mind up as to whether they’re the same species, but note the lack of orange at the trailing edges of the fore-wings of the two lower pictures compared to those of the one in the top image. I realize that a degree of variation does occur between individuals and that general wear and tear can smudge or even partially remove the colours, but rarely to that extent. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999624/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999624/ Thank-you Dr S (PhD et al), for your recent, though rather abrupt-sounding and profoundly discourteous communication, but yes, I do happen to know all about the “Fly” rule….The one that states that if an insect is a true fly, such as a House-Fly, Snipe-Fly, Hover-Fly or Trouser-Fly, then the “fly” part is hyphenated or made altogether separate, but that if it’s not a proper fly, then the “fly” part is included in the rest of the name, such as Damselfly, Dragonfly, Butterfly or Mayfly…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999773/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999773/ It’s that time of year again….Nearly autumn and Spiders are appearing all over the place. If you’re not having to cope with a Common House Spider the size of a saucer in the bath first thing in the morning, then you’re walking smack bang into the spiral-type webs of the Common Garden Spider every time you go to the dustbin or hang the washing out! The little male Garden Spider pictured above (the female is much bigger) had spent most of the morning sun-bathing in the middle of his intricate web tucking into his tasty, home-made insect pie with the secret “venom-x” ingredient injected to help soup-up the contents…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999616/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999616/ It certainly wasn’t easy to get this shot….I had to be on my hands and knees in the middle of a stinging-nettle patch for at least twenty minutes and, although this little character didn’t hop, skip or jump away while I was trying to take the picture, it was very adept at rotating itself around the very thick grass stem it was on in order to always be on the opposite side and well away from the camera! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999631/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999631/ So, I’m guessing that this guy has never heard of Gillette’s new Mach 3 GII Contour-Plus M3 Fusion Power-Blade Turbo-Excell shaving system….It’s the best a Spider can get you know….Unless that is, he uses a Bic disposable like me and makes it last at least three months! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999926/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999926/ 01 Linseed 002 014.JPG ….or Flax as it tends to be called by the pharmaceutical companies, has been cultivated for thousands of years as an oil used to promote healthy hearts, but when you consider that it’s also extremely good for the skin, hair and nails, it’s understandable why so many seasoned vegetarians use it as a substitute for fish oil. In fact, Linseed is one of the richest non-fish sources of Omega 3 fatty acids available to the consumer. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999861/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999861/ In his many books, papers and dissertations on “Effective Camouflage Techniques for the Military”, UK National Ranger, bug expert and former Royal Marine, Nobby, has frequently turned to the Natural World for reference and guidance….Insects, Reptiles, Amphibians and Mammals in particular have been a constant source of inspiration to him and provided him with countless avenues of research and study ….but it’s when I compare images in my mind of Nobby’s camo-painted face with that of the young Bufo bufo above that I realize just how significant certain aspects of the Natural World have actually been to him! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999931/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999931/ ….and they seem to be getting younger and younger. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999731/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999731/ Tess is Amazingly Proficient at Stumbling Across These Giant Lobster Wannabe ….though admittedly, few of them are quite as large as this monster which may well be seven or eight years old. Nevertheless, she always draws my attention to them, particularly the ones she discovers on dry land as they make their way relentlessly from river system to river system. This is where Tess has opened up a whole new dimension of finding stuff in the wild. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999739/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999739/ ….ie, Cheltenham’s Pittville Park where I stopped briefly to take a picture or two after getting my hair cut after partaking of a coffee at the M&S cafe after going to the bank after dropping a very worried and nervous-looking Tess off at the vets' where she’ll spend the day being anaesthetised and having her nearside rear leg x-rayed after suddenly developing a slight limp. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999665/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999665/ Cold lie the daisy banks Clothed but in green Where, in the days agone Bright hues were seen Wild pinks are slumbering Violets delay True little Dandelion Greeteth the May Pale little Dandelion In her white shroud Heareth the angel-breeze Call from the cloud Tiny plumes fluttering Make no delay Little winged Dandelion Soareth away Helen Barron Bostwick (1826 - ?) Even as a boy, I enjoyed reading lots of old poetry about Nature and stuff because…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999561/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999561/ I remember spending more than an hour in a Devonshire woodland in the pouring rain a long time ago being taught all about the medicinal properties of Tutsan. The plant has scientifically proven anti-septic properties and we were shown how to place the leaves on medium-sized flesh wounds to help prevent infection and speed up the healing process.I have since learned that the name “Tutsan” actually derives from the days of the Norman invasion and the French word Tutsaine (Tout-saine in modern French) meaning “all-wholesome” or “all-healthy”. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999804/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999804/ Vulgaris or Media (I).JPG Grey Wagtail (1).JPG Bibury is a bit of a hot-spot for Wagtails and always has been. The geography of the village and the sheer abundance of insect life emanating from the shallow, quite fast-flowing River Coln, surrounding woodland and the little marshy nature reserve all combine to provide the perfect Wagtail habitat. I’ve spent the last five years studying the Wagtails here and have managed to work out a number of the territorial perimeters that are so fiercely guarded by the incumbant males, particularly in the Spring. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999882/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999882/ It’s been a full Moon for the past few nights and a good opportunity therefore, to spend the wee small hours out in the fields and the woods keeping an eye on some of the Deer.Armed gangs of city poachers tend to be more active when they can see what they’re doing a bit better and it’s nice not to have to depend on NVE when the Moon is illuminating the landscape as brightly as it’s been doing this weekend. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999903/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999903/ The Dunnocks have made their nest in the big fat fir tree beside the pond at the top of the garden this year and they now have the four chicks shown in the above picture. I was doing jobs quite close to the nest-site for most of the afternoon, such as mowing the lawn and planting stuff in and around the pond, but probably because I’m a familiar sight to them, the parents took no notice of me whatsoever. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999762/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999762/ Having fledged from a nest in the wood at the end of the garden, this young Nuthatch was, along with a sibling, in and out of my garden for about three weeks in the summer of 2005. They spent much of their time searching for insects under the peeling bark of my children’s old rustic swing and they also discovered a taste for nibbed peanuts placed in a container on one of the bird-tables. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999950/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999950/ ….rises from the small river meandering its way through the valley about fifty metres below my bivouack. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999893/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999893/ I know that there are a lot of you out there who are totally fed up with Winter and can’t wait for Spring. I also know that many of you don’t or can’t get out and about as much as you’d like to either, so above and opposite are a handful of pictures to prove to you that, although still quite early in the year, things really are beginning to stir in the woodlands and the hedgerows and that, before you know it, the sun will be shining in bright blue skies and there’ll be green leaves on the trees once more! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999870/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999870/ “Kim’s Knee-High” https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999816/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999816/ For the price of a mealworm, “DT” the Blackbird allowed me to get close enough to him today to use my Ricoh camera! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999774/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999774/ I mention my uncle Chris several times on this website and he has a chapter devoted to him in “Slices”. He was an old-fashioned type gamekeeper working the Severn Valley throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s. I spent huge amounts of time with him as a boy, soaking up all he was prepared to teach me about the countryside and its wildlife. Most impressive of all was his ability to “mesmerise” several kinds of wild animal by simply walking, very slowly, right up to them before bashing them over the head with his mighty oaken “Knobbler” (a wooden club fashioned by his father in the Belgian trenches of WWI and used to good effect, by all accounts, in hand-to-hand skirmishing with the Hun). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999681/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999681/ 00 AA Brimstone 001 128.JPG North Cornwall, Late August, 2008 Above….the view towards Portreath from my motor-home window during a week spent working away on the North Cornish coast and, below….the view across Porthtowan beach about a mile or so from the site.Once again, I stayed at the relatively small and very relaxing St Agnes Caravan Club site situated at the foot of St Agnes Beacon, having returned to conduct a broad-spectrum late summer wildlife status exercise…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999630/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999630/ I’m assuming that this is the female Common Darter, but the females in particular of the various resident and migrant species of Darter are incredibly difficult to tell apart sometimes, even for the Dragonfly specialists! Interestingly I spotted a magnificent and seemingly tireless Brown Hawker plus a Hairy Hawker and a Gold-Ringed Dragonfly all within ten minutes of taking this photograph! Unfortunately however, I couldn’t get anywhere near any of them to get pictures. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999672/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999672/ The generally warmer, milder climate so familiar to the Southern coast of England seems to encourage local gardeners to try their hand at growing a huge variety of quite exotic-looking plant species. Meanwhile, although I don’t know what this particular specimen that was growing quite happily in a South Devonshire garden is called, “Rhubarb and Custard” https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999892/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999892/ This rather shabby-looking and frayed around the edges Peacock is the very first butterfly that I’ve seen so far in 2009. In fact, I saw it on the 21st February, two days ahead of my previous earliest sighting of 23rd February in 2008.The very first Butterflies to be seen in the year are nearly always the hibernators and, having “slept” through the Winter, they emerge in early Spring, usually at the first hint of a warmer, sunny day. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999603/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999603/ This is one of the two surviving fledgling youngsters that “Two-Tone” and his mate have successfully reared over the past few weeks. There were originally four eggs, but one failed to hatch and one of the fledglings was taken by a cat! The non-hatching egg problem seems to be fairly universal amongst many species of birds this Spring and is probably down to the unseasonally damp and chilly weather that keeps re-occurring. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999618/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999618/ Despite being a lover of all things carrion, this extremely common species of fly doesn’t actually lay its eggs in dead stuff. Instead, the female carries and hatches her eggs inside her own body and then gives live birth to her young. This species is also the reason why it’s not always a good idea to pick and eat wild Blackberries in September, but as I’ve talked about that elsewhere, I shan’t bother repeating myself here. