There’s a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in my local woods. They’re tiny and now is the best time of year to spot them. As soon as the leaves are out they will be hidden from view by a single leaf. This female has been entertaining crowds of photographers. Wearing camouflage and …
Okay, so it’s sticks and not weed, but I didn’t give the weed dance its name. Here’s my favourite pair of Great …
I’ve had a couple of trips to Chard Reservoir in Somerset recently and have been delighted to see Great Crested Grebes doing …
I love seeing Cowslips. They were once so common and people were so rural that almost everyone in the country would know …
Antonio Pigafetta was an Italian scholar and explorer. He joined the expedition to find a western route to the Spice Islands in …
Why are they called tentacles when there are eight of them? Surely they ought to be called octacles? A fascinating exhibit from …
A trip to any natural history museum is always a thrill to me. I loved the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History …
The Doctrine of ‘Queer’ Signatures I’m not in the habit of reading Pink News, the website which is neither pink nor news. …
There’s an Ichthyosaur fossil displayed at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia. They evolved around 250 million years ago and some survived …
I was immediately drawn to this arrangement of fossil shells in the Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia. Glorious, isn’t it? I …
Each of these seats is a carefully laid trap. It’s a system which has evolved to take €18 off each tourist who …
As a child I never understood why people said an octopus had tentacles. Surely they’re octacles? An octopus’s tentacles are multi-function. Just …
‘Trilobite con pista’, it says. No, it’s not an item on the Italian menu in the restaurant at lunch time, but the …
You may know Peter Tatchell best for his views on reducing the age of consent and on sexual relationships with children. He’s …
Six floors, eighty steps, 28 metres and €9. That’s the spiral staircase named after snails, ‘del Bovolo’, in Venice. The Palazzo was …
Gondoliers in Venice appear to earn a top salary of €100,000. For that I’d expect some adherence to uniform standards. We saw …
I’m astonished every time I see detail in fossils. Their age, the heat and the pressure they have been subjected to, and …
A visit to the natural history museum in Venice can be a bit of a shock for those unprepared for a full-on …
A tale of two bridges. One is the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1600. It’s the bridge between …
It’s a foggy early morning in Venezia and the low cloud gives an eerie feel to the place as we wander around …
A trip to Venice isn’t complete without at least two hours visiting the Museo de la historia naturale. As well as dinosaur …
On a recent trip to Venezia (Venice) I was fascinated to see that gondolas lean. They all have one side much larger …
From the age of five I was taught how to torture, mutilate and kill. I was instructed how to inflict the maximum …
It’s a dull day in Somerset but it’s enlivened by the sound of Linnets in the air. There’s a mobile flock exploring …
Seeing an original Paul Nash painting is always a revelation. His Totes Meer is a wonderful moonlit seascape of ruined German planes. …
A trip in dull weather with Birds of Poole Harbour gave me the chance to see a very distant Marsh Harrier while …
Herring Gulls love a good chase. If there’s a chance of kleptoparasitism, they’ll take it. This one seems to have been just …
There’s a Cycad in Kew. I love them. Just like conifers and the Gingko tree, Cycads are gymnosperms, which means their unfertilised …
They’re noisy, tiny, green and yellow, and at the top of a tree. The Siskins, Carduelis spinus, are here. There’s a large …
It’s spring and the Black-Headed Gulls are showing us just how unobservant the person who named them was. This one at RSPB …