Rescuing Swallows
2021 Each year, I make a note of the day the Swallows arrive back to the barns near our house, and when they leave. This year, the first male arrived back earlier than usual, on the 31st March, and the majority left on the 5th September. But one pair stayed. Curiosity piqued, I looked out for them each day. With his long tail streamers, it was often the male I noticed, rushing low over the...
A Ghostly Green Light
I wake in the early hours to a faint green light on my ceiling, no bigger than the tip of a matchstick. Curious, I climb out of bed, inch my way across the bedroom and fumble for the light switch. In an instant the magic is extinguished. Now all I see is a cellar spider with something in her web, which I gingerly remove while balancing barefoot on a wooden chest. It’s a male glow-worm. With the...
Strangled
I hear a scream. I look out, expecting to see the last breaths of a dying rabbit. But instead of a rabbit, I see a stoat. It is hanging from an antiquated drain cover in our front garden, head wedged between the metal bars so that its body dangles below them like a hooked fish. It is suspended by its neck and cannot touch the floor. I rush into the garden and grab the stoat by its open jaws,...
Flight
I had a camera, but stopping would have lost too much time. Instead, we rushed through the nature reserve on our bikes, as fast as our legs would spin - breathless, hearts pumping, manic. The sun was setting. The sky was alight. Behind us, purple. Before us, red. Brilliant, vermilion red. The reeds were aglow. The trees on fire. For a minute, a barn owl floated beside us. And all the while,...
The Door
Before you go any further I should probably make one thing abundantly clear: after cursing Durdle Door for being a photography mecca I found myself there at the beginning of January 2016. Even though I previously said I would actively avoid it. But I do have a genuine reason, so let me explain. I was heading for Worbarrow Bay. According to the opening times on a website I had looked at the night...
Durdle Door
A few years ago, I saw a photograph. It was a good photograph. In fact, if you Google: 'Durdle Door Sunrise' chances are you'll probably see it too. It was taken by a chap called Peter Spencer. In it, a ray of sun is shining through the archway of Durdle Door. Due to the position of the sun, this only happens a few mornings a year, right around the Winter Solstice. Having liked that photograph...