A year ago I was in Mexico and so I would like to celebrate the birds we saw there especially on the Yucatan Peninsular. In particular around the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum. I will also add in the iguanas too. Our first bird that was different was the grackle with its sounds and ability to live close to human habitation.
Or as some of the others birds a swimming pool on a roof was an opportunity for a drink at sunrise before the humans arrive.
Some of the other birds were around the hotel and open land not yet developed. The golden oriole was seen at sunset so the light was not good but I managed a glimpse through the lens.
After the ruins we spotted the Yucatan blue jay. A question asked with another WordPress bird lover was why the New World has so many blue birds. The European jay only has a dash of blue. And the American robin more blue than robin redbreast!
Certainly in the Yucatan there are more blue skies by very blue seas.
My friend Judy who I was travelling with inspired me to create a story along the style of Navaselva. The idea was to have the grackle, the frigate birds and the iguanas as guardians of the coast. Looking out many years ago they see strange beasts rolling across the waves towards their land. Their instincts are to prevent them landing. Turn them away. No good will come of this for the animal and plant kingdoms.
My plans for more writing after the sequel to Navaselva next year is to take flight to the New World with some of the old characters and create some new ones too. Maybe short stories or a novel.
What do you think? Any reviews, comments on Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley are welcome, especially reviews on Amazon USA.
Do join us for Bird Place of the Month. Gardens, local parks and any birds are most welcome where ever you may be. The grackle was quite common but a character around the hotels and ruins of Tulum!
March has been a mad month, mad weather and mad plans. We hoped to go and see the cranes but the weather was so rainy and such poor visibility. But do check out at the end of this some of the links for the February Bird Place of the Month and you will see cranes galore.
The madness is now I am at my photo limit for WP even though I pay for a plan. So lets see if we can get our March Bird Place published. And any thoughts on what to do next with WordPress?
So where shall I go? Well, we ended up back at Cabanas for a rainy few days but on a Tuesday went to spot birds and for me there were two firsts at the Salinas salt pans. Some avocets and then thanks to Bird Watcher Bill we saw a stone curlew in an orange grove. In fact perhaps that orange grove was the bird place as when a car passed so many birds flew into the air, including that elusive stone curlew. Bill spotted it but I was just focused on some plovers. It was hard to see but there was a snipe, thrush, green woodpecker, blackbirds, lots of song birds. I was just about to give up when Bill saw the stone curlew and I got some photos this time.
Rather prehistoric looking Stone CurlewAvocet with scoop beak and blue legs.
Back to the salt pans where we met Bill and all wondered whether these little birds were dunlin or knot. I believe dunlin now but there is also a greenshank and those other sandpiper types called sanderlings.
The avocets are truly distinctive but in the UK these have always been at quite a distance along the Humber shore line.
Dunlin probably and not knot!
And along the Cabanas shore line there are sanderlings, plovers which I am sure are grey now not golden,
turnstones helping turn the mud or taking the advantage
gulls in flight
And the whimbrel – not a curlew as note the marking on head and eye and the way the beak curves at the end, and I guess slightly smaller than a curlew.
Whimbrel with crown and eye markingSandpipers is the get out of jail identity card!
Please join us with your own bird place, place is important not the photos.
Little egret
February Round Up of the Cranes in Spain stay mainly on the Plain and in the USA on the Sandhills.
Annie has given us a bird place full of cranes and on the other side of that big pond Usfman tells us about the Sandhill cranes and if you check out Cindy Knoke she has some recent posts on the Sandhill cranes too. It does seem an amazing place.
And lets not forget the birds in my book where the story revolves around the sanctuary of the imagined wild valley of Navaselva and their journey north.
The weasel is alive and well and busy hunting for food on the rocks outside our window. For those who know about my novel, the weasel Comadrito is one of the key characters and is based on my own encounters with a weasel by these rocks over 5 years ago.
Mossy rocks so different from when I was last here in the summer. Mossy rocks outside window
But I was beginning to wonder whether there were any weasels and mice still around. Touching wood or a tree we have not had any in house visitors of the wood mouse kind either for quite a while. And on cleaning up the wood shed there was little evidence of mice too.
Well, on one of our quiet meditative Sundays my husband sees one outside on the mossy rock. I had my eyes closed. And I wonder about this. I had been enjoying the sun on the moss and thinking of the beauty of the world we can see, touch, hear. I also love the inner silence when eyes closes and attention goes inwards. But this time I felt a bit cheated but was glad to know there are still weasels about. So I guess there must be sufficient mice and voles too.
