A blog and photo journal about the natural history of north-west England and beyond
There may be trouble ahead. One of the local Buzzards sets a course to intercept one of four intruders looking for an easy meal over Kenworthy Wood. Due to a combination of a Myxamatosis outbreak and a healthy population of foxes we now have the Read More …
Peacock Butterfly on the freshly opened Cherry blossom at the edge of the Orchard in Kenworthy Wood. Also several Small Tortoiseshells and a Brimstone. Great to see the warm sunshine has brought out many of the local butterflies. A male Orange Tip on a fresh Read More …
Few Flowered Leek Despite looking like the picture of innocence this member of the onion family is the latest invasive species to arrive within the Stenner Wood site of biological interest. Further north its proved capable of spreading extremely quickly and outcompeting our Read More …
So far it appears to have been a very good mating season for the thousands of Toads that live around Chorlton Water Park and the adjacent Mersey valley. The sheer spectacle of so many toads is one of the best wildlife experiences to Read More …
For once the sun came out and we were fortunate enough to be able to get out for a couple of hours on Sunday. After the long cold, dark days of winter the local wildlife is quickly responding to the arrival of Spring. First stop Read More …
Whilst officially Spring doesn’t begin until mid March over the past couple of weeks its finally started to slowly arrive. In fact after spending a day walking around in the sunshine close to Morecambe Bay we’ve decided that this year Spring arrived on the 19th Read More …
A good year for the local Orchids. Initially there was 23 flower spikes developing from April onwards. 14 were mown out by the Mersey Valley Warden Service/Manchester City Council with all but 1 of the remaining 9 developing and coming into flower over the past Read More …
A strange few weeks. First a mysterious evening visitor with an appetite for wasp nests. Note: no footprints, no clean cuts from a spade to the nest, the soil or the adjacent roots, no spoil heap in fact absolutely nothing to suggest it was dug Read More …