This article is the third update of the Harvest Mouse species account which I initially wrote for the book, “Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles of the North East” which was published by the Natural History Society of Northumbria in 2012 and is free to download from the home page of this website. It has only beenContinue reading “The Harvest Mouse in North East England”
Author Archives: Ian Bond
Tales of a timid traveller – (Part 6) “Z” is for…
Zanzibar, the last leg of our safari. A place so exotic that it’s got two z’s in it. It apparently means black coast, which it most definitely wasn’t. (For the record it was mostly sparkly white, with little crabs popping up and walking sideways along the sand like they were in a ’50s Disney wildlifeContinue reading “Tales of a timid traveller – (Part 6) “Z” is for…”
Never say, “Never again!”
“Never again!” I’ve said that loads of times. I’ve said it at Christmas when I’ve watched the same movie for the umpteenth time; I’ve said it every single time I’ve driven down south on holiday and been stuck in traffic jams, and I’ve said it way too many times when deciding that I should giveContinue reading “Never say, “Never again!””
Tales of a timid traveller – (Part 5) “Just so!”
People are improbable. I mean, I’ve never quite understood how something like us could have evolved. The “just so” story is that as the land got drier we adapted by swapping the ability to climb through the disappearing forest for the knack of walking upright for long distances in the blazing heat, with our expandingContinue reading “Tales of a timid traveller – (Part 5) “Just so!””
The establishment of the Ring-necked Parakeet in North East England
INTRODUCTION This article was first published in “Northumbrian Naturalist – the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumbria” in 2015. It describes the establishment and gradual increase in population and range of the species across the region up to that point. As predicted in the article, the species has continued to spread across theContinue reading “The establishment of the Ring-necked Parakeet in North East England”
Angels unawares
It was St Paul who warned us that we might meet Angels unawares. I certainly wasn’t expecting my encounter, which happened a long time ago when I was a countryside warden. Being a countryside warden wasn’t always as idyllic a job as you might think. I reckoned that I spent a good quarter of myContinue reading “Angels unawares”
The north wind doth blow ….
I’d only seen a Waxwing a handful of times before and then only a fleeting glimpse, a dark shape silhouetted in a winter’s dusk. A few of these exquisite birds arrive in Britain every winter and every few years they grace us with a “Waxwing Winter” when they arrive in their hundreds but, either way,Continue reading “The north wind doth blow ….”
White and wild
Back in 2013, I realised an ambition and finally made a pilgrimage to a North East relic that I’ve been meaning to see for years. In fact I made two such pilgrimages that year. The first was to Durham to see the Lindisfarne Gospels which were on loan there from the British Library for threeContinue reading “White and wild”
Away with the fairies
I had always regarded a trip to Middlesbrough as being a bit like a visit to the dentist, you dread the thought of it but it usually turns out not quite as bad as you expected. More recently though, thanks mainly to my wife’s ardent defence, I’ve seen a different side to “The Boro’”. AddedContinue reading “Away with the fairies”
Wild Teesside
What do you think of when you think of Teesside? A “Smoggie Land”, where a vascular system of metal pipes provides the life blood for tall, steaming towers? A multicultural metropolis, where the parmo is the entrée for modern art? I bet you don’t think of wildlife, but you should; Teesside has more wildlife thanContinue reading “Wild Teesside”
Raven on the Wing 