Imagine the weasel on this mossy rock!
Sunday for us is often a time for some silent space and reflection. We have both been practicing Transcendental Meditation for years and value the inner silence. We also like the community of Quaker Meetings and would often have our own Meeting for Worship at the same time as Quaker Meetings in the UK.*
Since zoom and when the pandemic both disrupted and connected up our lives we have been able to join our Marple Quaker meeting. As I was talking to people all those miles away I suddenly yelled out. The weasel was back racing over the mossy rock. So I was privileged to see this little creature and the inspiration for my book. I was also able to share this experience with one of the younger members of the meeting. Talking weasels over the zoom miles!
It is so difficult to know how the wild creatures are faring through all these long droughts and then crazy windy weather which is really bashing down so many branches of the old chestnuts, even an olive tree lost some branches and they usually fare better in drought and then strong winds.
I also love serendipity and by some chance on the same Sunday came across an article in some online Nature pamphlets after looking at the American Eco Lit web pages of Ashland Creek Publishing. Two books I have read that they have published have been really good. Their aim with Ecolit is to create writing FOR animals and not about. The aim is to be an advocate for nature and the animal world.
‘Suppose the whole of creation began to speak to us in the silent language of a deeply submerged kinship. …Suppose we even felt urged to reply courteously to this address of the environment and to join in open conversation.’ Theodore Roszack
As I read this I can only say I was ‘knocked out’ as this was almost how I try to present the ‘Meetings of the Many’ in my novel where so many of the diverse wild species come together in the Navaselva valley and communicate their lives and stories so all can learn better ways to adapt and survive. Both elements of Quaker practice and TM have also inspired me to write in this way. What if this amazing biodiversity of life communicated in a very deep way? Theodore Roszack sums up this idea for me and ‘the silent language of deeply merged kinship’. All of nature is deeply connected and we as modern humans become the outsiders as we lose this closeness and understanding of other species. The article looked at the experiences of early and indigenous people and their ways of relating to the natural world.
Here are the two books I read published by Ashland Creek and also the link to my novel. As ever and for so many books published by small presses reviews are very important particularly on Amazon.
I will be putting together pages for my novel and more on writing and reading with a nature focus. The zoom book launch went well and hopefully this is the link to the recording.
Bird Place for the Month of March will be coming soon too.
And another yell when I was on a zoom meeting as a small mousy creature ran alongside the pipes not too far from my feet. The wood or house mouse is back inside. Oh no! But at least all have survived the long droughts of summer and the lack of food in winter and are ready to reproduce. Oh no! Not in the house…
QUOTE ON BEING A QUAKER ‘For a Quaker, religion is not an external activity, concerning a special ‘holy’ part of the self. It is an openness to the world in the here and now with the whole of the self. If this is not simply a pious commonplace, it must take into account the whole of our humanity: our attitudes to other human beings in our most intimate as well as social and political relationships. It must also take account of our life in the world around us, the way we live, the way we treat animals and the environment. In short, to put it in traditional language, there is no part of ourselves and of our relationships where God is not present.’ Harvey Gillman, 1988
The zoom launch of my book is looming. So a reminder for Thursday 22nd of February at 7 pm UK time. There will be an interview with me, a slide show of some photos, readings, followed by questions that I will try and answer. It would be lovely to see you if time and time zone allows.
A bee-eater was chosen for the cover of my book as Abe Mero, a European bee-eater is one of the main wild characters who leaves the sanctuary of Navaselva, the wild but safe valley with the aim of helping a queen bumble bee get to a cooler climate. Co-operation and co-existence are key themes and crucial to not only their survival but ours too.
Bee-Eater by window in UK!
My novel explores through fiction many aspects of the places and species of Western Europe, the challenges faced, and the links through migration to Africa. The human narrative links to this too and helps us understand more about our need for better relationships with each other and the natural world. This book was inspired by living here and writing my blog about nature.
Here are some of the European bee-eaters seen outside our house in September. As I describe in my novel. This is the time many flock together again, young and old together. They need to refuel before the long journey across the Sahara to places in Africa where there will be a different cycle of insects and bees available.
