Taking advantage of a low spring tide and a glorious warm autumn day, we walked west from Seaton Hole, round to Beer (a surprisingly short and easy trek), and then on to the fabulous chalk cliff and unspoilt shingle beach at Pound’s Pool after a stop for a…
Category: natural history
What with Storm Ali and now the impending storm Bronagh (where do they dream this up?), the trees have been taking a bit of a battering. Interestingly, the oaks seem to have borne the brunt, with barrowfuls of twigs and small branches bearing golden, russet and green leaves…
At only 5 miles long, the Exeter Canal is short and sweet, and was designed to allow ship access to the centre of the city from the Exe estuary. The first post-Roman canal to be built in the 1550s, this ancient waterway is today much visited by walkers,…
Making the most of the hot dry weather, I did a clifftop walk along part of the South West Coast Path. We started in Bowleaze Cove, which is bordered by a strange mixture of expensive upmarket housing and budget tourist accommodation, plus a rather intriguing Spanish-style building of…
A baking hot summer’s day was perfect for spending time on the beach, dabbling in rock pools and enjoying the sea breeze. The Hartland peninsula on the north coast of Devon has a rocky foreshore with strongly folded strata of Carboniferous sandstone and shale, which run out to…
Genetic, not musical! I was struck by a particularly distinctive plant of red campion (Silene dioica) growing in the hedge (as seen above), which was a bit reminiscent of the flowers of ragged robin, another member of the Caryophyllaceae tribe. I noticed a long time ago that the…
Anyone with a pet cat or dog will have observed them dreaming – eyes rolling, ears and tails flicking, whiskers and paws twitching. As hunters, we imagine that they are probably confidently dreaming about chasing mice or rabbits. Not so many people have watched a horse dreaming though.…
Every time I go down to the field to feed the ponies, I enjoy the birdsong in the woods. This morning, a cock blackbird sang on a low branch rather than his usual treetop, and I listened entranced. Further away in the woods, I could hear another bird…
I hope H E Bates will forgive me for purloining the title of his bucolic novel for my current piece. Hawthorn or may (Crataegus monogyna) is the third star in my spring play – first, blackthorn – second, gean – and now it’s time for the densely packed…