Category: Nature
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BOATING IN BANGLADESH
DECEMBER 2025 Bangladesh might not be most people’s first choice of holiday destination, but then most people have never heard of a Masked Finfoot. This bizarre bird, looking like a cross between a duck and a grebe, used to be widespread across south-east Asia and relatively easy to see. Now, as a result of…
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BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
September 2025 It feels slightly anachronistic to be showing my passport at a land border in Europe. With most countries now in the free travel Schengen Area, border formalities on the continent are largely a thing of the past. Still, here I am at the Croatian checkpoint standing in the hot mid-morning sun and…
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WHALES AND WINDBIRDS IN MADEIRA
May 2025 The Portuguese island of Madeira strikes you as a remarkable place before your plane has even landed. Forming the tip of an oceanic volcano, the main island is steep and mountainous. This leaves very little flat land to work with, so Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport is a marvel of engineering with the…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 115
7th April 2025 LYMINGTON PIER TO CHEWTON BUNNY The trains are running again this morning, so I head out before dawn and catch the first train from Southampton to Lymington Pier at the end of the line, passing through the woods and heaths of the New Forest and seeing some Fallow Deer from the…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 114
Sunday 6th April 2025 HILL TOP (BEAULIEU) TO LYMINGTON PIER Thirteen months after my last bout of coast walking I return to Southampton by train and catch a bus to where I left off in the heathland of the New Forest National Park. The weather is forecast to be warm and sunny, and I…
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WINTER IN THE BROKEN LAND
In the heart of eastern England, straddling the border between Norfolk and Suffolk, lies an area known as the Brecklands (or ‘Brecks’ for short). The name is derived from ‘Broken Lands’, as they were known in medieval times. A large expanse of open, sandy country cleared of trees during the Neolithic, by the Middle…
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WHAT LARKS! SOUTH AFRICAN MEGA-BIRDING
NOVEMBER 2024 For those of my generation, growing up in 70s and 80s Britain, South Africa will forever be associated with the dark days of apartheid. Never far from the TV news, this was the era of protests outside the embassy in Trafalgar Square, boycotts of Sun City and Cape apples, necklacing, and “Free…
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THE PASTON WAY
29th September 2024 ‘Poppyland’ is a quaint name given to an area of coastal north-east Norfolk, UK, between the seaside towns of Sheringham and Mundesley. It was popularised by the 19th century poet and theatre critic Clement Scott, who first visited the area from London in 1883 and coined the term Poppyland in his…
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ORCHIDS OF DEVIL’S DYKE
One of my favourite local walks runs along the top of the ancient earthwork known as Devil’s Dyke in east Cambridgeshire. I have been going there for five decades, ever since my dad used to take me there as a child. Back then we didn’t really know who built Devil’s Dyke or for what…
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ON THE PINGO TRAIL
8th June 2024 A pingo is a geological phenomenon found in some of the coldest parts of the world. It is a small, dome-shaped hill that forms on flat areas of permafrost when water from an underground aquifer freezes into a lens of ice below the surface. The overlying soil and sediment is pushed…
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TAIWAN BIRDING DIARY 2024 – Part 2: Lowland Birding
26th April 2024 We left the mountains of Dasyueshan and Wushe with 29 of Taiwan’s 32 endemic birds under our belts. These are the birds that are found only in Taiwan and nowhere else in the world. With the slightly alarming earth tremors and the relentless rain hopefully behind us, we descended back into…
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TAIWAN BIRDING DIARY 2024 – Part 1: Mountain Birding
Following a few days in Taipei, my main reason for visiting Taiwan was to join a birding group and travel around the rest of the island searching for Taiwan’s unique wildlife. Taiwan is classified by Birdlife International as an Endemic Bird Area which, at the time of writing, hosts 32 endemic bird species (in…
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TAIWAN DIARY 2024 – TAIPEI
DAY ONE – 18th APRIL 2024 Taiwan is often in the news these days. Usually because of the ongoing friction with China, but recently also due to the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that hit the city of Hualien on 3rd April 2024. This was Taiwan’s strongest earthquake for twenty-five years and, when I first heard…
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SEALS INCOMING!
