Mark Cocker’s Country diary piece in the Guardian this week, 1 June 2021 (‘the most seductive shade of green‘) got me thinking about leaves, trees and colours. As Mark reminded us, leaves look green because chlorophyll molecules absorb the red end of the visible light spectrum in photosynthesis, and the unused green light is reflected. Counterintuitively perhaps, they are green…
This lovely fly has recently invaded Europe. Will it fly across the Channel and establish itself in the UK? Is it already here? It is spreading widely on the Continent, so perhaps it is just a matter of time before it pops up in the UK? I could find no records of it, but it…
Darwin’s other big idea (in addition to the theory of evolution by natural selection) was sexual selection. “We are, however, here concerned only with that kind of selection, which I have called sexual selection. This depends on the advantage which certain individuals have over other individuals of the same sex and species, in exclusive relation…
We all need a place to call home. Somewhere where we feel safe and protected. Where we can chatter away in peace and security. Sparrows are no exception! House sparrows have declined markedly since the 1970s, although numbers have increased slightly in the past decade. There are a number of possible reasons (See Link 1),…
The fine weather earlier this week – at the end of March 2021 – saw the emergence of some butterflies, Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells, from their winter hibernation. Although they are hunkered down somewhere over the cold months, you would probably never find them (unless they are inside the trunk of an old tree), as…
The colour yellow seems almost synonymous with Easter, perhaps associated with the coming of sunny days? Or egg yolks and chicks? Daffodils seem to express this time of year better than any other flower I think.😊 In Narcissus flowers like daffodils, the yellow-to-orange range of colours are produced by carotenoid and flavonoid pigments. Different types…
It can be very hard to tell apart male and female domestic pigeons, also called rock doves, Columba livia. There are differences, for example in the size of body, neck, and legs, the shape of nasal knobs, head, forehead, and the degree of iridescence, but there is great deal of overlap in all of these features,…
What is a face? It is our identity; what we present to the world and where we express our emotions. Do insects have faces? I think most people would agree that they do, even if they are not the flexible mirrors of the soul that faces are in humans (and other mammals). We humans have…
At first sight, the Meadow brown butterfly might seem a little drab – certainly next to its colourful cousins, like the Peacock or the Red Admiral – but the more I have photographed it (particularly fresh specimens) the more I have come to appreciate what a truly beautiful insect it is. The Meadow Brown, Maniola…
I went to Sulawesi, in Indonesia, primarily to visit Tangkoko National Park and see the Black Crested Macaques (Macaca nigra) known locally as Yakis. At the time, I did not possess a macro lens, so the pictures I took of butterflies were mixed, and I did not do anything with them. With the blessing of lockdown,…
So nice to get a bit of sunshine! Last night was freezing! I was just thinking, how long is it til we fly back to Greenland? Forget it! You are not even the right colour. Remember what we look like in our summer outfits? Oh yes, long time yet. I know. I just like to…
Ever wondered what’s inside your favourite bottle of perfume (or after-shave)? How many compounds – fragrance notes – go to make that seductive smell? Turns out that there are lots, maybe 30 or 40 per perfume? It’s all a perfumers (parfumier in French) secret of course; the ‘formula’. But there are thousands of aromatic sources…
I described in my first blog on butterfly eyespots (Conspicuousness or eye-mimicry?) how they can be effective at deterring predators from attacking them, although the jury is still out as to whether this happens because the eyespots are highly conspicuous, startling signals, or whether it is because they genuinely fool predators into thinking that they…
This blog is dedicated to Andreas Kay (1963–2019), a remarkable biologist and natural history photographer, some of whose photographs I have included below. I never met Andreas, but like many people, I followed him on Facebook and marvelled at his photographs documenting the diversity of life in Ecuador. He generously shared over 28,000 of his…
Winter is a time of quiet rebirth. Nature rests and renews itself. Leaves fall and molecules return to the soil; ready to be recycled and reused. There is great beauty in this process of decomposition. The sun stays low in the sky but still provides some warmth on sunny days. A leaf, blown here and…
