Conversations and Conservation

But the butterflies came first. They were the reason we were there.

A Barn Owl family can consume thousands of rodents in a single season, this is part of what makes them so ecologically valuable, providing natural pest control that benefits farmers and landowners across the country

A chance encounter with Matthew and the owls of Jambs Owls at Hall Place became an afternoon that changed everything we thought we knew about these extraordinary birds - and left us with questions we are still sitting with.

I came back. Regular readers will know this spot. It's the same pond, the same stretch of bank, the same pair of Eurasian Coots I've been watching and writing about since 2024.

They appear on what is dead or dying, and they are the mechanism by which death becomes life again.

Two tiny fluff balls, only days old, wobbling around on feet that were clearly several sizes too large for the rest of them.

Bees pollinate a vast proportion of the food we eat and the wildflowers that hold ecosystems together.

I casually wondered what pine trees look like when there's no snow or decorations on them - just the tree itself, stripped of all those festive associations we pile onto them every December. So I grabbed my camera and got close. Really close.

Any day now, their chicks would appear. I was determined to be there when they did.