I wouldn’t normally expect to see seals this far inland, and I was surprised the first time I saw one swimming in the River Great Ouse in the landlocked county of Cambridgeshire. That was in late January 2016, and my first instinct identified it as a European Otter, before quickly realising that it was…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 113
Saturday 9th March 2024 HARDLEY TO HILL TOP (BEAULIEU) I set off early today and catch the bus back to where I left off yesterday, stepping off into a light rain shower. Fortunately it doesn’t last long, but the day remains cold, cloudy and windy, apart from a few sunny spells. I won’t…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 111
Thursday 7th March 2024 WARSASH TO BURSLEFORD Last night was my last night on the campsite. It was much warmer, and I slept well. This morning I surprise a fox that was lurking around the shower block and it runs off. I have to carry all my stuff again, but I’m not planning…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 110
Wednesday 6th March 2024 PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR TO WARSASH With the sky clearing overnight, the temperature has dropped again and I wake up early to another frosty morning. This time even the zip on my tent has frozen solid and I’m trapped inside. Eventually I manage to work it open enough to create a small…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 108
Monday 4th March 2024 HAYLING ISLAND TO HAYLING FERRY (PORTSMOUTH) In broad daylight it’s much easier to find my way back to where I left off last night. The footpath up the western side of the island is very pleasant, following the course of an old railway through a narrow strip of woods, with…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 106
Saturday 2nd March 2024 EMSWORTH TO HAYLING ISLAND Last September I completed the coast of Sussex, and next up is the county of Hampshire. Sitting more-or-less dead centre of the English south coast, Hampshire feels like a watershed between the south-east and the south-west of England. Sussex is definitely in the south-east, still within…
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A CONGREGATION OF WAXWINGS
I’m fairly sure a ‘congregation’ isn’t the correct collective noun for a group of Waxwings, but then I’ve never really seen the point of collective nouns for birds. Who comes up with them? Who actually uses them? Ok, some of them are poetic I guess: ‘a charm of Goldfinches’, ‘a murder of Crows’, ‘a…
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A SHORT TRIP TO KUWAIT
NOVEMBER 2023 Visiting Kuwait was mostly about ticking a new country off the list. I had a few days of annual leave to use before the end of the year and an air miles account that they were threatening to close due to lack of activity. Kuwait was the nearest destination outside of Europe…
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A LITTLE CRAKE IN MILTON KEYNES
11th November 2023 Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire is more often associated with concrete cows than with rare migrant birds. The iconic cattle have long since gone, but now there’s a Little Crake in town. Or rather at Linford Lakes Nature Reserve on the edge of town. Only about 100 of these secretive birds have…
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FAT MERMAIDS OF THE NORTH SEA
28th October 2023 There are Mermaids living around the coast of Britain. Plus-sized, meaty Mermaids inhabiting an ever-shifting domain where the land meets the sea. With their legendary beauty and seductive voices, these corpulent creatures come ashore on the beaches of Norfolk every winter to birth their podgy progeny. Half human and half…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 105
Thursday 7th September 2023 BOSHAM TO EMSWORTH In the morning I pack up my tent and leave the campsite for the final day’s walk of this leg. Today’s walk consists of a hike around the shores of two peninsulas in the north of Chichester Harbour, and it should be a relatively short day. …
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 103
Tuesday 5th September 2023 EAST WITTERING TO BOSHAM Today will be another long day, even longer than yesterday in fact. The route meanders up and down the channels of a large estuary, rather than straight along the coast, so it’s difficult to estimate its length by glancing at the map. Fortunately I don’t get…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 102
Monday 4th September 2023 ALDWICK BAY TO EAST WITTERING I wake up on the beach at dawn and start walking almost immediately. Today will be a long day in order to get to the campsite I’ve chosen. The distance straight along the coast isn’t too far, but there are two large inlets that I…
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HIKING THE RIDGEWAY – day 6 of 6
WENDOVER TO IVINGHOE BEACON 6th July 2023 Wendover is a very attractive small town with all the facilities you might need on a hike. I got off the train from Aylesbury and continued where I left off by walking along the High Street, which today had a market. Before leaving, I ate a full…
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HIKING THE RIDGEWAY – day 5 of 6
WATLINGTON TO WENDOVER 5th July 2023 I didn’t sleep as well as I expected. When I had woken up at about 1.45am and gone out to the toilet, the rain had stopped and some stars were visible in the sky. It took me a while to get back to sleep, and the last thing…
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HIKING THE RIDGEWAY – day 3 of 6
COURT HILL TO GORING 3rd July 2023 There was no cooked breakfast available at Court Hill hostel in the morning, but the manager had kindly left me a few things to eat – cereal and milk, bread for toast, apples, bananas and tea bags. Today’s walk passed through Oxfordshire and Berkshire, before crossing…
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HIKING THE RIDGEWAY – day 2 of 6
LIDDINGTON HILLFORT TO COURT HILL 2nd July 2023 I got up at 6am to a completely dry tent, thanks to a good breeze blowing up all night from the valley below. The town of Swindon looked a lot better from up here than it did the day before when I got off the train…
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HIKING THE RIDGEWAY – day 1 of 6
INTRODUCTION The Ridgeway is said to be Britain’s oldest road. In use for at least 5000 years, it forms part of an ancient trading route from Wales and the English West Country to East Anglia. These trackways developed naturally as ancient travellers made their way across the drier, higher ground. Initially a series of…
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THE NIGHT HERONS ARE COMING!
