The Nuthatches win the day
Two Davids drive off a Goliath. … More The Nuthatches win the day
Two Davids drive off a Goliath. … More The Nuthatches win the day
All is not always what it seems in the bird world. … More A bit of excitement on the Riverside Walk
A long-awaited few hours’ rest for the soul along the river. … More Back to the Riverside Walk at last
A riverside walk all to ourselves. … More The other side of the river
Just thought I’d add this to the social media snowdrop avalanche… Riverside Walk, January 30th. To paraphrase Churchill, it isn’t the beginning of spring, but it may be the beginning of the end of winter.
Wagtail rings identified by Twitter in hours! … More Grey Wagtail update
For some reason I had an appointment for an anaesthetic pre-assessment today, even though no operation has yet been scheduled, presumably because they hadn’t had the results of Monday’s MRI. But I went along anyway, hoping they did have the results, and the ‘simple’ bowel op had been scheduled, meaning the liver spot was no … More Pointless pre-assessment with an unexpected benefit
I love winter – what a difference a day can make. One day it’s brilliant sunshine, the next the world is engulfed in mist, as you can see from these photos of the Riverside Walk, taken only a few days apart. One day the trees are thrown into knife-edge contrast by the cold blue sunlit … More Light and shade
A lovely autumn dog walk at Ninesprings Country Park in Yeovil that had a surprise in store. Ninesprings is my other go to dog walking venue in Yeovil, useful when it’s raining because of all the tree cover, and if you stay on the paths it’s not as muddy as the Riverside Walk. Of course, … More A new word at Ninesprings
A few new arrivals on the Riverside Walk. … More A few bits and bobs
A solitary Bramble flower emerges from a sea of green along the Riverside Walk, heralding summer, but hinting at the berry-rich autumn to follow.
Macro photography is the new meditation! … More More small things
Some of the smaller occupants of the Riverside Walk … More All the small things
Migrating swifts greeted with an endless feast of gnats. … More Swifts at twilight
An unexpectedly early morning expedition along my favourite riverside walk. … More Early morning walk
The Yeovil Country Park Riverside Walk is full of Chiffchaffs at the moment, and more seem to be arriving every day if their all-pervading sound is anything to go by. Some of them have been there all winter (a sign of global warming I suppose, although I wouldn’t exactly call it tropical at the moment!), … More A Plethora of Warblers
A Sparrowhawk hides his head in embarrassment at missing his prey. … More A commotion in the woods
This is the reality of bird photography for most of us – small birds far away, too far away even for a decent walkabout telephoto. For every great shot you show off on Flickr or Twitter or wherever, there are always countless others of birds determined not to let you get anywhere near them. The … More Small birds far away
Might not be writing too many long polemics for a few days – day job to go back to after a busy weekend off, boiler to get working, house to clean after the weekend influx of friends, relatives and dogs (all of which was fun of course, if exhausting!), aged parents to sort out, again, … More No politics, just dogs in the snow
This one may seem like it’s about photography, but it’s not, it’s about how my head works sometimes. Took the dogs to Ninesprings this morning, as I often do. For those who don’t know Yeovil in Somerset (England), it’s an old Victorian estate bought by the District Council a good while ago, and converted into … More What’s in your head, zombie…?
This one is for birdwatchers and photographers only, really. I bought myself a Nikon 50mm 1.8D after Christmas. It has autofocus, but this only works on the later Nikons that have an autofocus motor in the body. If you have, say, a 3200, you need the 1.8G, which is way more expensive. I thought it … More Nifty Fifty
Well, the Water Rail is still at Ninesprings, the jewel in South Somerset District Council’s Yeovil Country Park. He was certainly there last year, so the theory is that he’s overwintering here. He likes the shadows of the scrub at the bottom of the stream, just before it enters the lake. Park by the playground, … More Water Rail, Ninesprings
One of the shorter of the five Yeovil Country Park walks, but no less beautiful. … More In search of Yeovil Country Park, Part 2
The Riverside Walk. As I may have said before, Yeovil is not renowned as a place of beauty, but it does have some surprisingly beautiful places within it, if you know where to look. One of those is the Riverside Walk, part of Yeovil Country Park. If you want a larger version of this map, … More In search of Yeovil Country Park, Part 1
A walk through Norton Covert at Ham Hill hill fort, Somerset, following the route taken in ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’. … More In search of… Max Tovey
An unexpectedly pleasant walk through Yeovil along a river I didn’t know existed. … More In search of Dodham Brook
Was Joseph of Arimathea not in fact buried at Glastonbury, but instead on St Michael’s Hill, Montacute? … More Joseph of Arimathea – an alternative grave?
Most people with an interest in mythology know of the legend that Joseph of Arimathea came to Britain after the crucifixion and built the country’s first church at Glastonbury, but not so many know the alternative beginnings and ends to the story. No-one really knows how the legend started, and Joseph wasn’t mentioned in the … More Joseph of Arimathea – the alternative journey to Glastonbury
The story of the witch that supposedly haunts Somerset’s Ham Hill is well known locally, but, as I have now discovered, everyone I’ve heard it from has got it completely wrong. But the real story is actually even more fascinating. Alastair Swinnerton is the author of ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’, a Young Adult novel set among the myths … More The real witch Of Hamdon Hill
You may think there’s been a lot of flooding in the last few years, but nothing comes close to the devastating Somerset floods in January 1607. Back in 2014, you could look out from Ham Hill, Somerset, the largest hill fort in the country, and see the flooded Somerset Levels in all their ‘glory’, but thankfully that’s been … More The Somerset Tsunami