Bee- eaters by house in Sierra Aracena in early September
Note for bee lovers and the bee crisis. For thousands of years these birds and bees have been interdependent within balanced ecosystems. Many bees come to the natural end of their life at the end of the summer season. This links well with the European bee-eaters journey back to Africa. A decline in bee population may help the remaining bees when flower sources are also scarce. More knowledge about interdependence is needed but certainly stopping key insecticides and creating wider ranges of safer unpolluted habitats helps restore complex ecosystems.
Bee-eater nesting holes
There are many other types of African bee-eater with different blends of colours and size. Some of these may be resident or just migrate shorter distances.
From WordPress stock photos. Any ideas about this one?
All bee/eaters will eat a variety of insects but are especially adapted to eating bees. These birds have developed a technique of avoiding the sting. All the different species have evolved a distinctive but different rainbow display of colours. Perhaps suited to tropical climes and the summer in the Mediterranean with the background of bright blue skies. However, there are a few bee-eaters reaching the UK and a pair have returned twice now to Norfolk where there colours are quite bright.
Thanks to I J Khanewala and their Bird of the Week you can also see two varieties of Indian, sub continent bee-eaters.
I have to choose this place as a contrast to the January ‘Bird Place of the Month ‘ by Cabanas de Tavira. This one is in the Sierra Aracena, so it is inland and up a hill. We were amazed by the numbers of mainly crag martins flying out of the minaret tower of the old mezquita at Almonaster in the Sierra Aracena. This post has lots of bird links to follow and the invite to the zoom launch of Navaselva, the Call of the Wild Valley.
It was one of the hotter days like a UK summer. We tried to work out if the crag martins had just arrived back or perhaps they had not left.
Almonaster is famous for its ancient monument, the mezquita, or little mosque. It is part of the remains of the rich Arab culture in Andalucia before the Spanish King and Queen conquered the area and the Arab rulers left. So also did many more. Places like the mezquita were changed into churches. Almonaster is well worth a visit and is in the western end of the Sierra Aracena and is particularly interesting when they hold the Islamic festival in Autumn.
Can you see the dots in the sky as the crag martins just flew off together from the tower?
Now the mesquita is a monument and being looked after. Once we were able to climb the tower but now that is closed off. And the crag martins are grateful and in greater numbers than I have seen before. I wonder if these birds go back to when the mosque was first built. It is their special craggy rock face.
The amazing sight was how whole groups of them would fly off from the tower creating a swooping and sweeping effect through the air downwards at first, then up, down and around. It was like a ripple through the blue sky. And impossible to catch the movement on a phone. Am not sure if even the Lumix would have worked as the movement was fast, fluid and then they flew in different directions, eventually coming back to the tower in smaller groups.
crag martins find a ledge to rest on at Castaño Del Robledo
There were other birds too like us enjoying this extra warm day. A griffin vulture soared high above the valley and then two storks were very nearby almost floating up and down past us as we too were up high on the hill. Some blackbirds and warblers were giving voice nearby and we think we saw some early swallows.
Higher than the stork from the mezquita of Almonaster
But back to the Crag Martins. Yes, they prefer crags, high up places, and around the Sierra there are quite a few castles and fortresses to add to their choice of nesting place. The ones photographed above may have been trying out the nesting site of pallid swifts at Castaño de Robledo’s old monument photographed some years ago. Below is from inside the Mezquita but more April/ May when nesting and some of these are young ones. We have also seen swifts nesting inside when at a musical poetry event there.
Info on Crag Martins – these flights we saw were probably the birds being gregarious or enjoying one another’s company before the serious business of mating and finding nesting sites. For this it seems they do not tend to stay in a large colony but reduce to about 10 together. Southern Spanish crag martins may not need to go far from their breeding sites in winter but they like about 20 degrees as that must mean some abundance of insects. They possibly might fly off to the Algarve or nearby Costas if it gets too cold up here in the Sierra Aracena.
So I will be cheeky and let them be my bird of the week too, thanks to I J Khanewala. Do link there if you can. Recently there have been egrets and sunbirds and the current one is the Asian green bee-eater so a kind of cousin to the European one that is also one of the main characters in my novel. Have a look at Bird of the Week for this different looking character from the east. https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/
If you want to join in and share important places for birds please leave your link in the comments throughout February. As it was the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch last week do just show your garden and list the birds you see. We can have a little crossover from end of Jan to February. The birds do not care about exact dates.
From last months Bird Place of the Month, following mine being Cabanas on the Ria Formosa I have the following links to estuaries from
Some amazing birds in West Africa on the Sahel and possibly a key place for the birds that migrate to and from Europe with Toon Sarah and her travels. Sarah loves to travel and photograph with great skill so do take a look.
