These days almost any form of nature collecting is frowned upon. Here Nige recalls his own youthful collecting experiences and explains how they gave him a lifelong appreciation of the natural world... A little while back David Attenborough spoke out against the misguided laws that prevent children collecting almost anything in the field. Good ... Read More...
Dabbler Country
Out and about
As Texas burns, Daniel Kalder continues to mull over the implications of living in a natural disaster area... The other night I was working in my backyard when I caught a whiff of smoke on the wind: a barbecue? I wondered. But there were no smoke trails coming from behind my neighbor’s ... Read More...
Brit dons his heavy-duty waterproofs and grimly takes up his bucket and spade in a traditional British seaside resort... A few weeks ago I found myself clamped in the teeth of a North Sea gale, on a bitter July Tuesday, trying to make a sandcastle from the brown sludge of Skegness beach. It was a corporate team-building thing. ... Read More...
When I was young, droughts were something that happened elsewhere: as a punishment from God in the Bible, or in far off Africa, where unfortunate babies with distended bellies would die in the scorching heat of an evil sun. In Scotland, by contrast, there was never a shortage of rain ... Read More...
Nige finds two extraordinary collectors within the pages of that lepidopterist's Bible, The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and Their Collectors ... Like Gaul, The Aurelian Legacy is divided into three parts - a history of the British butterfly fancy, a biographical dictionary of notable butterfly men and women, and essays on some of ... Read More...
It was curiosity that led me to Nameless. I kept wondering: what lies beyond my local HEB, that vast supercenter of consumerism where I buy my groceries? The road seemed to lead nowhere, disappearing abruptly after a gas station and a chemist’s, devoured by the sky. But there had to ... Read More...
From the Dabbler archives we present this post from Martin Wainwright, which originally appeared in September 2010. Martin has written numerous invaluable books about the countryside, is the northern editor of The Guardian and is a prolific blogger on the subject of moths... As an increasingly ancient journalist, I’ve lived through many stories of ... Read More...
DAISY, COMMON, or DAY’S EYE (Bellis perennis). These large white gawky-looking flowers are so universal in English pastures and meadows, that description is almost needless. They flower all the year, principally dotting the meadows in early May. . . Domestic cattle rarely touch this plant. Notwithstanding its beauty and its ... Read More...
Britain's butterfly and (especially) bird life is rich and various, but, for all its beauties, those who take an interest in such things have to acknowledge an underlying tendency towards inconspicuous brownness. Large numbers of species - especially of birds - are pretty small and nondescript and come in unsassuming ... Read More...
Tim Birkhead's book The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology was described by The Telegraph as "one of the most entertaining, informative and enthusiastic accounts of the history of ornithology" and was voted ‘Best Bird Book of Year' by The British Trust for Ornithology and British Birds. In an exclusive ... Read More...