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999615/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999615/ I’ve just read an article claiming that 200 million years ago, some species of fly were the size of a small rats….That’s about the size of the one above as it appears in the picture! Mmm….I guess in that case, it probably wouldn’t have been a good time to invent the windscreen! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999579/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999579/ Spring Flowers XIV Folds.JPG Spring Flowers X Tulip 005.JPG Northleach I Beech Mast 002.JPG If you have the patience to persist with the fiddly business of shelling enough Beech nuts to make it worthwhile, then they do actually make an excellent substitute for Hazel nuts. They can also be used as a very palatable cooking oil (similar to Olive oil) that will, when mature enough, also double as an effective fuel for use in lanterns. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999718/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999718/ Probably even older than me, this ancient and crumbling wooden monument to a bygone age ends its days in sad and lonely isolation beside one of the quieter and more remote sections of disused railway line in deepest rural Worcestershire. I can easily imagine though, how it would once have provided welcome shelter from the worst of the elements for many a railway maintenance crew as they huddled inside together for warmth during their winter lunch breaks and passed the time by playing cards and downing cups of hot, steaming tea poured from tartan-patterned Thermos flasks…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999660/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999660/ (Ariel photo….RSPB Picture Library) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999747/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999747/ Only when the last tree has died, the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money" A typical truism (one of many) imparted to me almost eighteen years ago by a very good friend. His name was Jacob Crowriver (Crowriver in translation) and he was to me almost eighteen years ago by a very good friend. His name was Jacob Crowriver (Crowriver in translation) and he was . https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999952/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999952/ As the light begins to fail, it’s not so very difficult to understand how ancient man developed such a profound fear of the forest….Even the trees themselves seem to adopt a far more menacing aspect, appearing, as they inevitably do, to close in on you as night consumes the last vestiges of light, reaching down to grab at you with gnarly old fingers, while the wind whispers and gossips through the swaying branches high above and malevolent clouds scud their way across the darkening sky! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999558/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999558/ Marbled White 090.JPG Squash Bug 215.JPG Deanbirders New Logo.jpg This little organization does some terrific work on behalf of bird-watchingenthusiasts living in and around the Forest of Dean who are nolonger able to get out and about as they once did. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999712/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999712/ 00 00 AA H 004 109.JPG 00 00 AA Snowdrops 001.JPG A little later appearing this year (for the most part) due to the extreme weather we’ve been having of late. Nevertheless, it looks as though there will be an above average showing despite the inclemency, so keep your eyes open for them. When I was a boy in the 1950’s I would mostly would spend my weekends and holidays wandering miles from home with my dog, Slipper, at my heels. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999677/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999677/ A Six Spot Burnt on Self Heal 001 132.JPG Ok, there’s loads I could say about the increasingly scarce Tall Melilot. When I was a boy, it was almost everywhere, but now it’s only to be found here and there and yet, it’s flowers are a wonderful magnet for Bees and Butterflies and was once a hugely rich source for wild honey.My Gran frequently mixed the flowers with camphorated spirit to make an infusion which she then used as a soothing wash to bathe the eyes of “Wet” and “Windy”, my Uncle Chris the gamekeeper’s working Spaniel Dogs, both of whom suffered badly with eye infections in their dotage. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999904/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999904/ Clematis 001 016.JPG GVW 003 169.JPG Beryl didn’t care what the other girls thought, she knew that her new do-it-yourself hair-trimming kit was going to save her a small fortune in hairdresser’s bills. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999876/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999876/ Situated just a couple of miles up the road from Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, the small group of lakes that comprise Frampton Ponds often play host to some very unusual migrating wildfowl species and can prove a most rewarding place for the dedicated Bird Nerd to spend the odd half a day or so during late Autumn or early Spring. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999877/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999877/ Another day, another walk and yet more photos. This time we headed out for Frampton-upon-Severn situated just off the A38 between Gloucester and Bristol. The day had begun cold and grey and the light had been poor. We walked around the lakes, across the fields and along the little lanes. We tramped our way through mud and thick carpets of fallen leaves in the beautiful and wildlife-rich woodlands that feature on the edges of Frampton village itself, with its massive village greens and we were mildly surprised when the skies suddenly turned blue and the sun came out with a vengeance! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999638/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999638/ Frampton 503 503.JPG Frampton 027 589.JPG Tess 017 070.JPG Eat, sleep, pee and poo….Eat, sleep, pee and poo….Eat, sleep, pee and poo….and the puppy’s almost as bad There are more Tess pictures on the “Blue and Purple” page on www.wildliferanger.com https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999707/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999707/ 00 00 CNM 003 045.JPG Whereas Tess is usually very mistrustful of strange dogs who are allowed to roam willy-nilly all over the place when off their leads and who are similarly allowed to just bound headlong across to her (all because, I might add, she’s learned the hard way that some of them can be extremely unfriendly, if not downright nasty….though, apparently, that’s entirely my own fault, according to their often extremely belligerent owners, because I have Tess on a leash most of the day), she doesn’t have any problems whatsoever with horses and two of her best friends in all the world both happen to be particularly tiny examples of the incredibly hardy, Thelwell-type Shetland Pony. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999623/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999623/ Someone said that this is one of the quite rare Bees, but as they’re all getting increasingly rare almost by the day, I guess it doesn’t matter quite so much! This one was drawn to the Water Mint flowers growing on a Gloucestershire water margin. I could smell the plant’s sickly-sweet aroma from several metres away and well before I actually saw them. Rubbing a leaf or two onto your boots and trousers releases an almost overpowering scent by the way, which is useful for masking your own scent the next time you’re being hunted by tracker dogs! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999578/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999578/ Birds 11786.JPG Chedworth Woods are a subtle blend of both managed and ancient woodland and a place rich with wildlife of many kinds….Snowdrop, Primrose and Bluebell carpet the floor in Springtime and proliferations of Wild Strawberry and Wild Violet punctuate the greenery throughout the Summer. The sound of roding Woodcock at dusk and dawn in June and the chance to glimpse Nightjar during a late Summer or early Autumn sunset before they migrate for the Winter make the area popular with local wildlife enthusiasts, while modest herds of itinerant Fallow Deer and small family groups of Roe Deer add their own kind of magic to what , for many visitors, is a very special place. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999740/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999740/ 00 00 0 1961 191 A.jpg For those of you out there who may have been concerned about Tess’s fitness after her day at the vet’s being x-rayed etc while under anaesthetic, she was eventually passed fully fit and totally healthy. No bone or ligament damage and absolutely no sign whatsoever of hip or any other joint problems. Just a touch of probable soft tissue damage that she acquired goodness only knows where (probably while chasing a ball or a frisbee) and permission was given for her to return to work after a day or so to allow her to fully recover from the anaesthetic (note the shaved area on her right front leg in the above photograph where the cannula had been attached). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999649/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999649/ This time taken over Chedworth Woods https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999849/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999849/ If there’s one thing that you can practically guarantee every single year, it’s that the moment the Giant Poppies decide to burst into flower in the back garden, it will totally **** down with rain and, before you know it, all the petals will get knocked off!! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999845/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999845/ ….Don’t even ask! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999890/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999890/ I had a little time to spare today, so I placed a folding seat less than two metres away from the bird feeders at the front of the house, threw some camo scrim over my head and shoulders and waited to see what would show up (apart from the police that is)!I did this because I’ve been disappointed with the results of my hurried efforts to photograph the Long-Tailed Tits and the Goldcrest this week. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999647/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999647/ Taken at home last night (21st November) from an upstairs bedroom window and a completely different sunset to the red and purple effort of the night before! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999635/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999635/ Huge banks of golds and russets were gradually replacing the multiple shades of green and I found myself wishing more and more that I could do it all at least some justice with my camera! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999661/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999661/ The distant sound of wildfowl (mostly Teal and Wigeon), the smell of wood smoke drifting across the lake on the breeze and the faint lapping of the water amongst the skeletal reeds all added to the scene as a solitary fisherman on the opposite shore cast his line into the lake for the hundredth time that day. Spring may well be on its way, but, for me, Winter has its moments too. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999580/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999580/ Snow Shots IV Cotswold 008.JPG Chedworth Woods XIII April Rhododendron.JPG Detail of a Grape Hyacinth Swaddled in Snow Cotswold Snow-Scene April-Flowering Rhododendron Erysimum Wallflower We get it in the neck from ignorant, foul-mouthed, moronic members of the public often enough. but it’s nothing compared to some of the things that RSPCA officers have to put up sometimes! They do a brilliant job and could really do with your support…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999553/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999553/ After sitting with my back to this old gatepost for about fifteen minutes while I ate my lunch, it gradually began to dawn on me that the loud protestations from a pair of nearby Great Tits may well have something to do with me directly, so I decided to move myself and my gear across to the other side of the lane to finish eating over there. Within moments all became clear as the very indignant and slightly worried birds made straight for the post carrying food in their beaks…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999552/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999552/ I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere on one or other of my websites (there goes the short-term memory again) that Greater Knapweed is another one of those wildflowers that has a strong medicinal lineage, probably dating back thousands of years and that it has certainly been used up until quite recently in the treatment of wounds, bruises, sores, scabs and ruptures. I do remember as a boy however, occasionally helping my Gran to prepare it in potion form as a cure for sore throats…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999880/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999880/ WinterlightDark well before 1700hrs and the rain’s been fairly persistent for days and days https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999871/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999871/ A fine looking specimen from a family of insects that some people like to call Stink Bugs simply because many of the species included within it have the ability to emit a very pungent odour when disturbed. I was quite lucky to spot this individual because Hawthorn Shield Bugs are not particularly common and are quite well camouflaged. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999748/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999748/ ….are usually good indicators of clean air. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999589/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999589/ I had just tested the PH levels of the the water in the little river I’d been walking alongside for most of the day, only to discover that it was leaning more towards the acidic, so I wasn’t really all that surprised to stumble across this pair of gorgeous Heath Spotted Orchids growing out of a clump of Sphagnum Moss (typically) on the river bank.It always fascinates me that, like its cousin the Common Spotted Orchid, this plant has such beautiful flowers, but that the leaves look somehow vaguely unwholesome due to the dark spot-like blemishes appearing all over them! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999886/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999886/ Leaf Dessication 002 197.JPG This livestock watering place has probably been part of the local village resource system for hundreds of years. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999571/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999571/ This heavily streaked, Canary-like member of the Finch family may well have travelled a couple of miles in order to feed in my garden. Even during the breeding season, Siskins will travel large distances from the pine or mixed forests they choose to call home in order to find food. I think it’s a deceptively pretty little bird, while the male of the species (below) is even more attractively marked with his black crown and bib and greeny-yellow rump and breast, though I think that the speckly effect of this particular bird and the absence of a fully defined black bib suggest that it’s probably a first Winter juvenile. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999929/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999929/ A fully naturalised plant of damper places becoming increasingly common along many a British water margin, this particular Balsam beauty was growing beside a small stream near Hereford. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999777/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999777/ The Horned Poppy is a relatively scarce shingle beach-loving plant to be found almost exclusively in coastal areas. I found this particular example still flowering on Loe Bar, Cornwall in mid-October. It’s a close relative of the more familiar red Common Poppy that grows in national significance as we move into the month of November and, with Remembrance Day almost upon us, it’s vitally important to start thinking about what we’re supposed to be remembering…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999796/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999796/ When it comes to creating what, to a Common Garden Spider, is simply a means to an end (ie catching your next meal), not all Araneus diadematus are blessed with equal skills in the actual spinning department. The effort above is a good example of a completed, but far from perfectly orchestrated web design….“10” for effort and a “9” for artistic interpretation (especially with the addition of the frost droplets), but points would certainly be withheld by the German judge when it comes to the technical category! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999938/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999938/ You may find it difficult to believe, but this shot was taken smack-bang in the middle of a very depressed and typically run-down inner-city housing estate. I took lots of other shots as well that day, none of which provide even the slightest clue as to where they were taken. You see, I just happen to believe that there’s natural beauty to be found almost anywhere. It’s just that, sometimes, you have to be prepared to look that little bit harder to find it. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999652/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999652/ A021 2491.JPG Stronger and more resilient by the hour, Tess seemed to think nothing of the seven mile walk I took her on today (20th December) around several of the Cotswold Water Park lakes (there are more than 130 of them in total to choose from) and along a stretch of the River Thames close to its source near Cricklade. She’s very bright and learning fast (though she does still pull a little on the lead). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999863/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999863/ TBI 001 368.JPG Looks like a variation on Xysticus cristatus. It’s unusual in that it has no venom, preferring to immobilise its prey using its ultra-fine silk. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999935/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999935/ I noticed this very hairy little fella on the 9th October, 2009 making his way quite happily along a dirt track on the Upton Ham, a massive (60 hectare) SSSI-designated site situated alongside the river close to Upton-upon-Severn. I’ve added it here simply because I’ve managed to get a good close-up shot of his teeth, ideally suited as they are for chewing vegetation.As for which species it is….there’s a general rule of thumb maintaining that if a caterpillar is quite small and very hairy, then it’s probably some kind of Fritillary-type Butterfly larvae, but if it’s big and hairy, then it’s probably a Tiger Moth of some sort or that of a Fox Moth. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999823/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999823/ Jenny Wren, Jenny Wren Losing patience yet again Should your husband dare to rest Instead of building you that nest.... the one you'll choose from several made.... the best in which your eggs are laid So panic not....it wont be long He's starting now to sing his song Just cast about and make your choice To the glorious rhythms of his voice (Daisy W, June 1940) The Summer of 1940 was a particularly worrying time for the people of Great Britain…the German invasion of Europe was all but complete, the name “Dunkirk” was on everyone’s lips and barely thirty miles of English Channel separated British soil from overwhelming Nazi invasion! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999683/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999683/ “….’s funny? According to this, there should be one right here in front of me!” Details of our newest recruit, John the Pathfinder, can be found half-way down the “Miscellaneous” page. He actually used to be a Pathfinder once upon a time ago, but has since retired from the military. Recently divorced, he now lives a forsaken and lonely existence within a stone’s throw of the sea in Northumberland. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999620/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999620/ Spider and Hover Fly 001 836.JPG just a few miles from Padstow on the north Cornish coast . They were quite small (about half the size of my little finger nail), but were extremely quick and agile….I watched as the unfortunate Hover Fly below was ensnared and paralysed to the point of complete immobility in less than thirty seconds! Their MO seemed to be quite simple (and probably very effective because of it)…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999767/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999767/ Unbelievably cute, this young Falco tinnunculus sat very obligingly in a conker tree for me to take this picture from about 40 metres away. The tree was towards the edge of a very large and open garden near Toddington and the bird made repeated attempts to swoop down and grasp with his claws a number of strangely “threatening” Jackdaw feathers blowing across the lawn! In this respect, he reminded me of a kitten chasing a piece of wool. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999772/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999772/ I finally decided that this is probably a juvenile Mandarin rather than an adult male in eclipse plumage. I took the shot on the banks of the Gloucester/Sharpness Canal about a mile or so from Slimbridge WWT. This exquisitely marked little duck was playing the usual “can I be your friend if I tag-along” with a group of Mallard….It’s funny how they do that, but given a total lack of their own species for company, I suppose it’s better than being lonely and more vulnerable. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999697/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999697/ Early Morning at Kynance Cove ….Looking across to Black Head about five miles distant and Coverack (not visible) another couple of miles beyond that. It’s kind of odd being down in this neck of the woods all by my lonesome (apart from having Tess with me of course) because we’ve had many a family holiday here over the years and Kennack is where I used to take the kids surfing when they were much younger. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999609/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999609/ I love these beautiful fish, they’re amongst my favourites. The staff at “Aquatic Habitat” were kind enough to allow me to take a couple of photographs of their own Koi, some of which are worth hundreds of pounds (I actually know someone who lives in the Cotswolds who hired his own jet to return from Japan a few years back complete with a very special Koi Carp to add to his collection. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999827/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999827/ Looks as though I caught this little lady just as she was heading back home….She was in a hurry too….I wonder why? This is the semi-leucistic Chaffinch that hangs around my garden for most of each day. I’ve mentioned it before in the diary section of the .com site and, until now, I’ve been convinced that it’s a male bird. However, over the past couple of days it’s been inseparable from a normal male Chaffinch, so it might just be a female! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999905/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999905/ Fox Moth 002 021.JPG My Uncle Sid was a passionate lover of all things mechanical. He loved anything to do with the railways, owned several motor bikes and was one of the first people in our area to buy a motor car. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, he was the one who famously drove his car on the ice covering the River Avon from Shakespeare’s Boatyard to King John’s Bridge during the really bad winter of 1963…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999858/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999858/ The air quality in Cornwall is as good as anywhere in the UK (a great deal better in fact, than most places)….and that’s why it’s so easy to find such stunningly healthy examples of clean air-loving Lichens growing on every other rock, wall, tree trunk or branch right across the county. I took lots of Lichen photographs while I was in Cornwall this time around (July/August 2008) and I’ll upload a couple more of them when I do a write-up over the next few days. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999745/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999745/ 0220 hrs in the forest and the otherworldly effect created by the lights of the bad guy’s land rover. Mmm….It’s odd how I never see the likes of so-called expert wildlife enthusiasts Chris Packham, et al in situations like this. As it happens, I’ve been doing a lot of night work over the past two or three months (particularly in the forest) to make up for the daytime hours (about four or five a day on average) I’ve spent sitting patiently reading and drinking multiple cups of coffee in Gloucester Hospital canteen while my wife endured three consecutive courses of intra-venous chemotherapy treatments. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999824/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999824/ She looks as though she’s full of eggs (maybe as many as seven or eight) and just about fit to burst! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999936/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999936/ ….but strikingly noticeable nonetheless growing in a hedgerow, of all places, close to the inland village of Kuggar on the Lizard Peninsular in Cornwall. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999742/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999742/ ….and a special, seven mile yomp over to Rhosili Bay and Worms Head. This was the very first place that we came to when we first started going out together nearly four hundred years ago. We camped in a field in the merry month of May on the edge of Rhosili village and it was blisteringly hot! We woke up on the first morning to find three chickens in the tent! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999617/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999617/ I suspect that she could probably see her own reflection in the camera lens and stood there for ages, tapping it gently from time to time with her beak. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999867/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999867/ Interesting fact about the nocturnal Common Earwig….The front pair of wings have evolved as toughened protective coverings for the fan-shaped hind pair. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999709/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999709/ One of many Great Tits currently visiting the feeders in my garden while thick snow covers the surrounding landscape. Temperatures dropped to around -17C up here in the Cotswolds last night (7th/8th January) and the wildlife is feeling the brunt of it. Driven by the almost complete lack of available naturally occurring food sources, no less than 29 different species of birds have now felt compelled to take advantage of the extra food I’ve been putting out for them since the first of the snow began to fall. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999765/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999765/ This must surely be one of the UK’s prettiest, nosiest and most feisty of birds. You will see them almost anywhere along the coast (in the south and south-west especially) attracted to the swathes of prickly gorse that they love to call home. Like this one, they are easily spotted, perched as high as they can possibly get on the most exposed of twigs to ensure they don’t miss anything at all interesting! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999769/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999769/ birds_8064.jpg Ageing thespian and crumbling luvvie, Mandarin Drake, trod the Shakesperean boards for so many years down in old Stratford town that they finally named a duck after him (or maybe not)! “Yea….Whatever”, (as my fourteen year old daughter would say)….The difference between the male juvenile or eclipse and the winter plumage of a drake Mandarin is nothing short of staggering (see above)! I photograhed this little beauty at about 100m from Beaufort Bridge not far from the marina in Tewkesbury. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999627/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999627/ ….or “Mozzarella” Pig according to my Daughter! Remember the Lincolnshire “Curly Coat” Pig…the one that became extinct in the early 1970s, about a year before the formation of the UK’s excellent “Rare Breeds Survival Trust”? Well, that’s what Mangalitzas remind me of a bit. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I remember reading that Mangalitzas were only imported to the UK for the first time in 2006 and that there are three distinct varieties…the “Blonde”, the “Swallow-Tail” and this one, which is the “Red”…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999738/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999738/ ….to think that there’s almost as much of this very old treeunder the ground as there is above. In fact, several places in the Midlands have gone from minus 15 degrees Celsius to Plus 18 degrees Celsius in less than two weeks! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999678/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999678/ 1A The Skipper and the Scabious 001 151.JPG A Noble Savage 001 010.JPG Well, guess what….I’m in big trouble again. You see, I did this cartoon a few weeks ago for an old academic-type friend of mine who wanted something that he could add to a paper he’d written about the “Social and Cultural Evolution of Modern Man” (it was for some kind of scientific journal with a total circulation of about a hundred or so), but now we’re both in the doggy doo-doos, not only for apparently being fattist (people have complained), but for trying to bring a well-known and thoroughly reputable fast-food company into some kind of disrepute. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999851/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999851/ Another Blue 005 1163.JPG There’s another shot of this amorous pair on the “Water Margins” page. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999855/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999855/ I get some very strange looks from passers-by when they spot me lying on my back amongst the thistles in order to get a shot like this. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999852/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999852/ Several people have now stopped and asked me to identify the swathes of medium-sized blue flowers (above) that feature so noticeably along almost every roadside verge this summer (2008), particularly in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset. They’re certainly very abundant, as are Field Scabious, Greater Knapweed, Rosebay Willowherb and a host of others. Not so many wild Poppies around at the moment it seems however. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999854/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999854/ Grasshoppers and Crickets can be very confusing to identify, if only because they can vary from bright green to dark brown within the same species, while some individuals (though by no means all) may have brightly coloured patterns along their bodies. I’m assuming that this is a Meadow Grasshopper because long ago, I was taught that this species lacks hind-wings, making the fore-wings appear much shorter overall compared to others. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999784/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999784/ There were a bunch of these little guys sharing the tidal edges with Rock Pipits and Turnstone at Millendreath Beach, Cornwall. They’ve probably moved down to the beach from pasture-land further up the valley just for the winter. They were all pretty busy foraging about in the tidal detritus looking for sand-hoppers and other tasty snacks….All that is, except for this nosey so-and-so who insisted on watching me all the time I was there! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999570/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999570/ You can buy tubs of dried Mealworms from pet shops and garden centres these days for feeding to the birds, but I tend to find that they don’t like them very much….even in the Winter. On the other hand, they love the live, wriggly-squiggly versions that you can get from a few of the more discerning pet shops or from reptile and amphibian specialists. A deep-rimmed bowl of live Mealworms placed on the bird-table or even on the ground is a real bonus for parent birds of such species as Robins, Warblers, Wrens, Blackbirds, Thrushes and Tits when they’re struggling to find enough food to feed their ever-hungry young. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999581/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999581/ From the May Blossom of five or ten years ago to the April Blossom of today to….er….March Blossom in no more than another five years or so….Who knows? https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999842/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999842/ First to Emerge 001 312.JPG It wont be long before the seven Blue Tit chicks in this nest-box at the top of my garden will want to come out into the big wide world (any minute now in fact). Unfortunately, the Jackdaws are all too aware of this as well and are constantly hanging around up in the trees nearby. One or two of them have even tried sticking their heads into the hole to get a better look! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999556/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999556/ If you’re out for a walk in the countryside and you suddenly hear what sounds like someone jangling a set of car keys, then it’s probably someone jangling a set of car keys! On the other hand, it could be Mr Corn Bunting sitting high up in some conspicuous position on a telegraph wire or at the very top of a bush rattling off his jingly-jangly song!Most bird books will place this Skylark-coloured reprobate in open farmland where it tends to nest on the ground (though not always), but in the Cotswolds at least, I tend to see them wherever you find a half-decent fence post! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999626/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999626/ I watched as this Worker Ant repeatedly rubbed the abdomen of this Peach-Potato Aphid (a major vector of virus diseases by the way) until it pulled back its cornicles (I think that’s what those little horn-like things are called) and excreted a tiny droplet of honeydew (look closely and you should be able to see it). I’ve noticed many Ants in my garden this summer actually carrying “cow” Aphids. I think that’s because they’re taking them below ground to protect them from all the https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999659/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999659/ Arranged like notes on a page of sheet music, this small group of Great Reedmace couldn’t help but catch my eye. However, it was the Victorian artist, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s mistake when he added Reedmace to his famous painting and then called it “Moses in the Bulrushes” that has led to most of the UK’s population still calling them Bulrushes to this day! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999798/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999798/ Redwing (8).JPG This little fella sat still just long enough to let me take this shot on a pretty slow shutter speed. My favourite thrush, the ultra-timid Redwing, is barely as big as a Starling and, like its bigger cousin the Fieldfare, spends the winter here scouring the open countryside for berries and windfalls. All the way from its summer breeding grounds in Scandinavia, I look forward to seeing as many as fifty of these beautiful “rattlers” competing for berries amongst the trees and bushes at the end of my garden. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999786/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999786/ Remember the wonderfully brilliant Leslie Philips in those terrific old B&W movies, when he used to say “ding-dong!” in that toe-curlingly lounge-lizard way of his if he saw a particularly attractive female? Well the next Buzzard that I’ll feature will probably be the brazen hussy “Bell”….I named her with more than a passing nod to Philips’s iconic line. In fact, if Leslie Philips was actually cast as Buzzard instead of a Lizard, then “ding-dong! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999639/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999639/ ….and the darkest hour is just before dawn https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999862/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999862/ I know exactly what you’re thinking, this must surely be a female Dexia rustica….It would certainly be about the right size plus they’re not exactly scarce….So why don’t they have a common name? Well, I could give them a common name on your behalf if you like….Mmm….If it is what you say it is, then its larvae are known to prey on the grubs of the enormous Cockchafer Beetle, Mmm….on second thoughts, perhaps I’d better not! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999959/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999959/ No, not a negative of a positive and absolutely no photoshop involved. This was taken at altitude in thick, low cloud on 15th January in Herefordshire where Tess and I spent about five hours doing ranger stuff and practising SAR thingummies. With the snow beginning to thaw right across the South and South-West of the UK and heavy rain forecast for the next day or two, I felt we needed to find a location where the snow was still fairly pristine and thick on the ground in order to get at least one more day of practise and that meant finding a decent-sized hill to climb. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999941/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999941/ 010.JPG Looking for all the world like a half-chewed wine gum (and about the same size in this case), this extraordinary-looking fungus is supposed to be just as edible, though I’ve no idea what it tastes like nor do I particularly wish to know. I took this photo on the 3rd November in pouring rain in the middle of the typically spectacular Forest of Dean. Yellow Brain has a tendency to dessicate and become very hard and shrivelled under dry conditions, but rain will usually serve to revitalise it sufficiently so that it can continue with its production of spores which occur all over its outer surface. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999844/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999844/ This is Tubby-the-Nutter’s brand-new little girl who my own daughter has decided to name “Nuttella”. She’s just like her Dad when it comes to stealing and eating everything and anything put out for the birds in the garden….and Nuttella’s just as bad!. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999809/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999809/ This photograph represents another one of those curious moments when I sense that I’m being watched. I usually get such feelings just after I’ve settled down in the middle of nowhere to eat my lunch….and sure enough, as I glanced down at the ground to a point no more than three metres from where I was sitting, I suddenly spotted this Common Lizard sunbathing on an old piece of wood. I’m pleased to say that he hung around just long enough for me to take this picture before scuttling off into the undergrowth almost faster than the eye could follow! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999585/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999585/ St Agnes Sunset 002.JPG I took this shot from my motor-home window as I looked across towards Wheal Coates and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Meanwhile, I suppose I’ll be doing one of my travelogue/photo-journal thingys based on this particular data-collecting trip over the next few days. