Each of the three mining machines outweighs the 200-ton blue whale – the largest animal the world has ever known – and they look fearsome, especially the bulk-cutter designed to grind up the ocean floor with its enormous roller, covered…
Read more
My face is pressed up against the window and my brow is furrowed. For someone about to land in the Bahamas I look surprisingly troubled. I am trying to figure out the size of the swell and the prevailing wind…
Read more
The open fields are no place for hot dogs in high summer. At other times dogs scamper along the straight tracks between wheat and barley, sometimes stopping to sniff, squat, or cock a leg, engrossed in a kind of Twitter…
Read more
The purple plumes of railway-side buddleias are emptied of insects. A single white butterfly is dancing, alone, in a grassy park. Suburban gardens are unvisited by red admirals or small tortoiseshells. The disappearance of butterflies from the British countryside over…
Read more
Conservative politicians are trying to stop a complete EU ban on bee-harming pesticides, despite the new environment secretary Michael Gove’s statement earlier this week, in which he said “I absolutely don’t want to water down” EU environmental protections. Neonicotinoids are…
Read more
In light of the negotiating skills shown by the DUP in securing a very favourable outcome for Northern Ireland in the ongoing “confidence and supply” talks (Report, 22 May), should the Tories not send the DUP to Europe for the…
Read more
Where have the ravens on Raven Crag gone? I ask, puzzled, scrutinising the baby Matterhorn on Fleetwith Pike from Gatesgarth Farm at the head of Buttermere. “Honister Crag is where,” answers Willie Richardson. “Oh, and Haystacks,” the retired shepherd adds,…
Read more
It can take a while for owls to accept a nest box. My homemade wooden one was built to a chimney design from the RSPB website and set on a sycamore branch at the recommended 45-degree angle. My garden has…
Read more
Two crows fly into a tree towards the end of a long dreamy summer’s day. They had been walking their beat on Windmill Hill, through the flowering cocksfoot, lady’s bedstraw, pyramidal orchids and whitlowgrass, hunting there as they have done…
Read more
We’re back with News from the World of Old Feathers, and Lida Xing and colleagues strike again. They describe a new amber specimen of a Cretaceous bird with parts of the head, feet and wings beautifully preserved. Why is this…
Read more