Many of the birds that migrate back from Africa or over winter from the north of Europe need the waters of the Tejo or Spanish Tagus estuary near Lisbon. Annie has some history of visiting here from 1989. She has plenty of European birdwatching information on her blog so really worth a visit too.
Do join us for Bird Place of the Month and I would love anyone who can to join me with Bridge House Publishers to zoom launch my book. Thursday February 22 – 7pm UK time. The event is free but you can register to obtain the link here at Event Brite.
I am planning to choose a key post from each year for each month of 2024. For today I have chosen some photos from each January since 2014 and with the link to my very first blog post. I had no idea what connections and inspirations would come from this. My nature writing started with this first blog and has finally come to fruition with my publication of my attempt at nature fiction and having such wonderful connections with people and wildlife in so many places.
Latest news for my novel Navaselva below.
Coming soon for February 23rd evening a zoom launch with readings and Q and As. Will post with further details soon,
My very first blog post and I was so surprised by the viburnum berries taken with my phone getting my first like by a really good photographer’s blog. January 2014
Viburnum Tinus with the first flower seen January 28th:some berries can still be seen behind flower. January 2014
January 2015
Winter scene on our normal walk with Lotti , and Ruth in 2015. Taken on the Fuenteheridos to Galaroza track where this deserted inn or Bodega can be seen from the times when the tracks were the highways about 300 years ago.
January 2016
Saving a bumblebee January 2016Holy boat not at sea onT’s 70th birthday trip to the Azores 2016
January 2017
Halimium on the yellow hillside 2017Lotti, Ruth’s Tibetan friend with her special lashes under the fringe.
January 2018
The nativity display at the Bomberos/fire service station in Tavira – Early January 2018
And below the desperate attempts on the beach at Monte Gordo , on the Algarve, to save this whale. Most heartening was how so many people were concerned about the fate of this most magnificent and suffering soul.
The stranded sperm whaleSperm whale moving its tail and those trying to keep whale in enough water.
Birds at Dehesa de Abajo, near the Donana wetlands, in January 2019 on our first trip and where we felt so ‘filled up’ with the joy of seeing so many birds in one day.
Storks making love?LinnetSpoonbills flying overhead
And below the innocence of January 2020. Buff and all the wild animal characters in Navaselva were waiting for the arrival of Jay Ro’s human part of the story. Tortoiseshells and bumble bees can be seen in January. Buff is in Ruth’s garden where there are always some early flowers and rosemary flowering also keeps the bumblebees busy.
Buff tailed bumblebee
But January 2021 we were stuck in the UK with the Pandemic and another long UK lockdown and full travel restrictions while waiting for vaccines.
These were phone pictures sent to us from Fuenteheridos and Ruth’s garden. Yes, It can snow here, especially in January but we have never seen the snow ourselves and missed this downfall.
For January 2022 there was the aftermath of Ruth’s wonderful bird paintings and exhibition. She completed so many in the pandemic lockdowns We were thinking about going to visit the cranes overwintering in Extremadura for January but reports were of very little water in some key crane places. But we could enjoy Ruth’s paintings of the European cranes.
Back in January 2023 and there is a roaring wood fire as we have so much wood from Storm Barbara with so many of the old chestnut trees fallen branches. I also have my first short story published in the annual anthology of Bridge House Publishing with the theme of Evergreen. It is about a fir tree and as I love to do , from the perspective of the tree as it survives for much longer than just a tree for Christmas.
So we return to January 2024 and with much gratitude to the blogging community over these years and a little reflection on ways forward. There will be more on my book and some pages on the characters and places. Maybe some walks and introductions to the villages of the Sierra Aracena too.
And of course Bird Place of the Month. Thanks for the contributions so far. Just descriptions or observations from your own backyard will be great too. Here we have just seen a crested tit close to the house very clearly but it was too difficult to get a photo and I just looked out and enjoyed seeing this new and delightful character explore the olive and hawthorn tree.
I will try something new for 2024 and I would love others to join in and post their own bird place and with link in the comments. From gardens to wetlands, city towers to mountains. Lets celebrate and learn from each other places which birds find welcoming. No need for clear photos of birds as emphasis can be on the place that the birds like. I will visit any links supplied in the comments and tag Bird place of the Month.
