Nature Blog

The Taverners Gastropub which is situated on the Isle of Wight has removed “Rook Salad” from its menu after receiving advice from police. The man who supplied the Rook meat was arrested and cautioned on suspicion of breaking the Wildlife and Countryside act. “We would not want to encourage their [rooks'] killing, purely to supply [...]

Born during 1905 in Cornwall, Geoffrey Grigson was a writer of natural history books and poems. His father, the reverend William Shuckforth Grigson was a Norfolk born man, who had moved down to Cornwall where he settled with his wife Mary Beatrice Boldero. Grigson was the youngest of his father’s seven sons and was educated [...]

The oil leak that has been sending a flow of oil under the North Sea for the past 10 days has finally been stopped by Shell. A relief valve that was issuing a secondary leak was closed by divers at the Gannet Alpha platform, after the first leak was successfully dealt with last week. An [...]

5 Cuckoos have had their migration routes tracked by scientists working for the BTO. Each of the cuckoos was caught and tagged back in June with mini-backpack like tracking devices. As of today (19/08/11) all five birds have successfully reached their wintertime home of Africa. Their tracking tags have been set to transmit once every [...]

Born near Cork on the 10th of February, 1893, Reverend Francis Orpen Morris was an entomologist, ornithologists and author. Growing up on the west coast of Ireland he became increasingly interested in nature. In 1824 he moved with his family to Worcester in England. After about two years they moved again, this time to Charmouth [...]

Born on September 14th 1804 in Lyme Regis, Dorset, John Gould was a noted wildlife artist and ornithologist. Not much is known about Gould’s early life, except that his father worked as a gardener and the young Gould initially followed in his footsteps, being employed by his father for about years (1818-1824) and later in [...]

Born in Norfolk on the 16th of July 1861, Frederick William Frohawk was an artist and lepidopterist. The son of a farmer, he came interested in the study of natural history and wildlife illustration at an early age, his talent and interest being proactively support by his mother. Frohawk was educated at Norwood College, where [...]

Born in the village of Thwaite, Yorkshire during 1871, Cherry Kearton was a pioneering wildlife photographer and writer. His first published work, written with his brother Richard, was British Bird Nests (1895). It was the first wildlife book to contain photographic images instead of illustrations. Cherry and Richard created a number of techniques to get [...]

An Israeli nuclear power had to shut down when its cooling system became clogged with jellyfish. Over the past 3 weeks nuclear plants in Scotland and Japan have also had to be temporarily closed down for the same reason. Speculation has centred on climate change driven ocean acidification and warmer waters as being the reason [...]

Research into the life of ant species Temnothorax longispinosus has shown that it’s capable of spotting its most serious enemies and reacting accordingly. The research team at the University of Mainz in Germany wanted to study the reaction of these socially complex ants by placing them in situations with other ant species. Temnothorax longispinosus ant [...]