Woodland Trust Podcast
I recently went for a woodland walk with the BBC journalist Adam Shaw. We talked about the clues and signs we can look in trees…
I recently went for a woodland walk with the BBC journalist Adam Shaw. We talked about the clues and signs we can look in trees…
Which is the older of these two large trees? Clue: there are a few ways we can age trees, including one related to natural navigation.…
It was an honour and a great pleasure to get the chance to talk about reading tree signs with Justin Webb on BBC Radio 4’s…
Sometimes natural navigation is more challenging than others. I’m often asked, “What is the most difficult place to navigate using nature?” I think people expect…
Spines on holly leaves are a defensive tactic. The harder a plant is trying to defend itself, the more spines we find on its leaves.…
The colour of grass can indicate the depth of the soil. Towards the end of summer, especially hot dry ones, the colour of the grass…
Weld (Reseda luteola) is a tall, hairless biennial plant found on dry ground. It grows up to 1.5m tall and has green-yellow flowers. It thrives…
When looking at any grassy area, it is easy to see a uniform swathe of green. But if we stop and peer, we find that…
It has been a fascinating few days working in Mineral Wells, Texas, with the incredible team at Dauntless Air, an aerial firefighting company. I was…
The closer to the coast we get, the tougher it is for plants. Once you can smell the sea only maritime species thrive in the…
Pagham is a coastal village in the south of Sussex. My walk took me out of the village into agricultural and then flooded areas, before…
See this page for more on how to navigate using plants.
Foxgloves – Digitalis purpurea – are a sign you are near the edge of the woods. The flowers point away from the trees.
Welcome Welcome to the first in a new nature’s clues and signs series. Over the coming months I will be heading out on a series…
Which direction are we looking in this photo taken in West Sussex, southeast UK? North, East, South or West? It’s a tough one. There are…
It’s publication day for The Secret World of Weather! Happy weather sign hunting!
Butcher’s broom is a dark, spiny waist-high evergreen shrub. It is a perennial plant with sharp pointed leaves. The height and prickliness gave rise to…
The key to seeing wildlife anywhere isn’t magic, it’s understanding probabilities. There are so many techniques for improving your chances, many of them listed in…
What is fog drip? When we see fog, the air is saturated, there is more water than it can hold. This forms droplets which gather…
There are many different kinds of snow, as the Inuit know only too well. You are probably familiar with how easy it is to track…
Yesterday the conditions were perfect for a short tricky natural navigation exercise in fog. Here are some of the photos from that challenge. These were taken…