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!

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.

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.

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!.

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…

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.

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…

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?

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…

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. They’re virtually inseparable and fly in the face of avian…

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!Still, it was these very conditions that drew me up there in the first place and…

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…

….Not exactly an easy walk when you feel like cr*p the whole time, but there’s absolutely no stopping her! ime,

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…