The Joy of Bees Honey bee swarms can occur anytime from mid-spring, through the summer. From my experience, they peak in July and quickly reduce as the month fades, with August swarms quite rare. I’ve always been fascinated by bees and started beekeeping when I was 16. My mentor was my first boss and he […]
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
The whale is the most astonishing animal the world has ever known. It does not merely inspire superlatives – it is a living superlative. Jacques Cousteau, 1986 Meeting a Minke Whale In late December 2015 a Minke Whale washed ashore at Ynyslas where the River Dyfi meets the sea. Information came filtering in through social
Whale Encounters Big and small Read More »
Creating Octagopus! This is the tale of Octagopus and how the image inspired by an octopus, came to be. Octagopus is probably our most popular image after Curly. I may have to enter a sort of whimsy-world to describe her in an entertaining way. So here we go… She was waiting in my head to
Inspired by an Octopus Read More »
An introduction to echinoderms and their weird and wonderful lives. Have you ever lost touch with a relative? It’s a rhetorical question really because you and I are related but our ancestors lost touch hundreds or even thousands of years ago. It is, in biological terms, meant to happen, we are made both to disperse
Spotting A Seal Pup – A Treat Like Christmas We’ve blogged about seals before but it seems there is always a bit more to say and seal pupping season comes round each year just like Christmas with snowy white seal pup and shingle swells. Earlier this year too we had the treat of Wally the
A Celebration Of Seal Pup Season Read More »
Don’t let wasps ruin the end of your summer Summery weather makes us want to be outdoors but, as the season progresses some of us are pestered or terrorised by little black and yellow beings who seem intent on spoiling our fun. It is all a misunderstanding though, wasps are our allies and they are
Encounters with Cephalopods – Squid The World’s oceans still hold many mysteries and secrets. For all our exploration, technology and science, the seas around the British Isles are no less beguiling than any around the World. As a child, I remember looking out at the sea. Most often it was murky and choppy, and I’d
Encounters with Cephalopods Read More »
Celebrating Frog Day! Frogs and toads (anurans) are widely considered to be the world’s most threatened and rapidly declining group of animals. The statistics are horrifying; the cause is us. Save the Frogs Anyone wondering what we can do or if anyone is doing anything should consider this carefully. Whilst conservationists are fighting hard to
How to tell a crow from a jackdaw! The corvids have much to crow about when it comes to intelligence having outsmarted primates in some tests. There are 8 species (sort-of) resident in the UK. Raven Carrion Crow Hooded Crow Rook Chough Jackdaw Magpie Jay Although some, like the magpie are much easier to distinguish
Recognising corvids Read More »
