What was that?

Most, apart from the best-informed naturalists among us, are puzzled from time to time by the sounds of nature; particularly the ones which surprise us in the middle of the night. Charlie Bennett investigates some of the creatures which go screech in the night

continue reading →


Beyond the folly

Clive Wilkinson, of Rothbury, muses on the life and times of an avian pal and the lessons to be learned for our own country lives…

There’s a pheasant that lives somewhere in the tangled hedge of ash, blackthorn and hawthorn, elder and bramble that marks the northern boundary to the field next door. We call him Charlie. He was there when we moved in, but as that was twenty-four years ago, and we don’t think pheasants live that long, we think it must be a dynasty, and he must be Charles XXIV.

continue reading →