Unlocking landscapes
One morning recently, I spent a couple of hours wandering around my local tract of the Sussex Weald. The bracken and beech were glowing as the sun edged its way up through trees. The sun had blown the world wide open.The chirp of a skylark passing over the canopy, perhaps on migration, maybe heading to the South Downs.… Continue reading Macro 📷: the glowing bracken
I am a big fan of Russian film and literature. Nature, wildlife and the landscape is often at the forefront of this great field of art. It’s the beating heart of the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, the poems of Anna Akhmatova and the short stories of Anton Chekhov. The vastness of Russia’s landscapes is central… Continue reading Macro 📷: hoar frost
This blog often complains about the poor understanding in England regarding wasps. I began drafting this post in the midst of what’s known as ‘the silly season’, when Britain’s tabloid newspapers turn their guns on gulls, wasps and spiders, with a seasonal vacuum in news. However, in a global pandemic there is no real vacuum… Continue reading Macro 📷: the smallest wasps on Earth
In June 2021 I undertook a variant (not that kind of variant) of the Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild campaign. I decided to try a month-long project of taking a macro photo every day: #30DaysMacro. It was a lot of work, mainly in processing and tweeting the photos to keep up with the community aspect.… Continue reading Macro 📷: a photo each day in June for 30 Days Wild
I got to spend the afternoon wandering around the Adur valley recently. The River Adur runs through West Sussex where it reaches the sea at Shoreham. There are wonderful views of the South Downs, especially from the area I was wandering around. This landscape fascinates me because it was once a much wider and wilder… Continue reading Macro 📷: a ruby-tailed wasp in the Adur valley
Another week and it’s another spider post. This time, it’s a spider that also likes posts. One evening a couple of weeks ago I had logged off from work and went out into the garden to look at something other than an email. It was a warm evening and the sun was dipping below the… Continue reading Macro 📷: the fencepost jumping spider
I know that this blog has focused a lot on spiders this year. My spider knowledge is basic and these posts, their photos and required dip into spider ecology (arachnology) helps me to improve that knowledge. I recently purchased a spider ID guide (Britain’s Spiders by Bee, Oxford and Smith) and it’s helped me to… Continue reading Macro 📷: the zebra in the room
One day last week I noticed a small clutter of, well, things on the garden fence. From a distance they looked like a smudge. At closer viewing they were tiny spiders all bundled together.… Continue reading Macro 📷: spring spiderlings
I visited the family home last week and, despite heavy rain most of the time, managed to spend an hour papping the inverts in the garden. The garden has good views of London’s ever-changing (and IMO, degrading) skyline, not that the inverts much care. The view is a bizarre localised battleground, with neighbours trying to… Continue reading Macro 📷: gearing up for London’s planthoppers
I came back from a walk yesterday and, customarily, went straight to wash my hands. Looking in the mirror, I noticed something small dangling from my hair. Having just been on a walk my nature senses were fine-tuned and I realised it was an invertebrate. Looking more closely and removing it from my hair with care, I realised it was, one – alive, and two – a jumping spider.… Continue reading Macro 📷: the oak jumping spider returns
Daniel Greenwood 