Jewels In The Sand.

The other day my son said I was passionate about things; which seemed odd, because I don't remember being passionate about very much. "With regards to what?" I asked. "Stuff", he responded waving his hand in the general direction of a bookcase, politely avoiding the word obsessive. Clearly I have a fondness for books.... and quite a lot else. Who needs to buy art when can own a paper cup: their colourful exteriors and empty interiors a metaphor for the human condition. Whoops, I mistakenly thought I was exhibiting at The Tate Gallery. I find the design of paper cups…

Travels Around An English Spring…. Graveyards, and the Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes’ Pipe.

Each year I return to Southern England from British Columbia to visit my father, and during late March and early April catch up on what an English spring has to offer. This year was a bit different though, I arrived a little later than usual to attend my step-mother's funeral and take time with my father after the sad event. My father lives to the west of Southampton Water close to the New Forest; and having spent a lot of time filming and taking photographs in the area, I can seldom resist the opportunity to visit places familiar to me…

Dances With Lions.

Everybody who meets a lion in the wild has a story to tell and I am no exception - all the pictures of wild animals were taken on the Serengeti (apart from the Cape buffalo photographed at Ngorongoro Crater). When I was a child my first sighting of a lion was on a Tate & Lyle golden treacle tin, the one that showed up on the table whenever there was steamed pudding. On the front was a picture of a male lion surrounded by a swarm of bees: this, I was told showed the lion to be the king of the jungle…

The Natural Garden – Building a Pond for Wildlife Photography.

I presently tend a mid-sized suburban garden just south of Vancouver; close to the coast and the U.S border, with the climate about as temperate as Canada has to offer. Rarely is the weather extreme and it rains fairly regularly. All things considered, not a bad place to tend a garden, but ours has one glaring oversight... it doesn't have a water feature.. I'm fond of garden ponds and over the years have built several - mostly using concrete, which usually provides a sense of permanence; but the pond I am presently working on has been dug in soft sandy…

In Search of the Unexpected Trogon.

Far away and long ago I was filming wildlife close by the small community of Portal in southern Arizona, travelling daily across the border to New Mexico; what I remember most vividly is having to get up an hour earlier each day to be in good time crossing into a later time zone... Getting up early has always been painful to me, especially if I'm missing breakfast! I remember this minor inconvenience better than almost anything about Portal; certainly it wasn't over developed - but maybe now, things have changed... I hope not, because out of the way places are…

The New Forest’s Overgrazed Stream Sides and Woodlands.

The banks of New Forest streams have changed significantly over the years. Long before I started photographing the New Forest in the 1970s streamsides were steadily being opened up by livestock as they grazed and trampled these fragile areas into blandness, and it is a problem that continues to the present day. If managing the open Forest continues to prioritise traditional practices, then maybe it's not such a bad idea to refer to photographs taken earlier in the 20th Century to gain a better understanding of the changes that have occurred. Many stream banks were grazed out long before I began taking…

Elephants: Out of Africa and Out of Luck.

As a teenager I played cricket - that was in the 1960s. For generations during an English summer it was impossible to avoid the game, especially at school where it was considered character building to have a hard ball hit or thrown at you with sometimes lethal force. Way back then, on a sunny sports enforced schoolday afternoon, I was fielding in one of those 'dangerous' too close to the batsman positions that intelligent people avoid, and perhaps realising this, my sports master shouted, 'Wake up Bolwell... pay attention!' which was a surprise... because I thought that I was. Then…

Hummingbirds – They’re Almost as ‘Big’ as Africa!

I was out in the garden yesterday trying to convince plants to grow when I was buzzed by a drone - an exceedingly stealthy one. I didn’t see it, but certainly I heard it, hovering behind my head before making off at speed. My wife sitting in a nearby lounger was able to make a more realistic observation - I was standing on the flight path of a rufous hummingbird, a creature weighing no more than a spoonful of sugar... it was attempting to visit a bee balm flower. Not quite a drone then, but even the most technically advanced…

There’s More to a Raccoon Than a Davey Crockett Hat.

A Scottish wildlife organisation recently took a picture that might help save the planet - well, the Highlands of Scotland at least. It was on one of those automatic cameras used to monitor animals - and triggered on 17th March 2016 by a Procyon lotor - that's a raccoon for those of us who don't have the Latin - standing on it's hind feet it looked as if it was feeding on some form of bait attached to a post: www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35942952 The image is technically limited and in contrasty black and white, but there is no doubting this is a…

As Dismissed As a Newt.

There was a man on the Radio today talking about great crested newts, and that got me listening carefully, because for many years I had an eventful relationship with these fascinating creatures; which might sound odd, but not entirely ridiculous considering that this was the first animal I filmed for prime time television, and the fact that I was suddenly earning a living from what most regarded as a pointless childhood interest at least impressed my father. My parents were tolerant of my preoccupation with all things amphibian, even allowing me to keep a tank of salamanders in their bedroom…