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Country diary: Seahouses, Northumberland: Courting cuddy ducks seduce the...
Seahouses, Northumberland: Eiders have an ulterior motive for their spring visits to the harbour: the lure of chipsA dazzling sunrise convinced us that this was the day for a trip to the coast but yet...
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Country diary: Wolsingham, Weardale: Yellow star of Bethlehem is so blooming...
Wolsingham, Weardale: Part of the flower's charm is that it has endured for four decades in such an inhospitable spotWe first encountered yellow star of Bethlehem along this riverbank on a late March...
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Country diary: Crook, County Durham: I've often seen bees infested with...
Crook, County Durham: I was tempted to relieve it of its burden with a fine brush. But perhaps that would have been a mistakeBumblebees still foraged on the blackcurrant blossom, even though the...
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Country diary: Crook, County Durham: Orange tip butterflies are so fragile,...
Crook, County Durham: It will not open its wings until the rain clouds have passed. Only the return of sunlight will revive itThe rain relented, but not before the ragged edges of departing clouds had...
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Country diary: Middleton-in-Teesdale, Co Durham: On the trail of the 'double...
Middleton-in-Teesdale, Co Durham: These wild bloated buttercups confer all the elegance of an art deco lampOne of the delights of living in a county with boundaries that stretch from sea level to the...
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Country diary: Wolsingham, Weardale: Down among the grass stems, a ball of...
Wolsingham, Weardale: It exploded when I poked it, spiderlings racing along the threads, like sailors on riggingThis stretch of the river Wear, downstream to Harperley Banks, is known locally as the...
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Country diary: Low Burnhall, Durham: Cornfield wildflowers and a wicker...
Low Burnhall, Durham: At this popular reserve, someone even knitted scarves to put on the sculptures of chickensWhen the Woodland Trust bought Low Burnhall farm with the intention of reforesting its...
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Country diary: Whitburn Rocks, Tyne and Wear: It was a sparkling,...
Whitburn Rocks, Tyne and Wear: Across the bay a fishing boat, leaving on the flood tide and trailing a blizzard of gulls in its wake, pitched and rolled in the swellWhen Saturday dawned bright and...
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Country diary: Romaldkirk, Teesdale: Ash trees consumed by something of the...
Romaldkirk, Teesdale: The trunks of ancient ashes are wrapped from root to crown in a glossy evergreen coat of ivy, with bare branches protruding like stag antlersThe fading glow of the winter...
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Country diary: Backstone Bank Wood, Weardale: Tunstall reservoir becomes a...
Backstone Bank Wood, Weardale: Our giant shadows, projected by the low-angle sunlight, stood tall as trees as we slithered along a footpathThe surface of Tunstall reservoir became a mirror during the...
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Country diary: Crook, County Durham: A kindly teacher and a nature table...
Crook, County Durham: This week, half a century on, I repeated the annual ritual of the cutting of the horse chestnut sticky-bud twigsLike many of my generation of naturalists, a primary school nature...
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Where screeching, scarlet macaws enjoy raucous celebrity status | Phil Gates
In London, parakeets are regarded as a feral nuisance; in Kirkby Stephen, the locals relish their glimpse of AmazoniaFrom the moment the nerve-jangling screeches – on a par with the sound of glass...
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Country diary: Roker Pier, Sunderland: The grey seal's bewhiskered face bore...
Roker Pier, Sunderland: It looked like an elderly member of a gentlemen's club sleeping off a good lunchTo the north, we could see ships at anchor, waiting for a berth on the river Tyne; to the south,...
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Country diary: Kirkhaugh, South Tyne Valley: In this remote parish stands a...
Kirkhaugh, South Tyne Valley: Nikolaus Pevsner described its spire as 'absurdly thin', but in its heyday it would have been a devotional landmark for about 250 parishionersThe slender spire rising...
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Country diary: Seahouses, Northumberland: Courting cuddy ducks seduce the...
Seahouses, Northumberland: Eiders have an ulterior motive for their spring visits to the harbour: the lure of chipsA dazzling sunrise convinced us that this was the day for a trip to the coast but yet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Country diary: Wolsingham, Weardale: Yellow star of Bethlehem is so blooming...
Wolsingham, Weardale: Part of the flower's charm is that it has endured for four decades in such an inhospitable spotWe first encountered yellow star of Bethlehem along this riverbank on a late March...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Country diary: Crook, County Durham: I've often seen bees infested with...
Crook, County Durham: I was tempted to relieve it of its burden with a fine brush. But perhaps that would have been a mistakeBumblebees still foraged on the blackcurrant blossom, even though the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Country diary: Crook, County Durham: Orange tip butterflies are so fragile,...
Crook, County Durham: It will not open its wings until the rain clouds have passed. Only the return of sunlight will revive itThe rain relented, but not before the ragged edges of departing clouds had...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Country diary: Middleton-in-Teesdale, Co Durham: On the trail of the 'double...
Middleton-in-Teesdale, Co Durham: These wild bloated buttercups confer all the elegance of an art deco lampOne of the delights of living in a county with boundaries that stretch from sea level to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Country diary: Wolsingham, Weardale: Down among the grass stems, a ball of...
Wolsingham, Weardale: It exploded when I poked it, spiderlings racing along the threads, like sailors on riggingThis stretch of the river Wear, downstream to Harperley Banks, is known locally as the...
View Article