The Black-crowned Night Heron has a huge worldwide distribution, right across North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia…but it isn’t usually found in the UK. In the last decade or so, one of the big stories in British ecology has been the colonisation of these islands by, and increased breeding success of, long-legged…
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LARK VALLEY PATH
11th June 2023 MILDENHALL TO BURY ST EDMUNDS This is another short riverside walk in Suffolk, this time in the west of the county. It mostly follows the River Lark between the towns of Mildenhall and Bury St Edmunds. I was born and raised in nearby Newmarket, so I’m familiar with some short stretches…
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WALKING TO SLOVAKIA
VIENNA AND BRATISLAVA – part 2 of 2 Day Four – 20th May 2023 This morning it is hot and sunny as I catch a train to Marchegg, a small Austrian town near the Slovakian border. The journey takes less than an hour across flat arable land and from the window I see a…
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HAMSTER HUNTING IN VIENNA
VIENNA AND BRATISLAVA – part 1 of 2 The wild hamsters of Vienna have become tiny wildlife celebrities in recent years, especially since featuring in David Attenborough’s Seven Worlds, One Planet series in 2019. The European Hamster (or Black-bellied Hamster) is a different species from the domestic hamsters kept as pets – these are…
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GIPPING VALLEY RIVER PATH
29th April 2023 STOWMARKET TO IPSWICH The sun is shining and it’s a perfect spring day for another local walk. This time it’s a one-day meander through beautiful countryside in the county of Suffolk. ‘Meander’ is exactly the right word for it as well, as this walk follows the twisting course of the River…
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PATHFINDER LONG DISTANCE WALK
The Pathfinder Long Distance Walk is a 46 mile (74km) circular hiking trail in Cambridgeshire. Sandwiched between Cambridge and Huntingdon, it passes through mostly arable land, crosses the River Great Ouse twice, and visits many attractive villages, often with amusing names like Pidley and Yelling. The walk was designed to celebrate the Royal Air…
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THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD – Book Review
“The weirdest bird’s-nesting expedition that has ever been or ever will be.” Apsley Cherry-Garrard The “worst journey” referred to in the title was a kind of side quest to Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated 1910-1913 voyage to the South Pole aboard the Terra Nova. Published in 1922, it was written by the wonderfully named…
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ARCTIC ENCOUNTERS – part 3 of 3
ARCTIC OCEAN 9th – 12th March 2023 I have to catch the boat early this morning, so I miss out on the buffet breakfast. It’s a shame as this hotel, as well as the usual buffet items, serves a selection of fish, and I’m enjoying the novelty of having toast with salmon, herring and…
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ARCTIC ENCOUNTERS – part 2 of 3
NORWAY’S VARANGER FJORD 6th – 8th March 2023 I wake up to a morning that is bright and sunny, but still cold at -20°c (-4°F). I hear that I’ve chosen a good week to come here as the previous week was snowy and windy and the roads were blocked. There are four onward buses to…
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ARCTIC ENCOUNTERS – part 1 of 3
NORTHERN FINLAND 2nd – 5th March 2023 This isn’t my first trip to the Arctic. In 2019 I rode the Inlandsbanan, a slow summer train that runs through the centre of Sweden and stops as it crosses the Arctic Circle so that we could step down and take photos before continuing on to Gällivare at…
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SEARCHING FOR THE LAST WILLOW TITS
No one would say a Willow Tit was a glamorous bird. Few people will ever see one, and even fewer would be impressed by one if they did. Closely related to the Chickadees of North America, it is mostly pale brown with a black cap and chin. Its call is harsh and unattractive. When it…
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WINTER WILDLIFE AT WICKEN FEN
After a couple of wet weekends, I’m keen to get outdoors again and look for some wildlife. I decide to spend a day at Wicken Fen, one of Britain’s oldest nature reserves and one of only four areas of wetland left behind when the large fens of eastern England were drained for agriculture. I arrive…
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EAST SUFFOLK REVISITED
TWITCHING ALDEBURGH’S ALPINE ACCENTOR 29th October 2022 I’m back on the east coast of Suffolk again. Two weeks after the Red Deer rut weekend and a week after a London theatre trip, I had intended to stay at home this weekend and do some long-overdue housework. My oven needs cleaning and Henry the Hoover…
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STUCK IN A RUT
A ‘STAG WEEKEND’ WITH SUFFOLK’S RUTTING RED DEER 15th and 16th October 2022 East Anglia is arguably the best region of Britain for viewing deer in the wild. While many people might associate deer with the Highlands of Scotland, I would say that the presence of five out of the six British deer species…
Vole Explosion 