Although Denzil has changed his focus he has helped add to all the connections and information about nature on WordPress and this links to his nature pages on Discovering Belgium. https://www.discoveringbelgium.com/category/nature/page/2/
Bird Place of the Month January
This has to be for me the Rio Formosa by Cabañas de Tavira. We arrived on New Years Eve and celebrated with long standing friends the Portuguese delights of this time of year.
Mackerel skies over Cabanas and some of the last small houses with large gardens which are good bird places for the small birds and house martins.
The weather was often grey but I believe a brighter grey. One afternoon we looked out from our balcony and saw lots of cormorants along the far side of the Rio Formosa river delta or lagoon. On the other side of these sand dunes lies the Atlantic and where the long stretches of sandy beaches are. It is a protected and wonderful stretch of sandy dunes, tidal sands and water. A prefect place for many birds.
The rio and sand dunes towards Tavira A heron flew inGoldfinches, hoopoes and processionary pine caterpillars like the old pines.
Unfortunately I only had my phone camera but for Bird Place of the Month lets say it is the place that matters and the birds you see at that time. Of course great photos appreciated too but those birds for me often evade capture.
We went out onto the boardwalk and counted the cormorants all poised and upright on the other side of the water. Mr T says over 200. I counted 190. A lot. We have never seen so many like this all together on a stretch of sand of about 200 metres. A cormorant a metre, perhaps! They had been there a while from late afternoon and as the light fading they flew off westward towards the isle of Tavira. About three or four were left. These might have been the residents of this stretch, sharing for a while their patch.
The cormorants along the sands of the Rio Formosa and below flying off towards Tavira island.
Why were they all there? They were not fishing. Were they there for a meeting as in Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley?
Why so many together? Migrating? Searching for good places.
On a walk the following day we saw several curlew, the normal camouflaged turnstones and ring necked plovers. With the binoculars I could clearly see the reddy orange legs of the redshank. A heron flew in and did seem larger in flight and size than the resident egrets.
Tidal mud that so many of these waders and gulls love.
I was going to add these egrets to I J Khanewala’s bird of the weekhttps://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/bird-of-the-week-invitation/. This is a great place for bird lovers to share and focus on a particular bird. We think they were little egrets but could not see the orange feet to really determine and at a distance the relative size. All three types of egret can be found on the Algarve. Many now have become resident in the UK too. As a species they seem to be doing well. My first memories were seeing white birds on the backs of the very black water buffalo in India in the 70s and 80s. These were probably cattle egret. Near Doñana in Spain we have taken pictures of egret on some horses. But I think these were little egrets. It is sometimes better with these characters to use their latin names and pick out a few distinguishing features.
Egret garcia garzetta
Egrettta garcia garzetta – Little egret and with a range from southern Europe to Southern Asia. Can migrate to Africa or if in Asia to the Philippines. Also might be flying over the Atlantic to reach the New World.
Ardea alba is the Great or Common Egret and has a yellow bill and black legs and feet. This one is found on all continents.
Bubuculu ibis is the cattle egret with yellow bill and yellow legs and slightly smaller than the little egret – egret garcia.
There are also a lot of sub species of these birds too. The rarity of egrets when I was younger in Europe was the impact of using their feathers in hats.
How many more birds might we see if hunting was truly banned eg with turtle doves and netting and glue sticking of small birds like goldfinches for cages and a variety of songbirds for ‘Fine Dining’ was so abhorrent that there would be no illegal trade for these activities.
Below is a type of egret painted by Ruth Koenigsberger who illustrated Navaselva, Call of the Wild Valley.
I named the bird John Travolta. The bird is pursuing courtship activities and based on a you tube video from the Americas.
Perhaps my offering to Bird of the Week and another type of egret.
So much seemed ‘stuck’ at the beginning of 2023. I read a lot of books in 2022 but was struggling in early 2023 to read much and with nothing happening for months, awful coughs and trying to keep positive the house would sell by packing more and more boxes. The initial uplift at the end of 2022 with my first short story published drifted away. I had fun reviewing the year in books but nothing was moving for my novel.
My main focus on trying to sell the family house was well thwarted by a sudden Truss led Conservative attempt to challenge economic good sense and the banks interest rates, The banks won. I lost. And many other ordinary people have too.
For 2023 I seem to have been wading through long novels but I would certainly recommend ’The Overstory’ by Richard Powers. I tried a shorter novel by him by borrowing ’Bewilderment ‘from our local library. This too had an environmental theme but was mainly focused on the relationship between father and an autistic son. The son wanted to draw and record animals that were extinct or on the brink of extinction. The novel begins with spending time in the wilderness together.
