The Nature Blog

Great Mullein And The Mullein Moth

Published on 2012-01-08 16:34:35

Despite spending much of my free time out in the countryside observing nature for as long as I can remember I recently stumbled across a new find in the form of a plant I’d never seen before. Whilst it isn’t rare it is most exotic-looking and my first thought when I saw it was that [...]

Rwanda- A Celebration of Spirit

Published on 2011-10-17 05:49:52

Louise Stanion from luxury holidays operator Cox & Kings discovers the little known treasures of Rwanda. There is a long row of tall, African drums lined up in the courtyard of Butare’s National Museum. The cowhide drum skins of brown and cream are held in place by an intricate rope system; behind which are tucked [...]

How To Tell The Different Between Slow Worms And Snakes

Published on 2011-10-16 10:58:04

  photo credit: anabis Something long and thin wriggles past you in the countryside. The knee-jerk response may be that you’ve just seen a snake but how can you be certain that what you’ve seen isn’t a slow worm instead? Let’s take a closer look at slow worms and the different species of snake present [...]

Madagascar: Life At An Evolutionary Tangent

Published on 2011-09-21 04:10:59

photo credit: Frank.Vassen Cast adrift in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar has been separated from other landmasses for longer than any other island on earth. For tens of millions of years evolution has played here in virtual isolation, heading off at a different tangent to the rest of the world. This lengthy geographical separation is key [...]

Wild Privet

Published on 2011-08-17 17:13:21

Most of us are familiar with the “domestic” privet that makes dense hedges up and down the country but it’s possible that you won’t be familiar with it’s wilder and more interesting cousin the wild privet. Unlike the clipped hedges of suburbia wild privet is not a very dense or indeed tall-growing plant and may [...]

How To Identify Stoats And Weasels

Published on 2011-07-17 16:12:07

photo credit: markus.hoppe The mustelids are a group of mammals which in the UK include badgers, otters, polecats, stoats and weasels. Of these the greatest problems with identification seem to be how to tell a weasel from a stoat and so I thought a few pointers may come in useful. Fortunately once you know the [...]

British Seals: How To Tell The Difference Between Common Seals And Grey Seals

Published on 2011-07-13 04:33:22

photo credit: Duncan~ Around our shore there are two commonly seen British seals – namely the Grey Seal and the Common Seal. While at first glance one seal may look very much like another when you know what you’re looking for these two species are actually surprisingly easy to tell apart. Whilst factors such as [...]

Where To See Adders

Published on 2011-07-06 03:54:30

photo credit: Danny Chapman Adders (or vipers) are the UK’s only venomous snake and whilst quite a degree of fear still surrounds them from people who picture deadly cobras hiding in their garden these snakes are generally shy and retiring. Indeed if adders were easy to find then we wouldn’t need an article like this [...]

Celestron 52250 Spotting Scope Review

Published on 2011-02-26 07:44:24

Whilst I appreciate the benefits of spotting scopes I have generally shied away from them because whilst I enjoy watching wildlife close up seeing serious birders carting around heavy and bulky scopes through the countryside just doesn’t look like much fun to me so instead I have generally relied on a decent pair of binoculars [...]

Pentax 62216 Papilio Review

Published on 2011-02-23 05:25:03

As a passionate “bug hunter” who spends considerable time during the better months of the year out looking for insects to observe I have often thought that a pair of binoculars capable of a very close focus would be useful. While spiders and so on can often be caught and observed under a magnifying glass, [...]