Blog
New life arises from storm damage
Whilst it has been an unusually mild winter, it was also an extremely windy one, and the full impact of the havoc wreaked by a succession of storms was brought home to me the other week when driving through the Howe o’ the Mearns. It was in the aftermath of Storm...
TheTay reveals its natural riches
I adore rivers – serene slivers of tranquillity that wind their way across the landscape, and which are always brimming with natural wonders. And when it comes to magnificent rivers, the Tay is right there at the top, with a majesty and power that excites me on each...
The fabulous marine riches of the Firth of Forth
By Keith Broomfield There was a perceptible crackling noise as the pressure of my footfall crunched into storm-scattered seashells on the strandline at Largo Bay in the East Neuk. This was a graveyard of marine life – cockles, surf clams and razor shells, scoured from...
My book is shortlisted for award
My book on a wildlife year on the River Devon has been shortlisted for a prestigious award in the Scotland’s National Book Awards 2021, the premier literary prize for writing in Scotland. ‘If Rivers Could be Sing’ has been selected as a finalist in the ‘First Book’...
The plight of Scotland’s guillemots
Something didn’t seem right, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I was on an early morning visit to Peterhead harbour and the inner basin was full of guillemots, their black and white forms bobbing out on the water. I had never seen so many guillemots in the...
Scotland’s amazing cetaceans
By Keith Broomfield I adore travelling on ferries between the Scottish mainland and the Hebrides, and on embarking upon a CalMac ferry for a recent voyage from Uig in Skye to Tarbert in Harris, I immediately hurried to an outside viewing deck – for I knew I was in...
Snorkelling with jellyfish in Harris
There is something strangely hypnotic about gliding over a kelp forest, the large brown-green fronds swaying in gentle unison with the tidal current in such a beguiling manner that one is drawn deep within its alluring embrace. I had only been snorkelling for a short...
Haven on our doorsteps
A queen buff-tailed bumblebee hovering low over the ground in search of a nesting hole, while on a nearby ash, a treecreeper spirals its way up the trunk, before flying over in a short undulation to an adjacent tree. Wonderful and so relaxing to watch; nature going...
Dawn’s sweet music
A sweet note, and then one more; a musical couplet, followed immediately by another, hesitant at first but gaining in confidence as the music from this song thrush drifted across the cold dawn air of the strath. It was wonderful sound and a herald of spring, sparking...
On the cusp of change
The lime-tinted glimmer of catkins adorning the bare branches of this hazel by Rumbling Bridge in Kinross-shire. By my feet, more green verdant freshness: the emerging spears of snowdrops heralding the approach of a new season. I heaved a sigh of contentment, for the...
Plastic peril in our seas
It had been an enjoyable snorkel, having taken to the water by this remote rocky cove on Waternish in Skye, with the distant hills of South Uist twinkling on the far horizon. Marine life abounded at every turn; shoals of young saithe flashed over flat-fronded kelp...
Roar of the stags
By Keith Broomfield Swirling rain swept across the flanks of this remote Deeside glen, and along the banks of a nearby gushing burn, newly arrived fieldfares cackled and bickered as they gorged upon the ripened scarlet clusters of rowan berries. Then, the air was...
Mountain hares are the soul of our uplands
I trod carefully across the boulder field on this high plateau in the southern Cairngorms, scanning the ground for life. To the north, the high Cairngorm massif was etched against the horizon and I reeled off the names of their summits in my head; such familiar tops...
Hoverfly marvels
Relaxing in the garden and enjoying the sun is a great way of getting close to nature, as I so discovered when lying on our lawn on a sun mat. Ahead of me the grass stretched like an expansive green sea but it was the abundance of tiny invertebrates that really caught...
Just a puddle – but so full of life
It was a puddle, no more than that; a water-filled wheel rut on an upland forestry track in Perthshire, yet this little pool surged with life. It was the palmate newts that first drew my eye, five of them lying on the muddy bottom. One of the creatures was an...
Flying on a wing and a prayer
Like a piece of wind-blown confetti, the orange butterfly whirled and danced in the air, and most frustratingly, wouldn’t come to rest so I could identify it. Its rapidly beating wings flashed brightly as it zipped along the woodland ride and then rose steeply over a...
Mother care
By Keith Broomfield The mother mallard with her ducklings had seen me approach along the riverbank from some distance away, but I had already spotted her, so the advantage lay with me. I was too far away to hear, but presumably she uttered some kind of soft call to...
River reflections
A spring dawn-frosted morning on the River Devon just a couple of days before the coronavirus lockdown; still air, azure sky and sunbeams brimming over the rolling horizon, spilling forth a myriad of sparkling rays. Nature is so inspiring, life-giving and powerful in...
Opportunity knocks
It’s all about finding the right opportunity – and this pair of red-breasted mergansers fishing close to the shore at St Cyrus had certainly found that. Despite the air being still, rolling breakers were crashing into the shore with some ferocity. But the power of the...
Blending into nature
Sitting still with hardly a flicker of a muscle, until you blend seamlessly into the landscape and become part of nature is such a productive way for seeking out wildlife; and so it proved in this little strip of woodland by the edge of the Ochils. I had found a mossy...
A wildlife conundrum
I was walking by a wooded edge near my home when the air was broken by a crackling of twigs and the gentle thump of pattering hooves. It was a roe deer and it had picked up my scent. Although wary, it couldn’t see me because a tangle of hawthorn bushes lay between us....
The guile of the heron
Dusk is falling upon Strathdevon; the ground is hard from the cold autumn chill and as I make my way along the riverbank a steady flow of rooks and jackdaws swirl above me on tumbling wings as they head to their night-time roost on the wooded ridge. I stop for a while...
An alien encounter
Sometimes the strangest things happen. I was making my way along the banks of the River Devon by the edge of the Ochils, accompanied by Lottie, our spirited Welsh springer, who trotted ahead, sniffing every nook and cranny as spaniels are so wired to do. Suddenly,...
The magic of moths
Oh, what wonderful names – early thorn, nut-tree tussock, flame carpet and scalloped hazel, it is almost as if a poet had conjured their creation. They are, of course, the names of some of our moth species, and all which I have caught in my light-trap in recent weeks....