I will certainly say The Overstory is the War and Peace of environmental writing and worthy of the Pullitzer Prize. It begins with what appears to be a collection of short stories about different characters and the trees that have influenced their lives in some ways. There is a chestnut tree which had not succumbed to the great blight in the States. And of course we have chestnut trees galore at Navasola. Also, the mulberry tree which helps links the migration story of Chinese Americans. All of these characters finally come together through the old forests they wish to protect. I love trees and the forests too but this did deepen my perspective of the consciousness of trees and the challenges of environmental activism.
Although my novel seemed ‘stuck’ on the publisher’s list I had my short story about a Christmas tree published in the Bridge House Evergreen anthology.
Maybe it was going to Mexico for the wedding of Joe and Ana Gabriella but afterwards all began to flow again. Or meeting up with likeminded people at Woodbrooke for a Quaker Universalist Conference.
On returning the publishers were ready to publish my novel but first we try some blog posts of Part 1. This refocused my brain too and I did create some audio versions. I found this useful in a last attempt to get the story flowing well.
I enjoyed Denzil’s Nature challenges but could not keep up as much as I would have liked and had to link ideas. The butterfly challenge fitted into the Navaselva blog posts and the character pf Pasha, the two tailed Pasha.
And finally in August we sold the house. And then became emotional about this and our dearly loved apple tree. I was losing the ‘nest’ /home I had created over 30 years ago.
For another key book of my year I really enjoyed Eli Shafak’s Island of the Missing Trees. The story of love across a difficult divide in Cyprus and the beautiful and wise perspective of the fig tree that is born again in the UK but has to be buried each winter.
Then there was more sorting and some final author proof reads and yes there it was a book in the hand. My own book in my hand.
Let’s hope 2024 will bring some peace for us all and very much so for those suffering from the terror of conflict. Meanwhile we drift on with the nature crisis, continuing carbon emissions and hope that we will elect the kind of people into government who will have the wisdom to put into practice the measures needed at every level and help us all to understand the changes needed. We have the solutions and just need the political will and co-operation.
I would say the main theme of my novel is finding new ways to co-operate and coexist. We all are interdependent and need each other and each and every species
For 2024 my novel will need to get a lot of reviews too. So please if you can read Navaselva do try a review which can be short on Amazon but also on W H Smiths, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble. Amazon do well by creating the images and links as shown in this post. Oh well…
Thank you Opher for kick starting a review on Amazon even while moving house . My favourite book of Opher’s is Ebola in the Garden of Eden, written well before the pandemic and very contemporary future vision.
A very Happy 2024 to everyone in the blogging world and friends and family. Thanks for all the support. For us 2024 needs to be a year of consolidation now and then hopefully the sequel to Navaselva. It is ready as I had to make a decision, add in a human narrator and then divide almost in two for a each novel to be about 80.000 words.
The Natural History Museum was one of my favourite haunts as a child. And a group of us would go there on our own from age 9 or 10 . Those were the days when youngsters could do this and were welcome. All the museums in South Kensington, London were free admission then and are now. However when my children were young there was quite a high entrance fee so I missed exploring this amazing museum with them.
December 2023 and the queues to get were long but I sat on the tube and managed to book a ticket online free. This meant I did not have to join the queue. The building is beautiful outside and in. I love some of the well placed blue bricks and lots of stonework sculpture. I missed the opportunity to do some close ups and it got dark quite quickly.
The great blue whale and the crowds inside the great entrance hall.
As a child this hall would have a great dinosaur skeleton. It really did fill the space. Now it is as if the whale is flying above you.
As a child the great blue whale was in the mammal hall. And was always worth a wander. Yet again this is an area being refurbished. With my children we enjoyed the interactive being human part of the mammal area.
With the light failing on a short December day at times it seemed dark and quite different to the memories of light pouring into this hall and its galleries of bones and so many stuffed animals.
As a mad dog lover I always used to go and find the famous stuffed greyhound Mick the Millar. Now he did not look that great to be honest and it was intriguing seeing a lifeless but real animal. And there were plenty. This time I found a few albatrosses and shearwaters. It is hard to show their wingspan but it was impressive.
Stuffing birds like these must be quite an art.
