Long Time, No See!

A blog post by Emma We thought it was about time to say ‘hello’ again after not being around for the best part of a year. A lot has happened whilst we’ve been away, and we’d like to share some of these exciting events with you. Since our last post, we’ve made our annual migration…

Hazel Dormouse: Jack in the Box

The last time we wrote about the hazel dormouse was this time last year, just as the UK ecology season was drawing to a close. You can check out that post here. Now, we’re at that time again and we’re not quite sure where the year has gone. In fact, we’ve just made our annual…

Sharing a Shower with a Pseudoscorpion

After a long night of both dusk and dawn bat surveys, being home and about to hop in a hot shower was just what I had been wanting.  I had not long put down my prescription glasses when I noticed a dark speck on the white grouting between the tiles that make up the walls…

Reproductive Mimicry & the Bee Orchid

A Morning Stroll After a dawn bat survey at the end of May this year, we stopped by Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve for a stroll. The early morning is a wonderful time to watch wildlife with the dawn light bringing out the best in the landscape. We had gone there to see the birds, but…

Fantastic Mr. Fox

At the Bottom of the Garden Although Emma and I enjoy going on the hunt to find wildlife, sometimes wildlife just comes to us. In a previous blog post we shared our experience of finding a green woodpecker at the bottom of the garden and then a later experience meeting his family (see here and here). Our…

Zoomology Turns One Today

A year ago today, Tom and I wrote our first blog post on Zoomology. It has been a very rewarding journey. We have learnt so much with each post we have written, not only about the species and places we have covered, but also about our own ‘voice’. Here are all of our blog posts…

The Atlantic Puffin: Fun Facts Edition!

Did you know that ‘Puffinus puffinus’ is not the Latin name for any of the three puffin species?

How many Sandeels do you reckon a puffin can hold in its beak at once?

What is the oldest recorded lifespan of an Atlantic puffin on Skomer Island?

Read our blog post to find out. 🙂

Ruby-tailed Wasp: Beautiful, But Deadly*

After a 4-hour drive home after a few days away, we finally pulled onto the drive.  With a sigh and a conscious mustering of energy, I attempted to swing myself from the car. Emma, sat in the passenger seat, suddenly pointed out of the window at the front wall of the house and said, ‘ruby-tailed wasp!’ I was…

A Day on Skomer Island, West Wales

Click to zoom in Around this time last year, Tom surprised me with a birthday trip to Skomer Island. Man, did he earn himself some brownie-points that day! Well done, Tom. I’ll keep you on. 🙂 I started reminiscing about this little adventure after reading Jean Mackay’s blog post about her trip to see the…

Gotta Count ’em All – Butterfly Bonanza

Over the past few weeks, we have been getting out and doing some volunteering.  Being self-employed ecologists racing across the globe back and forth from NZ to the UK and the UK to NZ, we spend a lot of our time chasing paid work. This doesn’t give us much time to volunteer. Saying that, if…

1000 Views This Month – Thank You!

  We started this blog last year in November. Since then, this is the first month that we have surpassed the 1000 view mark. We just wanted to write a short blog post to you all to say, ‘Thank you!’ Below are some interesting statistics about our blog’s journey so far:       We…

British Orchids in Bloom

What a heatwave we’ve been having here in the UK over last few days! All of this sunshine has meant plenty of time outdoors enjoying Britain’s wonderful flora and fauna. Our most recent wanderings took us along roadside verges in search of Britain’s native orchids. Who would have thought that these verges would be one…