Kingfisher on a washed up tree on the wharfe by Burley in Wharfedale

Tree in the Wharfe

Female kingfisher on the river wharfe
The persistent and rhythmic sound of rain falling on the attic roof is unable to calm the current circuit of thoughts racing through my brain at what feels like 100 inconsequential considerations a second. Struggling to grasp onto a single trail, one thread eventually takes root. A tree, the tree. Read more


Black browed albatross, bempton cliffs

Wildlife vs Football

What do football fans and wildlife watchers have in common? Read more


Cullipol, Luing

Ship to Wreck, Seil Part 3: Sheep, Lambs & Other Scenes

Here’s the final installment from our (Easter!) excursion. As well as the Aurora and wildlife we were treated to some very special scenes including newborn lambs on Oban Seil Farm, gorgeous displays at Arduaine Garden and a plethora of inspiring scapes. 

Here’s the photo highlights… 


Green woodpecker in flight, Malham

A Mindful Moment with a Green Woodpecker (Picus Viridis)

Some highlights from a wonderful encounter with a Green Woodpecker (Picus Viridis) while leading the Walking Photography wildlife photography workshop in Malham.


Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) with nesting material

500km for a Wren, Seil Part 2: Wildlife Encounters

Firstly, apologies to anyone offended by my use of kilometres over miles, but 500km just sounds better than 310.686 miles! Read more


Aurora borealis Northern Lights over Mull from Seil

Oh What a Night, Seil Part 1: Northern Lights

It's unlikely you've met anyone who waxes lyrical about service stations quite as much as me. I have a ranking table, and Tebay Services tops it. Read more


Hare running on Ilkley Moor

River & Moor, A Perfect Day

Grebes weed dancing on the water, hares boxing on the fields, and peregrines performing death-defying ariel displays. For me, spring is often like going to a music festival where all your favourite bands are on different stages at the same time! Read more


Wader flocks at Snettisham

Curlew Field Workers at Snettisham

4.30am and I really should have double-checked the "tune" I selected for my alarm call. Read more


Little Owl on perch, Burley in Wharfedale

First Curlews of the Year

Well, it happened. After too many moments agonising whether my first curlew encounter of the year should be a planned affair or just left to chance, the inevitability of the latter occurred. An evening walk over Eastfields, Burley in Wharfedale, leading an organised owl walk.

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A Festive Miracle on British Local Streets (Nacreous Clouds)

That line between awe-inspiring and crippling fear is never thinner than in the imagination of a child. I see it in our own kids, the scales of fear versus wonder strike a balance as they experience unfamiliar environments, people, and objects. And it reawakens those same emotions I experienced growing up. 

As a child living in the suburban borders between Greater London and Surrey, there were many (seemingly) unearthly moments, typically after dark. Encounters that almost maleficently hover that boundary between amazement and trepidation. 

Blood-curdling cries of foxes cavorting in the graveyard that adjoined our garden, sporadic flashes illuminating the night sky and piercing the bedroom curtains, caused by the sparks of local train lines, and deafening planes that sounded so close they might take the roof off the house. 

 

As well as the gremlins and zombies, I also used to imagine wondrous marvels too and at Christmas time I would look out of the same bedroom window, almost expectantly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the “Bethlehem Star”. Naturally, I never saw the celestial apparition made familiar by all my parents’ greeting cards. However this Christmas, something just as wondrous and unbelievable appeared across British skies…

Rainbow Clouds / Nacreous Clouds in Yorkshire Skies

The appearance of Rainbow or Nacreous clouds in the UK is a rarity. And their unexpected emergence, for me at least, revived that same childlike sense of awe versus foreboding, as my limited brain tried to rationale these unfamiliar illusions.

Nacreous clouds are caused by light (usually when the sun is low or even below the horizon) catching the fine ice particles that typically hover high in the Stratosphere. They’re sometimes known as polar stratospheric clouds and can only form in temperatures below -78°C.  The extreme temperatures make this phenomenon very unlikely outside of the polar regions and for us to see the event in the UK it requires the temporary displacement stratospheric polar vortex; or a Christmas miracle!