I found myself intrigued by the displays of some of the early naturalists and collectors. Some stories to be told here and a reminder of ‘ The Signature of All Things’ set first about Joseph Banks and Cook’s time and then a story of a woman who almost understands how evolution works through her study of mosses.
Below early fossil hunting and other discoverers.
I must write the poem about the day I touched the Iguanodon’s teeth. And then had to queue to wash my hands. Memories of covid! And no gel on me anymore. I wonder how many touched the teeth and it was great to be invited to do so.
There is so much to take in and see here and I have no doubt my love of animals and nature was fostered here in my childhood. Now we have so many more documentaries and photographs to help but also less biodiversity. The Natural History Museum did ensure comment was made on this. In the mineral section there was this kind of information about the amount of mining needed to create ‘greener’ cars and electricity. How sustainable will this be?
8 tonnes of copper needed for each megawatt of electricityRecycling minerals to reduce mining it will taked double the amount of yearly global mined cobalt to replace all of UK cars with electric ones and 75% plus global lithiumAnd the beauty of shining rocks
Of course the museum has quite a collection of already extinct animals and dinosaur bones.
I think the Great AukSome treasures from the sea and the dinosaur bird – archaeoptrix
My time in London was well spent with friends, family and the annual Bridge House Publishing event for their seasonal anthology of short stories. It was a chance to meet up with my writing mentor Debz Hobbs Wyatt. She too can hold the book for the first time. Christmas magic!
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Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley is now available on Amazon within a day in the UK and also Waterstones, Barnes and Noble and from the publishers.
Autumn in three, maybe four different places if I include Brighton and the Green Party Autumn Conference. So here is to protecting green and blue. I am working on the Marine and Coastal update and we learn about the big trawlers off the coast, out of sight, allowed into British waters but under our improved UK laws dolphin by catch, injuries to mammals must be self reported. But no one does seem to report on the dolphins injured by the vast nets. Sussex Dolphin Project are ready to raise questions in parliament and require all boats to be under CCTV to check. Too little enforcement of environmental law by our UK government. https://sussexdolphinproject.org/
Below the colours of Autumn in Brighton near the pier.
First Autumn walk was in Marple by the Goyt valley with bracket fungus, hawthorn berries and a few last flowers and pollinators. Life has been busy ‘sorting’ after the big move. And final stages on my novel. A last author proof read, a cover design featuring the bee-eater and a lot of agonising over the text on the back of the cover. More in a future post but if you want to go back and take a peek, here is one and also featuring another of Denzil’s Nature Challenge on butterflies if you want a taste of summer.
Bracket fungusHawthornHorsetail fernknapweed and wild beeBanks of the Goyt river which joins the Mersey in Stockport
Next a walk in the National Forest near the new home. Settling in and after having had an old apple tree to look after in London. https://navasolanature.wordpress.com/ But here there is an old alder by a brook at the end of the garden. Delightful until a storm surge floods through. We try to secure the bank from erosion with brash, tied up twigs and branches staked into the bank. We also use more rocks. When the rain falls hard as the other day with Storm Babet the level rises above the sides but seems to go down quickly too. Is this because of a storm overflow further up? I know there is one further down where there have also been sewage discharges. How long do we go on polluting our waterways while privatised water companies still pay out substantial profits? Surfers Against Sewage have a very thorough manifesto that should be adopted by all serious at looking after our rivers and coasts and it will be possible to stop this endless pollution.
Yellow tree fungus – chicken of the woodsAncient rocks i and ‘wolves’ n the National ForestThe dogs love the forestThe cat loves the silver birch in the gardenTying brash to the bank to prevent erosionThe water can rise to above my waist.The dogs enjoying the alder woodland on the other side of the brookWater is great fun when its a babbling brook
Autumn in the Sierra Aracena often brings birds on migration such as the bee-eater, house martins and even hoopoe but these ones do not go as far but like to seek out more resources before the winter.
Hoopoe visiting Navasola in AutumnChestnut trees in Autumn
Castano del RobledoAutumn colours and Andalucian blue skies
The colours of the Autumn here near Navasola bring lots of Spanish tourists to the region as this is unique in the south of Spain. And also the chestnuts fall and the harvest begins. This year there has like so much of Europe been lots of storms and thankfully for us here, lots of rain.
So here’s to Autumn on its final stages as we move towards more wintry weather, to Denzil’s Nature Challenge for the month on Autumn colours and to getting my novel ready for printing. The bee-eater makes for a colourful cover.
NavasolaNature 