by Keith Broomfield | Apr 16, 2025 | Wildlife
I heard the frogs before seeing them – a pulsating, rhythmic hum that ebbed and flowed across the afternoon air. This frog chorus was hypnotic and alluring, and accompanying their gentle croaks were the rougher ‘qwark-qwark’ calls of mating toads. I was on the...
by Keith Broomfield | Feb 20, 2025 | Wildlife
A male blackbird busily turns over fallen leaves in search of worms and a flock of goldfinches twitters in a tree above – but I am not out in the wilds of the countryside, but instead near the centre of Aberdeen at the start of the Deeside Way by Duthie Park. The...
by Keith Broomfield | Nov 27, 2024 | Wildlife
By Keith Broomfield The flat expanse of the Insh Marshes swept away in the distance, glowing ochre under the soft autumnal light. From my vantage point on a slope in Lynachlaggan wood, my mind visualised the intricate mosaic of pools scattered across this rich,...
by Keith Broomfield | Sep 26, 2024 | Wildlife
By Keith Broomfield It was like searching for a needle in a haystack – instinct told me that ptarmigan were watching my every move on this 3,000ft high boulder field in the mountains by Glenshee, but their cryptic plumage had merged these subarctic grouse...
by Keith Broomfield | Sep 2, 2024 | Wildlife
By Keith Broomfield The names roll deliciously off the tongue – fescues, bents, and Yorkshire fog – and which represent among our most ecologically important organisms of them all – the grasses. Grass is so ubiquitous that we tend to take it for granted as an integral...
