The Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum) In 1912 Frederick Sladen, in his delightful book, The Humble Bee, describes the shrill carder bee as “widely distributed in England and Ireland and common in a good many places but… rare in Scotland.” He doesn’t mention Wales. In 1932 in a fabulous little pocket book on bees, wasps and ants, […]
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And so to the sharks that enter the waters of the British Isles… Whilst most spend their time well offshore and are rare or irregular visitors, it excites me that there are more than 30 shark species who live or venture into our waters. The Great British Sharks! In popular culture, worldwide, shark diversity tends
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Porpoisfully looking at Dol-Fins When we’re lucky enough to see dolphins (or unidentified cetaceans), it’s not always easy to tell which species they are. Sometimes they leap clear or poke their heads out of the water but, more often than not, all we see is a dorsal fin and a bit of back with no
Stormy weather lures me outside I do love the summer but I really, really love the winter storms. Finding something as exotic as a columbus crab is a rare treat. Beachcombing in the dark with the wind howling and the waves crashing is exhilarating enough. But the chances of finding something increase it. The excitement
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Preserving Our Biosphere – A Tribute to Edward O Wilson I had the new experience yesterday evening of reading a book by someone I thought was alive that same morning but had found, during the day, that they’d died. Reading on, it was unsettling, upsetting, and made their urgent plea all the more urgent. As
Signs of Spring As the juggernaut of Christmas goes rumbling past, many people start talking about signs of spring. Now, you may not agree with me about this but I say HOLD-ON…. STOP FOR A MOMENT. Let’s take some time to appreciate winter. Whilst I live with the seasons and love the spring time, I like to
