Category Archives: Love of Nature

Love of Nature, Natural History, Wildlife

Glorious Insects and Flowers of the Dolomites

In Val Sugana
At Calvello, Val di Fiemme
Val di Fiemme
Brown Argus at Redagno
Dolomite landscape at Redagno
Idas Blue at Anterivo
Stone Grasshopper above Anterivo
Alpine meadow and forest, with wood-stacks, above Anterivo. The flower-rich grass is cut annually for hay.
Burnet Moth on Scabious above Anterivo
Scotch Argus at Anterivo
Fir forest, marsh with Birches, meadow, bog pool above Anterivo
Great Green Bush-Cricket above Anterivo
Silver-washed Fritillary on Devilsbit Scabious
Alpine Green Grasshopper, Val di Fiemme
Golden-ringed Dragonfly at Calvello
Well-maintained Alpine meadow at Calvello, with hingeless gate, Hazel bushes, Birch and Fir trees
Lingon or Cowberry at Calvello: far less common than Bilberry in the Dolomites
Chalkhill Blue, male, above Carano, on legume
Vetch and Thyme on limestone beside forest path (with fir-cone), Calvello
Chalkhill Blue, male
Pine Hawk-Moth caterpillar
Large Skipper on alpine pink
Large Pine Weevil at Calvello
Abandoned flowery meadow colonised by Fir trees, Val di Fiemme
Kestrel above Val di Fiemme
Love of Nature, Walks

Tree Pipits and Cuckoos!

Tree Pipit singing sweetly. Its perch has been well drilled by Woodpeckers.
Wide views over heath, hill, and woodland as far as the eye can see: Puttenham Common from Hillbury Hill Fort
The Tarn on Puttenham Common, a remarkably big body of water surrounded by beautiful Oak – Birch – Holly forest
An enormous coppice stool of Holly, a most surprising tree to find coppiced, beside the main forest track running north from the Tarn. It must be ancient to have grown to such a size.
A fabulous big moss, I think Atrichum
Another gorgeous big moss, surely Polytrichum
Love of Nature

Book Launch: ‘West London Wildlife’

I’ve contributed 4 chapters to the book, which is being published by AURORA METRO BOOKS.

The book ‘West London Wildlife’ is being launched in Richmond on 10th December. I’ve contributed 4 chapters:

  • Gunnersbury Triangle
  • Chiswick Park & Duke’s Meadows
  • Ruislip Woods
  • Wimbledon Common

EventBrite: London’s Green Spaces – Talk and Book Launch

When: Sat, 10 December 2022, 14:30 – 16:00 GMT

Where: Books On The Rise, 80 Hill Rise, Richmond TW10 6UB

There will be a panel talk, a Q&A session, a book signing, and special offers.

“Featuring fabulous photographs”: including several of mine! Here’s one:

Willow Emerald or Spreadwing Damselfly at Gunnersbury Triangle Local Nature Reserve. Photo by Ian Alexander
Love of Nature, Natural History, Nature Reserves

Fabulous Fungi in Gunnersbury Triangle!

Humaria hemisphaerica – glazed cup fungus
Geastrum striatum – streaked earthstar (the smaller cousin of the collared earthstar, also found in the Triangle)
Stereum hirsutum – orange curtain crust
Daedaleopsis confragosa – Blushing Bracket – discolours reddish when scratched, as you can see
Netty, now with the RSPB, and volunteer Olwyn by the pond during the fungus foray
Fungus expert Alick Henrici collecting some interesting-looking ear fungi
The Candlesnuff fungus, Xylaria hypoxylon, has now grown into some glorious Stagshorn shapes, all around the reserve
Tremella cf. foliacea, the yellow brain fungus
Xerocomellus (formerly Xerocomus), a Bolete mushroom (in the Cep family) with little tubes ending in pores on the underside of the cap, not gills
Hyphodontia sambuci – elder whitewash (as here, not always on Elder). Lovers of Italy will know Sambuca as an elderberry and anise liqueur!
Tricholoma cf. album, the white knight, in the anthill meadow
Agaricus sp., an edible mushroom in the same genus as the commercial champignon de Paris and the field mushroom
Lepista inversa, the tawny funnel, a mushroom in the same genus as the delicious wood blewits
Love of Nature, Natural History, Nature Reserves

Autumn (Apples) in Chiswick

Gunnersbury Triangle’s acid grassland fringed by silver birches on old railway track, in beautiful “Indian Summer” October sunshine. The railway clinker was of hard acidic rock, brought (obviously) by rail, from somewhere up north or out west.
One day’s tomato harvest!

Cox’s Orange Pippins from the garden
Love of Nature, Natural Patterns

Fall Colours in Kew Gardens!

Yes, you couldn’t make it up or improve it with Photoshop, the colours came out like this straight from the camera. The tree is a Red Maple, Acer rubrum, in fact the one planted in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Get that for October! Scilla madeirensis in Kew’s Alpine House. Guess you could translate that as the Madeira Squill if you wanted to.
The whole bush was this “absolutely fabulous” colour. Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’
Sunny colours in the Alpine House: Eschscholzia californica
The astounding copper-red of the Northern Pin Oak of New England, Quercus ellipsoidalis
And for a warm smile to last through the winter, how about these?
Love of Nature

Cherry Blossom in Chiswick

A magnificent street tree in all its glory

Suddenly it’s spring! The cherries and magnolias and flowering pears are all trumpeting their splendour.

In my garden, I hear the amazing sweetness of a Blackcap singing somewhere in the block of little gardens. He must be newly-arrived from Africa, as he certainly won’t find a female in such an unpromising territory – Blackcaps like woodland edges where they are safe and undisturbed. But he sings, high and pure, far too good a warbler to be any usual garden bird, though our Robins, Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Great and Blue Tits, and Goldfinches sing sweetly too. Somehow it seems silent in the city as he sings; I really can’t hear any trains or planes or trucks in this perfect spring moment.