Great Spotted Woodpecker Chick Calls
I passed this old tree trunk in a beechwood yesterday afternoon. It has been home to many generations of woodpeckers. This is the sound of…
Tag: birds
How to Navigate Using Snow Strips
As is my habit at this time of year, I like to get out early after any overnight snow. The tracking opportunities are spoiling and…
Sounds during a temperature inversion
Normally, air gets cooler with altitude and this is what we expect to experience. We see snow at the tops of mountains, but none in…
What is swash?
Swash is the name given to the waves that rush up the beach after a wave has broken. They are intriguing little waves that inhabit…
Friends of the Lake District Blog July 2018
Friends of the Lake District Blog by Tristan Gooley. July 2018. Over the years it has been a privilege and a pleasure to give talks…
BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day
I was honoured to record Tweet of the Day for BBC Radio 4 recently. I chose the wood pigeon, more for its physical behaviour than…
Dawn Chorus Going Global
There will be an international collaborative radio dawn chorus programme going out on BBC Radio 4 from about 1am UK time tonight. It runs until…
Joshua Slocum and the Birds
My thanks to Pertti Pesonen for reminding me of these passages in Joshua Slocum’s classic, ‘Sailing Alone Around the World’: On the 12th, some hundred…
Interconnectedness
When developing an understanding of nature, one of the most exciting moments comes when the pieces start to join up. Take the scene in the…
BBC World Service Forum
There was a natural navigation discussion on the BBC’s World Service programme, Forum, on the weekend. In the programme, Bridget Kendall hosts Tim Birkhead (behaviour…
The Winds Around Thurrock Thameside Nature Park
I gave a talk last night at the Thurrock Thameside Nature Park, as a guest of the Essex Book Festival. There was a great audience,…
The Seagull Windvane
Here is a fun way to tell which way the wind is blowing if you can’t feel it: look up and around to find some…
Letters from Bob
For a slight change, I thought I would add a little correspondence from Bob Boxberger to the website. I enjoyed these perspectives and Bob was…
Bergmann’s Rule
Have you ever noticed how fat people tend to feel the cold less than skinny people? Have you also noticed how it gets colder as…
Nature’s Radar
Nature’s Radar, my academic paper on natural navigation observations during a small boat voyage in the North Atlantic has just been published by the Journal…
Tin Bird Trails
We may never know the exact method that the earliest explorers used to find their way, but there is a friendly finger of suspicion that…
Sarah Outen
On Friday I enjoyed a warming cup of hot chocolate with adventurer and ocean rower extraordinaire, Sarah Outen. We arranged to meet in Brighton and…
Courting Bustards
‘Courting bustards’ is not an excellent new profanity, something that would sound good with rasping voice and sent in the general direction of a parking…
Gayathri Tiffin Room
My book is on the printing presses – this is very exciting and an excuse for a quick plug in my blog! In the book…
Getting to Know Puffins…
…with a little help from the sun. An interesting article on the BBC website today about the seasonal habits of Puffins. The most interesting thing…
Daylight Robin
A robin’s trademark red breast has always struck me as one of nature’s less enthusiastic attempts at camouflage. We went for a family walk in…