Books on a Bookshelf

Good Reads 2020

12th January 2020On My Mind

It’s January, and while others like to experiment with newfangled diets and the latest exercise craze,  I like to reflect on some of my intake of books over the last twelve months.Read more

by walkingphotographer

Malham Cove Sunrise

Post Election Hangover Cure

13th December 2019On My Mind

Elections are gruelling beasts. The build up to polling day is typically protracted, divisive and generally hard to escape! The day of an election is no less intense with endlessly repetitive speculations and relatively pointless predictions. Read more

by walkingphotographer

BWPA, Coffees and Art on Ice...

3rd November 2019On My Mind

Rich Bunce at British Wildlife Photography Awards
It's mid-September and I'm dead excited and it's not because I'm a year closer to turning forty! Read more

by walkingphotographer

Another Year Blessed With Alfie the Lurcher

29th October 2019On My Mind

Happy Adoption Day Alfie!

As you get older, some decisions you take have bigger impacts than others. The day we adopted Alfie our lives have been turned upside down. In those six years we’ve had to work out many things, but may be the most challenging was keeping Alfie out of bins!

Happy Adoption Day Alfie, our lives all the richer for having you in it…

by walkingphotographer

Want to see what 526 Lapwings and 89 Starlings Look Like?

9th September 2019Wildlife Sightings

Do you know what 615 birds flying in the air looks like? Well I didn’t, or at least I wasn’t sure. That was until I saw, photographed and counted them. 

It happened a couple of weeks ago. A chance glance out of the studio window and there they were, swarming in the distance, five hundred and twenty six lapwings and eighty nine starlings. Read more

by walkingphotographer

A65 Flowers by Night

Otterly Perplexing

20th August 2019On My Mind

So far this year, on three seperate occasions, I've noticed dead otters on the A65 between the Generous Pioneer round about (Burley in Wharfedale) and Kashmiri Aroma restaurant. This represents a distance of just under a mile. On each occasionI've returned within a matter of hours only to discover no trace of the original road kill. Read more

by walkingphotographer

Two young boys bird watching through house window. Black and white Photo

Get More Garden Birds in Your Life!

31st July 2019On My Mind

Two young boys bird watching through house window. Black and white Photo
At a time when good news nature stories seem few and far between; a small segment in this month’s British Birds magazine offers some most welcome relief! Read more

by walkingphotographer

Rural countryside at Malham

The Longest Day - A Day of Two Halves

1st July 2019Walks

Young Peregrine fledgling in flight, Malham
It’s just after 5 am when I arrive and this is not how it was supposed to be. The Met Office app has failed me, again. Not right this minute, no, right this minute the app is quite accurate, but at 11 pm last night the app told me I’d be bathed in golden sunlight. Had I known Malham Cove would be enveloped by cloud and drizzle, I would have made a bigger flask of tea! Read more

by walkingphotographer

When the final cry of the curlew is heard but not recognised

19th May 2019On My Mind

Pivotal Moment for Sun Lane Green Belt  

 

I’ve lost any sense of how long I’ve been standing here in this hedge.  The twine of barbed wire and bramble pressing into my thigh is marginally more bearable than the stench seeping out of the weighty poo bags that hang out in this same hedge. Time evaporates as I watch the first midges of the year stretch their wings and dance, backlit by the shards of early evening sunlight. It’s hypnotic. A sudden, abstract flash of white in the distance catches my eye and snatches me away from my daze. I’m on full alert. It’s blurred and masked by several other hedgerows but there’s no doubt in my mind. She’s here.Read more

by walkingphotographer

Two swifts (Apus apus) soaring in a stormy spring sky, Burley in Wharfedale.

The Birds From Hell, A Most Welcome Return!

7th May 2019On My Mind,Wildlife Sightings

It's been a largely grey and wet day here in Burley. Miserable some might say, and many would agree. Yet, among the gloominess, my cheeks have that painful glow you get when you blow up too many balloons. Pain not from blowing out too much hot air though, but from smiling. Smiling at my first sight of this year's Swifts! Read more

by walkingphotographer