Stories

Real lives, real choices. Short, honest pieces from people doing something about climate, nature and the countryside they love.

Cycling

3,019 miles in 100 days

I rode every road I could find between the Moors and the Coast. It started as a tribute and ended as £13,002 for children's mental health charities, the equivalent of riding Land's End to John o' Groats more than three times.

Rob, North Yorkshire · Captain Tom 100, 2021

Wildlife

The blackbird that came back white

A leucistic male returned to the same hedge three years running. Same song, same perch, same five minutes after sunrise. Proof that gardens hold the rarities if you watch long enough.

Rob, North Yorkshire · Spring 2024

Wildlife

Wildlife understands the 3 R's - re-use

A male Nuthatch built a mud wall around an air vent on our outside toilet, complete with a perfect 32mm entrance hole. He never persuaded a female to use it, but a couple of years later a Tree Sparrow spotted the vacancy - and raised a brood inside. A perfect example of re-use in the wild.

Rob, North Yorkshire · Nuthatch & Tree Sparrow

Wildlife

The Sparrowhawk that missed a meal

A juvenile Sparrowhawk was perched in a snowy tree just as I lifted the camera. A Blue Tit flew right past its beak - the Sparrowhawk watched, blinked, and let it go. It must have thought "No, too small for lunch." One very lucky little bird.

Rob, North Yorkshire · December, lunchtime

Wildlife

Swallows nesting on the pendant light

In 2018 a pair of Swallows started building around a pendant light in a small outbuilding. The weight tilted the fitting, but they kept going. Three chicks fledged that year - and every year since, the same pair have raised two or three broods from that ingenious nest.

Rob, North Yorkshire · Since 2018

Wildlife

Riding with a Merlin

A male Merlin flashed through the garden, then reappeared as I cycled a quiet country lane. For over half a mile it flew 50cm above the tarmac, weaving side to side and glancing back at me. It could have vanished at any moment - instead it played, then perched, exchanged a 20-second stare, and was gone. Five years on, I remember it as if it happened five minutes ago.

Rob, North Yorkshire · One January morning

Trail-cam sequence: the avian hierarchy in eight frames

Rob writes: "These are not very sharp photos, but they demonstrate how a trail camera can capture wildlife events for us to see and understand, that we would struggle to witness with the naked eye. The sequence clearly shows the avian hierarchy from beginning to end. It is sickening to see, but educational too."

Nature is not always gentle. Sparrowhawks are specialist bird-hunters - they are exactly why smaller birds flock, alarm-call and stay close to cover. And Crows sit above Sparrowhawks in the pecking order: big, bold and never shy of stealing a meal. Without a trail camera quietly watching an ordinary corner of a garden at 6am, none of this would have been seen.

1.06:10 - a juvenile Blackbird works her way around the water dish. Camera 2 picks up 17°C. A quiet start to the morning.

2.Then - out of nowhere - a female Sparrowhawk hits her like a stone. Feathers, wings, the Blackbird pinned to the ground before she even had a chance.

3.The Sparrowhawk stands over her. Not rushing. Head up, scanning every corner of the garden. She knows this is the dangerous moment.

4.She clocks the camera. That yellow eye, the hooked bill, the finely barred chest - this is a bird built entirely for one purpose.

5.Wings half-spread, hunched over the kill. This is called mantling - she's putting a wall around what's hers, warning anything watching to think twice.

6.A Carrion Crow didn't get the memo. He lands and squares up, bold as you like.

7.That's all it took - the Crow lunges, and she's off the ground with the Blackbird still in her feet. Incredible strength.

8.Down the garden path, Sparrowhawk carrying a full-grown Blackbird, Crow right behind her. Whether she kept the kill, we don't know. But what a thing to witness on a Tuesday morning.