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999800/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999800/ Inseparable “friends”, Thelma and Louise sit for most of every day apparently super-glued to their favourite branch in a tree at the top of my garden. They sit there, throughout the year, ocassionally dropping down to the seed trough that I top-up for them, the Pheasants and the Red-Legged Partridge every day. All other Collared Dove “interlopers” are chased off without exception! Both birds also exhibit frequent nest-building activity, followed by a tendency to sit around afterwards as if to say “what next? https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999780/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999780/ I guess it’s sunset season….There’s been a decent one nearly every day for the past few weeks. Unusual Light Here’s another of the unusual light effects I keep seeing when I’m out and about….This was taken at approximately 1500hrs out near Chipping Camden on 7th November. The sky was again a strange purpley-pink colour….Am I the only person noticing this or do I just need to increase my medication dosage? https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999819/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999819/ Not only do they look like Canaries, but they sound a bit like them too, so it’s no wonder that until quite recently, some people were keen to keep wild Siskins in cages in their homes! I remember how it was possible to exchange old clothes and shoes, etc for wild birds, such as Linnets, Siskins, Bullfinches and Goldfinches with the Rag and Bone Man or even to buy them from him with cash and that a male Bullfinch for example, could be bought for as little as three shillings or a pair for five bob! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999781/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999781/ Above is Louise, one of a pair of Collared Doves who took up permanent residency in the trees at the end of my garden some time ago. Nothing odd there….except that her partner, Thelma (below), is also female! They both occasionally enter into a frenzy of nest-building activity at almost any time of the year, each arriving in the garden with nesting material and then parading about with it. All to no avail of course. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999708/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999708/ The 4th January and almost a thousand feet above the Severn basin and still climbing. That’s not snow by the way, but exceptionally heavy frost. Temperatures on the hill had reached -12C overnight and despite the early morning sunshine and the clear blue skies, things hadn’t improved much. In fact it was still extremely cold in the shade (possibly as much as -15C) when you added the old wind chill factor! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999837/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999837/ Lewis (above and below) arrived in my garden today….lost, disorientated, hungry and very, very thirsty. Lewis is a Racing Pigeon! Probably attracted by the grain trough, this weary F1 avian speed-machine must have been released in a race either earlier today (Sunday) or sometime yesterday.etting lost isn’t an unusual thing for a Racing Pigeon and anyone might look out onto their garden one day and see such a bird sitting placidly on the lawn or pecking ineffectually at seed on the bird table. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999633/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999633/ PBP 023.jpg Begonia 001 005.JPG Rings 001 264.JPG Apple 004 038.JPG Dahlia Clarion 002 304.JPG Dahlia Clarion 002 304.JPG Taken with my old Kodak Instamatic camera in what I think was Southampton, but she says it’s Plymouth….and since she’s the one who’s always right when it comes to remembering stuff and I’m the one with a blancmange for a brain, I’m not going to argue! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999743/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999743/ ….Not exactly an easy walk when you feel like cr*p the whole time, but there’s absolutely no stopping her! ime, https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999808/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999808/ I was totally amazed today to see what seemed like countless numbers of Peacock Butterflies all together in a sun-drenched field of ripening wheat. Most of them had settled, one per wheat-stalk, while a few flitted idly from place to place. I’d never seen the likes of it before….so many Peacocks….hundreds….all in one place….but then, as I took a step forward to take a photograph, they suddenly did that flashing, distracting eye-spot thing that Peacocks do and took to the air as one…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999555/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999555/ Birds 8915.jpg I snapped this magnificent cock Pheasant staring out from the undergrowth covering the bank at the top of my garden in Spring 2005 as he attempted to attract the attentions of the half dozen or so hen Pheasants feeding from the trough that I fill with seed and grain mainly for them and the Red-Legged Partridge who visit from time to time. Unfortunately, the ladies weren’t the least bit interested in our avian Casanova and totally ignored what I thought were some pretty impressive efforts…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999572/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999572/ If you like anything pink, then this one’s for you. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999873/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999873/ TBI 004 224.JPG TBI 007 030.JPG For a moment I thought this might be the ultra-scarce Rattle Grasshopper when I first noticed it on my patio steps after I’d just finished mowing the lawn. Then I thought it might actually be one of the three British Ground-hoppers, but now I’ve had a good look at it enlarged as a photograph, I’m not sure what it is! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999856/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999856/ The science of Pink. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999726/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999726/ “The poetry of the Earth is never dead” (John Keats) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999566/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999566/ Tewkesbury (Swillgate) Flooding.JPG Quicksilver Moon.JPG Alium Gigantium 365.JPG Light and Leaf 004.JPG Common Reed VII.JPG Woodland 008.JPG Bracket Fungus 016.JPG Field 002.JPG Dessication Brown 001.JPG Twitch Home Page 001.jpg White Chrysanthemum 040.JPG January Moth 023.JPG Solar Flare Gerbera. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999744/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999744/ It’s hard to believe just how poorly my wife was feeling when I took this shot. This was back in September, 2012 and her new courses of treatment weren’t even scheduled to begin until early October. Plus, our son had recently moved to Berlin, where he’ll be doing his psychology doctorate and our daughter had left for university in California just a few days beforehand (where she’s loving every minute of being the only Brit on campus and has already completed about half of my bucket list by the way…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999864/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999864/ Potentilla 009 165.JPG Kune Kune Pig 003 160.JPG Ok, I admit, I don’t know an awful lot about different breeds of pigs and I may have identified this one incorrectly, but I’m pretty sure that this is a Kune Kune (pronounced “Koony Koony”) and that the breed hails from New Zealand, where it’s had a long association with the Maori people. It’s also a breed that came very close to extinction back in the early 1970s, but is fairing much better now. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999604/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999604/ Mushrooms 001 226.JPG Shredded Poppy 544.JPG I thought I knew most of the Poppy family, but here’s one I haven’t seen before….that’s if it actually is a Poppy! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999586/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999586/ Ramsons 001.JPG I could go on and on about this Springtime, shade-loving Lily of deciduous woodlands, but I’ll give you just one “interesting” fact instead….The “rams” part of the plant’s name probably derives from a much older Scandinavian word meaning “rank” which refers to both the odour and very strong flavour that cows milk acquires when the animal grazes on the plant! Enough? Ok, one more….we were taught that juice from the bulbs will double as an effective antiseptic when applied to a wound with swabs of Sphagnum Moss! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999696/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999696/ This is the first photograph I’ve taken in ages that I like. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999866/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999866/ I put a photo of a Red Admiral on the “Home” page of www.wildliferanger.co.uk perched on an old dead log. I uploaded it to show how well camouflaged they are against such a background when their wings are closed and I’ve done the same with this picture….except it’s to show how equally camouflaged they are against foliage as well. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999807/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999807/ I came across the first of these stuck in a gatepost near the village of Chedworth in the Cotswolds. Then I found another about a hundred yards away…and then another….and another. In fact, they occurred about every one or two hundred yards (paces) in an almost straight line all the way to Bourton-on-the-Water nearly fourteen miles to the East as the Crow flies!They certainly hadn’t been there long because none of them showed signs of withering and I always felt that whoever was doing it was never more than a couple of hours ahead of me…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999829/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999829/ The New Arrivals….Day Two Stroppy Madam and Uppity Bill Robin are happy to announce the safe arrival on Friday, 18th April of theirthree beautiful triplets….Rhianan, Ricky and Randy. Both Mum and babies are doing well and ask if donations could be made to the hospital’s maternity ward in lieu of flowers. Thank-you. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999722/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999722/ Let’s face it, who doesn’t dream of finding the perfect Owl pellet? All those exquisitely formed, but totally gross little rodent skulls that only a day or two previously were part of a living creature running around in the hedgerows and fields. Well, the thing is, I’ve been collecting, analysing and recording what I find in them for years. In fact, they were nearly always the mainstay of my little nature table displays when I was very young and still at primary school way back in the 1950s. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999640/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999640/ ….the fifth of November….the day a black guy became the 44th president of the United States of America and the people of the World experienced a truly tangible sense of hope for the first time since another utterly compelling and personable young man with vision took centre stage as the most powerful politician on Earth way back in the 1960s. That man,as I’m sure you know (or possibly even remember) was John F Kennedy and he too was a charismatic figure capable of capturing the hearts and minds of billions of people across the world just as Obama has done over the last few weeks. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999865/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999865/ A fly with what appears to be an articulating, Pelican beak, membrane-like proboscis…Well, It turns out to be another kind of Hover Fly, one that prefers to lay its eggs in cow dung where they hatch into larval form and remain until finally emerging as adult flies. There’s another photo of it on the “Garden” page. Long-John “Hoppy” the Hedgehog….Update….Permanent resident in my garden for a few years now, Long-John the Hedgehog lost an eye and a hind leg to a Fox about five summers ago when it rolled him into a neighbour’s pond to force him to open up and then tried to eat him! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999654/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999654/ AF 021 114.JPG Home 004 700.JPG Home 006 726.JPG My house is just visible through the trees. Rime Frost Thick low cloud descended on the Cotswold Hills again today, but this time it brought with it a band of dangerously cold air (around minus 15 by all accounts). These bands of cold are an occasional feature of the Cotswolds, but are usually short-lived locally as they tend to weave in and around the many hills and valleys according to variable wind direction. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999711/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999711/ Tess makes it all so much easier these days than it used to be. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999833/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999833/ Most easily distinguishable from its close relative the Sea Spurge by its red-tinted “flowers”, the Portland Spurge confines itself to the Western and South-Western coastline of England and Wales or the Eastern coast of Northern Ireland and Eire. What can I come up with that’s interesting about Rock Pipits? Well….er…. for a start, I’d like to be able to say that in order to get this particular photograph, I was forced to scramble across extremely jagged and highly dangerous rocky out-croppings and gullies for at least three or four hours just to catch the briefest glimpse of such a normally shy and reclusive character…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999588/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999588/ Clematis 004.JPG My wife has managed to encourage the Clematis to wind itself up a wall and over the top of the back garden gate. This has been her special project for many a year. