Beachcombing Some of us are inveterate beachcombers and cannot resist the urge to poke about in the flotsam and jetsam, examine an interesting piece of seaweed or collect a handful of shells. For most people this is just part of a walk on the beach and it goes no further. However, for the naturally curious […]
The area we call the seashore lies between the high-water mark, the shoreline, and line which marks the lowest level to which the water retreats on a falling tide. This is a transitional habitat shaped by the action of the sea, the geology of the land and geographical location. The composition of the coastal communities
Animal species in my garden In the first year I concentrated on moths and then started on some of the other invertebrates I was catching in the moth trap and on general sightings of some of the more charismatic, and relatively easily identifiable, groups of insects – butterflies, hoverflies, dragonflies and bumblebees. Each year I
Sometimes a common term can create very different images depending on how you view the world.So what picture does the term “pond skater” bring to mind?An iconic work of art or an aquatic insect? The serene figure of the Reverend Robert Walker, minister of the Canongate Kirk and a member of the Edinburgh Skating Society,
Back in January a few of us involved in Curracag and the Outer Hebrides Biological Recording group decided to launch a phenology survey we ended up calling Signs of Spring. Phenology is the study of when things happen and for centuries people have systematically recorded when certain natural events occur. Perhaps the most famous phenologist
The elegant, soaring song flights of larks embellishing a summer morning are celebrated in the the glorious collective term an “elevation of larks”. Alas there is no such epithet for the Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis). The sound of a male pipit ascending to declare his territory is unlikely to send a poet into raptures, but