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999841/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999841/ Big, generally aggressive and with a tendency to attack stuff without so much as a by-your-leave, this very large hunter/invader from the Continent tends to both dwarf and bully our more happy-go-lucky little home-grown versions! The one in the photograph landed on my hand this afternoon while I was completely minding my own business, but unfortunately, it flew up into the air just as I was trying to manoeuvre my camera into position with my other hand to get an interesting shot of it! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999625/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999625/ While the Workers were preoccupied with relieving these little Black Bean Aphids of their honeydew, small units of Soldier Ants (note the larger, flatter head and the stronger jaws) rounded up any strays, coralling them into more manageable-sized groups. Occasionally, a single soldier would gather an Aphid gently in its jaws and carry it off to the nest. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999590/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999590/ Here he is….probably the most famous Chaffinch in the Solar System and worried about by people from Telford to Toronto to Triton!Anyway, as you can see from this quick and very blurry snap I took of him this morning, he’s doing just fine and is spending his time flying back and forth to the front garden to get food for his family….Yes, “Scraps” has a family….and to think, when he first lost his leg because of getting a claw caught in one of those stupid plastic net-bag thingys that idiot shopkeepers sell suet-balls and peanuts in and that even bigger idiots buy and hang in their gardens, I didn’t give him much of a chance to survive the following forty-eight hours, let alone a couple of Winters and probably every other hazard you could possibly think of! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999749/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999749/ …. We still had seven miles to cover before arriving home however, mostly across open countryside and with less than two hours of daylight remaining. Not really a problem in the relatively tame and overly manicured Cotswolds, but we did walk more than twenty-one miles in total that day. overly https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999636/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999636/ The National Arboretum at Westonbirt, is divided into two main parts, the “Old Arboretum”, dating back to the 1850s and “Silk Wood”, large sections of which date back to the 13th Century. We spent about three hours this visit, walking and taking photographs in Silk Wood. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999907/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999907/ I’m not saying that Skippers are skittish little wotsits or anything, but getting a shot like this is probably almost as difficult as trying to photograph Lee Evans on amphetamines! Basically, It’s Yellow Rattle with a feeding Skipper Butterfly. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999768/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999768/ It’s September and the Buddleia in the garden is still pulling in the Butterflies as much as ever! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999716/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999716/ Standing amidst some of the most ancient prehistoric earthworks to be found anywhere in the UK right on the cusp of Spring, a place like this can have a profound effect on anyone “fortunate” enough to be sensitive to such things. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999799/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999799/ I’ve seen Snowdrops towards the end of January a few times over the years, but I took this picture on the 12th January 2007 no less and, try as I might, I can’t find a single text book that refers to Snowdrops flowering even before February (a few crocuses are out as well)! Add that to the wasp I saw the other day and the half dozen Bees or so I’ve spotted this winter (loads of fishermen have been seeing them too) and I’d say you might as well dust off your best pair of Bermudas and dig out the suntan cream…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999889/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999889/ Solitree 001 590.JPG AAA 021 073.JPG The next month or so is going to be very difficult for us. My wife must go into hospital next week for two or possibly three stem-cell harvest procedures, each of which will take approximately five hours as all of her blood is passed through a “harvesting” machine until enough stem cells have been gathered in a separate container and then taken to be frozen. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999760/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999760/ 00 00 0 099 007.JPG Picture 1 Tess attempted to pick up the scent trail of the very big and grizzled old boar Badger who has lived alone in this sett for the past few months. He was the only one to survive when the cullers paid him and his clan a visit last year and he has since refused to allow any new Badgers to share his home. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999614/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999614/ As with the blue and black Damselflies and the Red Darters, correctly identifying Hawker Dragonflies can be very tricky. I spotted this wonderful creature (about 6cm in length) very close to the brand-new wildlife pond that my Daughter and I have just created in the garden, but it wont have emerged from there unless the larvae somehow managed to arrive tucked inside the root system of one of the water plants when we added them to the pond. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999628/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999628/ Hibiscus Lavander Chiffon 001 023.JPG ….or who knows….maybe it’s just a reflection in a pond! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999724/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999724/ 00AA 025 248.JPG “Nothing is so beautiful as Spring When weeds, in wheels, shoot along and Lovely and lush (What is all this juice and all this joy?" (Gerard Manley Hopkins) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999583/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999583/ Wood Anenome, Lesser Celandine and Bluebells https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999821/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999821/ Spring Flowers I Primrose 002.JPG Another shot of a Primula fom the garden https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999656/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999656/ RoR 018 318.JPG Winter Reflections and the Coot That Walks on Wather.JPG Reflections and the Coot That Walks on Water Tufty the Snowman Six inches of snow or less in the South and South-East of England and the entire country grinds to a galloping standstill…No buses, no trains, no school, no roads open, no clue! I just wonder what would happen if we got the same sort of weather they get in Northern Scandinavia, Eastern Europe or Canada. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999830/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999830/ Robin Chicks 5th Day.JPG You’ll probably be pleased to know that all three Robin youngsters are doing really well, but if you look very carefully at the left-hand side of the picture, I think it’s just possible to make out a fourth chick! I’m not absolutely certain, but I am about 90% sure. I think I’ll call this one “Reliant”! Meanwhile, first thing this morning….“So, how’s the family then? https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999551/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999551/ I took this photo for two reasons….1, these flowers were actually growing at the edge of a field in Devon, not in a garden (although there were plenty of others growing in various gardens in the village a mile or so up the road) and….2, it fascinated me the way the petals looked for all the world as though they were made of paper that had been been flattened and scorched with an iron! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999577/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999577/ Stone Curlew.JPG This one’s for Mr S Dowde who sent me a rather vitriolic e-mail recently signed “Anon”, but who forgot that some people’s name and e-mail address appears in the heading info! Oh well, the words “stupid” and “totally” come to mind, but not necessarily in that order….though perhaps “Anon” can get someone to work it out for him if he can’t manage for himself!He wants to know if I actually ever take photographs of anything “interesting” bird-wise rather than “all the usual garden rubbish”! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999736/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999736/ 00 00 0 1993 032 A.jpg 00 00 0 1991 040 A.jpg Around 1630 hrs. (This is one of the “Reluctant Ten” incidentally….ten chapters from “Slices” that I’ve always been reluctant to upload, though I dare say people will wonder what all the fuss was about as far as this particular “Slice” is concerned….but then, I guess you had to be there) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999557/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999557/ The shell of a Strawberry Snail, but the body of a White-Lip….Mmm, somebody didn’t quite get this one right….Well, whatever it is, I like the patterning on the shell, but it also looks like some sort of electrical micro-circuitry to me, so I guess it must really be an android snail equipped with tiny TV cameras instead of eyes and sent from the distant future to watch us and record stuff for inclusion on their version of the “History Channel”! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999565/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999565/ Stroppy Madam 097.JPG Creeping Buttercup 636.JPG Traditionally, a feature of Summer meadows and warm, sunlit walks in thecountryside, the Creeping Buttercup is a familiar sight to us all. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999869/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999869/ I must admit, the sun made its usual valiant effort this morning to fight its way through the lowering clouds, but to no avail! Meanwhile, with more and more rain continuing to fall right across the entire South of the country and Wales having to take the brunt of it, the Boss decided to put us on a precautionary “orange alert” (well, more of a subdued tangerine really with maybe a hint of cerise) so that we’re all prepared to seek out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go, looking for the places only they would know…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999883/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999883/ Taken from virtually the same position as the “Winterlake” shot above. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999764/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999764/ This is one of a pair of Mistle Thrushes nesting in a very old Horse-Chestnut tree in a village a few miles down the road from me. I spotted this one on a telegraph wire and stopped to take a few pictures. It was a very warm day in May and the bird had ruffled up its feathers to cool itself down a bit. It was then that the other bird, sitting on the nest concealed in the tree, started kicking up a real fuss with the arrival of a pair of Magpies. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999567/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999567/ Arty Farty Long Tailed Tit.JPG Mmm….Every now and again I get the urge to go all arty with my photographs, you know the kind of thing….lots of soft focus, subtle luminosity, blended tones….Well, I should know better really because this is the type of thing that nearly always happens no matter how hard I try! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999741/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999741/ 00 00 0 1945 268 B.jpg It’s been six months since I’ve added anything new to any of my websites (I’ve been pretty busy doing new ranger stuff mostly) which means that I have literally hundreds of summer and autumn-type photos that, ordinarily, would have made it onto one or other of said sites, but are now unlikely to do so simply because it takes about fifteen minutes on average to prepare, upload, install and caption just a single image and sometimes I can feel my life just slipping away! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999629/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999629/ This reminds me of that tower….You know the one….Designed by that guy who did the other one as well for the city in thingummy….Some time ago now it was. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999802/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999802/ A Gift.JPG I stood and watched this extremely devoted pair of Magpies for more than half-an-hour today (3rd March) amidst the early blossom of an Evesham Vale apple orchard. Magpies are usually cast as the “villian” of the piece because of their tendency to predate the eggs and young of countless other bird species (although such behaviour has been proven by several agencies not to have any really detrimental effect on the population numbers of their victims). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999939/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999939/ ….during her very first outing in her brand-new, all-weather, all-terrain work harness….and don’t worry, I’ve now adjusted the straps so that they wont come loose. I wasn’t at all surprised that she took to this one immediately as she’s always worn a harness, but I was amused when I walked into the living room this morning, only to discover that, not only had she purloined her new harness from its designated hook in the garage, but was actually trying to put it on by negotiating her head through one of the loops! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999951/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999951/ I just don’t understand why spending a long, cold, very wet, late November night in the middle of a vast, creaky old forest alive with spooky, inexplicable noises together with a damp, farty Labrador in the cramped confines of a tiny bivi-tent isn’t a much more popular pastime with almost everyone. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999701/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999701/ And thus the canopy above your head Down to the woodland floor will shed Its million leaves that you may tread More softly now 'midst shades of red A single, hastily scribbled verse by Daisy W (my Mum) written in pencil on the back of a page torn from a wallpaper sample catalogue circa 1939/1940. She would have been somewhere in her mid-teens. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999610/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999610/ I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, so haven’t had an enormous amount of spare time to add to the journal on my websites….though I do always make sure I keep the hand-written one up to date! Anyway, the upshot of it is, I’ve spent the time writing a medium-length story instead that I’ve chosen to call “Mauve”, though you’d have to read it to understand why. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999822/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999822/ The more I look at it, the more I think the centre of this flower looks like the top of Action Man’s head! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999727/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999727/ “Those who contemplate the beauty of theEarth find reserves of strength that willEndure as long as life lasts” (Rachel Carson from “Silent Spring”) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999723/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999723/ Sounds like a 1970s folk band album title. Meanwhile, a female Bombus terrestris or a female rupestris maybe? I’ll plumb for the former because it’s probably a bit early for rupestris, but I’m often wrong! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999797/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999797/ On a day when football matches were being cancelled all over the UK due to the unusually wet weather, I managed to get soaked at least four times! Meanwhile, this picture isn’t an old-fashioned sepia print, it’s just a product of still more strange light effects that seem so common of late! It’s almost as if we’ve gone back in time to the 1940s and 50s, to when people were so poor they could only afford to be in black and white…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999875/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999875/ Frampton 025 489.JPG Re 002 228.JPG WA 045 676.JPG The Ageing Year Sunlight Through Maple I took my wife to see the Autumn colours at the National Arboretum at Westonbirt near Tetbury today (11th October). I’ve uploaded a couple of the photos here on the “Home” page and I shall be adding more on the “Forest and Woodland” page over the next few days, but my computer is being very naughty at the moment and has to go in for repairs, so I’m dependent upon using my Daughter’s when she’s not using it herself. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999828/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999828/ On a more serious note….please bear in mind that, although both parents know me well and are even prepared to feed from my hand, when it comes to their nest-site, I stay well away! I took this picture from the other side of the garden with a digi-scoped camera so as not to disturb either the chicks or the parents! If you have Robins nesting in your own garden already, then it’s worth remembering that, for the most part, they’ll be quite happy to put up with you hanging out the washing, doing a bit of gardening and even mowing the lawn, etc, but they wont like it if you start sticking your big red spotty nose in where it doesn’t belong…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999568/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999568/ globe_and_laurel.gif Ranger Don 001.jpg Garden Birds III Hen Chaffinch 001.JPG Peg 008.JPG The Younger of the Two Male GSWs Who Visit My Garden Daily After at least four years of being a bachelor recluse, the younger of the two male Great Spotted Woodpeckers who inhabit opposite ends of the little wood at the top of my garden has finally found himself a mate! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999957/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999957/ Beautiful “Buckshot” the Pheasant This is Buckshot, the hen Pheasant. I stumbled across her as she was slowly bleeding to death in a hedgerow almost a month ago. She was riddled with tiny pellets from a shotgun blast and her left wing was completely shattered. Normally, when I come across game-birds or even so-called “nuisance” birds in this sort of condition, I feel obliged to put them out of their not inconsiderable pain and misery. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999729/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999729/ "There is something infinitely healing in the Repeated refrains of Nature.... The Assurance that dawn comes after the night And Spring after the Winter" (Rachel Carson from "Silent Spring") https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999653/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999653/ Golden Glow 001 134.JPG …and telegraph wires from a story told….er, since the dawn of time! (Clearly, two tablets taken three times a day simply aren’t enough!) Into the Gap Kander gathered together his few meagre possessions from beside the still warm ashes of last night’s camp-fire and placed them in his saddle-bags. He slid his sword into its scabbard and hung it from his belt, pausing momentarily to stare thoughtfully at the gap between two very large and gnarly old Oak trees that marked the entrance to the laughingly named “Little Wood”. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999912/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999912/ Better known as the Field Pansy, this tiny inhabitant of both cultivated and waste land is traditionally recognized (along with the Wild Pansy) as a symbol of remembrance and its name is said to derive from the French word “pensee”, meaning “thought”.If possible, I like to leave either a Field or a Wild Pansy together with a wild Common Poppy on any wartime commemorative monument I happen across when I’m out and about, though if people see me doing it, they often ask about the significance of the Pansy. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999782/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999782/ Louise.JPG A A A Tree Silhouette.JPG I love old trees and I like this one in particular. I’ve spent the night bivouacking beneath its wonderfully sinister silhouette on two separate occasions….well out of the reach of widow-makers though! In fact, I took this photograph as I prepared my evening meal the second time I spent the night there. I remember that there was a real sense of “looming” and that it sometimes appeared to move towards me…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999947/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999947/ This year, we’ve had one of the mildest Novembers on record, maybe the berries have got it right this time. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999728/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999728/ “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not” (Anonymous) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999730/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999730/ 00 00 AA 001 215.JPG "Go out, go out I beg of you And taste the beauty of the wild Behold the miracle of the earth With all the wonder of a child" (Edna Jaques) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999725/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999725/ “Some see Nature all ridicule andDeformity….and some scarce seeNature at all, but to the eyes of theMan of Imagination, Nature isImagination itself” (William Blake) https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999746/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999746/ 00 00 0 160 159 C.jpg 00 00 0 1942 243 C.jpg ….Also the title of a desperately poor science fiction short story I wrote a few years back about a manned mission to Mercury and how rapidly things began to unravel when the crew suddenly realised that no-one had remembered to bring the factor 50! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999662/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999662/ Butterbur 002 297.JPG For another shot of this extraordinary member of the Daisy family as well as a tale of goat’s butter, a very large pig and an awful lot of mud, see the “Arty-Farty” page. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999651/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999651/ What was strange the day I took this photograph just across the road from where I live, was the countless number of little cotton wool balls of cloud making their way quite rapidly across the sky. In fact, they were more like the clouds that children draw than proper clouds! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999874/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999874/ I was able to get out today and get some work done while my wife spent most of the day with her Mum. I also needed to walk off a few sleepless nights, so I yomped about twenty-four miles as the crow flies and blew away some cobwebs. It was a nice sunny day too and the air was fresh and crisp. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999899/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999899/ Across the River 002 414.JPG One Man and His Parrot I.JPG Dishevelled, dejected and forlorn after two full days spent indoors doing the seemingly huge amount if paperwork associated with all the Spring walks I’ve been doing lately, as well as sorting out and editing the hundreds of photographs I’ve taken and struggling to decipher the reams of notes I make along the way.I do as much as I can each day as I go, but there’s much more to observe, photograph and record these days than there ever used to be and that’s mostly down to the advent of digital photography. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999582/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999582/ There’s a bit about good old on the page I hear you say)Mmm….That reminds me of the joke about what you’dget if Whoopi Goldberg married Gerard Depardieu….Though hearing it spoken out loud is better than reading it! Not a very good picture at all, but I like the way the edges of the tree-tops seem to mirror the edges of the clouds. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999550/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999550/ Please note….I think it’s only fair to say that this particular Twitch cartoon is based around an original idea that first appeared in a copy of “Private Eye” magazine in 2006. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999943/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999943/ In the wake of the catastrophic decline in the national Tree Sparrow population comes the humble House Sparrow. Both are disappearing from town and country at an unbelievable rate. Fast enough in fact, to result in both species becoming virtually extinct within the next ten Years! ….but why? Well, no-one seems to be absolutely certain despite a number of theories currently on offer….and I don’t have any answers either. However, in my job, I do get to notice things, if only because that’s basically what my job involves…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999688/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999688/ ....but it takes practise, a great deal of practise....and enormous patience....Far more patience, sadly, than most folk have these days. ....and when I tell them this(Those so-called best of the best), They stare back at me with blank expressions. A new generation who listen, but do not hear the incongruent sounds in the forest. Who look, but fail to see what perils lurk within the dappled sunlight and the dancing shadows. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999779/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999779/ Finally, the leaves are turning brown and the colder nights are with us. Autumn has arrived at last. I’ve noticed that the frosts we’ve had during the last two or three nights have already finished off many of the late summer wildflowers and some of the birds that I haven’t seen in the garden for months, such as flocks of Long-Tailed Tits and a Tree-creeper or two are returning to feed at the peanut dispensers…though I’m not so sure that the Tree-creepers aren’t actually searching between the peanuts for tiny insects and not picking at the nuts themselves. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999554/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999554/ Probably the most belligerent, bad-tempered and territorial little bird ever to grace a garden….“Uppity Bill” wastes no time in letting everyone know who’s boss. Nevertheless, I have gradually managed to persuade him to feed quite happily from my hand using live mealworms, so I guess that, like a lot of characters I’ve known over the years, he has his price! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999650/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999650/ The wrought ironwork connecting these magnificent old gate posts is totally exquisite and of the highest quality craftsmanship, but it is also all that now remains of the original gates themselves.As for the tree…the total incongruity of its position adds, not just a sense of mystery, but of loss as well…the loss of an altogether different age when life was just a little bit slower and standards were significantly higher. It was a time when the quality of workmanship was much more important too and people cared enough to take a little more time to do things properly and with greater meaning…and in a way that spoke of strength, stability and endurance. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999634/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999634/ Perfect weather….bright sunshine, blue skies and enough breeze to stir the tops of the trees and rustle the leaves, making our Autumn visit to Westonbirt an unforgettable, full-on sensory experience. We went on a Friday as well, so it wasn’t too busy! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999679/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999679/ I’ve never seen so many distressed-looking Bees and the numbers of dead ones I find (three yesterday and four today for example) simply beggars belief….and it’s not just certain types of Bee that are affected, such as Honey Bees, but all the species appear to be suffering! It’s not just a question of Bees suffering in the cold and the wet either, because Bees have always been vulnerable to adverse weather conditions. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999702/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999702/ I draw the attention of all members of the Corps Family to the request below from the Operation Frankton Memorial Appeal. As a Vice Patron of this worthy cause, I am seized of the merits of building an enduring memorial in France that will commemorate the courage, skill and determination of all those who participated in this important operation, which has achieved legendary status not only in Corps history but also the national consciousness. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999734/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999734/ Silly, but I didn’t take a photograph of the bright crimson undersides of the claws. However, you can see the diagnostic turquoise-blue colouring (sometimes white) of the claw hinges in the top picture and the defining parallel ridge structures of the rostrum just above the eyes in this photograph (those of the White-Claw Crayfish tend to come more together at the tip). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999900/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999900/ I’ve talked about Cuckoo Flower in depth elsewhere, so I’ve nothing to add really, except that 2009 is turning out to be a particularly good year for this pretty little member of the Cabbage family. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999759/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999759/ 00 00 0 104 077.JPG There are three types of animal kills (especially those involving larger mammals, such as sheep and deer), that always catch my attention….(1), the type committed by canids which are usually (though not always) of a quite recognisable type and typically very messy….(2), kills carried out by felids which are generally far less messy as well as being very distinctive for a variety of other ‘signature-type’ reasons and, (3), kills perpetrated by humans, but which are sometimes made to look as though something else did the dirty deed for reasons best known to the human concerned. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999562/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999562/ Little Oaks 740.JPG Bird-Watcher Cartoon.jpg I buy a fair amount of outdoors photography kit from these guys andit’s been invaluable in getting many of the pictures featured on my websites….though I doappreciate that that’s not necessarily good advertisingfrom their point of view!www.wildlifewatchingsupplies.co.uk https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999658/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999658/ Packed together as tightly as something that’s packed together really tightly, the seeds of this Reedmace female flower head will soon be blown far and wide by the wind, but there was a time not so long ago that country folk would use them to stuff their mattresses. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999692/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999692/ SAR Wales.jpg The National Search And Rescue Dog Association is a voluntary organisation responsible for the training of rescue team members and civilians to become handlers of air-scenting search dogs, enabling them to search for missing persons in the mountainous, lowland, rural and urban areas of, in this case, Wales. I’m giving them a mention here because they are an outstanding organization who continue, despite crippling financial difficulties, to play a vital role in many Search and Rescue (SAR) operations that must be carried out in almost every kind of environment. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999717/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999717/ 00 00 AA WW 001 285.JPG “March is the month that shows people who don’t drink exactly how a hangover feels” ….Garrison Keillor https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999881/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999881/ ! Incidentally, the brown “powder” caught in her hair is the pollen from Lily stamens….You know, the stuff that stains everything….especially the tip of your nose when you sniff a Lily flower and which then stays there all day because nobody can be bothered to tell you about it! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999945/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999945/ I know that my photographic efforts leave much to be desired, but I can’t help observing and then trying to capture in some small measure the tremendous natural beauty I see in even the most mundane of things….Sunlight picking out a few grey, leafless branches growing from the twisted boughs of a moss-covered tree is more attractive to me than any sleek Italian sports car or self-obsessed, silicon-enhanced page three fame junkie could ever be and that’s the way I’ve always been…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999754/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999754/ ….Still clinging to the trees in late December! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999887/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999887/ As the photo shows, Scraps seems to be glowing with health and vitality at the moment and during the summer of 2007 I was amazed to see him with a mate at last and the happy pair managed to raise several young in a nest built just beyond my back fence!The fact that he survived at all is quite miraculous really, but I reckon his worst days are behind him now, but who’s to say what emotional struggles he must yet overcome…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999564/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999564/ Close to freezing, five miles still to walk and only an hour or so of daylight remaining. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999648/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999648/ Part of the “A Sterner Test” series featured on the “Blue and Purple” page of www.wildliferanger.com https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999884/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999884/ Taken from virtually the same position as the “Summerlake” shot below. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999879/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999879/ I took my wife to a place I know today where the Starlings gather in their hundreds of thousands at this time of year (see picture more or less opposite). https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999896/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999896/ With lolling tongue and flapping ears There’s nothing in the world she fears Adventure fills her heart with zest and rarely lets her feel at rest A tough and very hardy soulShe’ll take on any action role And come foul wind or rain or hail She’ll bark defiance at that gale A dog for all the seasons she A soaring spirit flying freeYet, doubtless she will always be Devoted to my SO https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999897/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999897/ With Lolling Tongue and Flapping Ears Theres Nothing in the World She Fears Adventure Fills Her Heart with Zest and Never Lets Her be at Rest The title is taken from a three-verse poem written by my Mum about another dog of mine called “Chloe”. Chloe (pictured below) was a big part of my life during the 1980s and 1990s and was very much an outdoors-type “adventure” dog. She died of a tumour in 1994. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999755/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999755/ Interestingly, Tess picked up a tick during the course of the day….The first time I’ve known any of my dogs to do so smack-bang in the middle of winter! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999751/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999751/ Tess examines her third spraint find of the day. Otter spraint has a slightly musky (some say sweet) odour that isn’t the least bit unpleasant….unlike Mink scat which is foul-smelling and one type of faeces that Tess simply refuses to go anywhere near. I bag and tag all our spraint finds and send them off to our boffins for expert contents analysis. I also destroy any and all other Otter sign we discover in an on-going effort to to conceal their general activities from those who remain determined to wipe them out. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999806/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999806/ Take a little round ball of feathers, add a pointy beak, a silly sticky-uppy tail and a pair of big feet and you have yourself a Wren….and here’s one I made earlier. I’m actually amazed that this picture came out ok because this tiny Troglodytes troglodytes was more than living up to his Latin name by skulking about in the darkest recesses of the thickest woodland undergrowth that he could find and wouldn’t keep still for more than a few moments at a time! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999838/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999838/ Five decades ago this parasitic member of the Figwort family was far more prolific than it is today and I always made sure way back in the 1950s that there was a box-full or two of Yellow Rattle fruit capsules containing the plant' s seeds on the classroom nature-table because of the sound-effects you could make by shaking them! In fact, the country name for the plant used to be “Rattle-Box” (something almost completely forgotten these days it seems), while in certain Southern counties of the UK, the “rattle” was taken as a sign for the start of hay-making…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999843/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999843/ Another perfect example of why you should always have a camera of some sort on your person at all times….This character suddenly appeared out of nowhere, walked right past me as bold as you like and then settled down in a flower bed to munch on a few plant stems less than five metres from me….Although completely wild and unconfined, she didn’t show the least concern when I crept to within just a couple of metres of her to get this photograph! https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999605/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999605/ I was asked today what had happened to the baby Robins raised by Uppity Bill and Stroppy Madam in one of the nest-boxes in my garden and who I featured on my websites a few weeks ago….Well, at least two of the four chicks appear to have survived and are still hanging around and about my garden. They are quite capable of fending for themselves now, but will retain their more camouflaged orangey-brown plumage colouration for a few weeks while they remain at their most vulnerable. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999814/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999814/ I’ve put a few pictures of this particular Robin on my websites, but this one probably epitomises the belligerent nature of this bird more than any other! In all fairness though, what thoughts do you suppose go through his little mind as he sits there surveying his universe? “Ruby” the Robin Mate to “White-Eye”, “Ruby” is easily the most timid of my four resident Robins, one pair occupying the front garden, the other pair at the back…. https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999795/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wildliferanger.co.uk/blog/9999795/ Brittle (2).JPG Brittle (3).JPG I saw her take a rabbit up to the nest on one occasion. She placed it carefully in the middle of the nest platform and then let out three or four loud mewing cries. She hung around for about twenty minutes behaving in an uncharacteristically subdued fashion. She was certainly a long way from being her usual agitated, fidgety self. She eventually flew off without having touched the rabbit herself!