Tag Archives: nature

Feb 09 2026
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Dove and car park

Sunday 8th February 2026, 9.10am (day 5,281)

Dove and car park, 9/2/26

Last day in Dubai. Taking a picture of attendees at the course I’ve been teaching on while here (undepicted…) there was a frisson of excitement as I pulled out my ‘vintage’ compact camera, as if usage of such things is simply anachronistic in 2026. I have tried taking photos on the phone, though, and it just doesn’t work as well when it comes to zoom and focus. I doubt this pic could possibly have been taken on a phone, not the combination of detail in the foreground and the soft-focus of the background, not from the distance at which I was standing, anyway. And it’s that combination that I like here. When this camera finally does die — and it won’t be long, I predict — I will try to get another one. And another, until we’re all so anachronistic that we’re not here any more.

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Jan 23 2026
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

First flowers

Thursday 22nd January 2026, 2.15pm (day 5,264)

Snowdrops, 22/1/26

The snowdrops always come first. Earlier than usual? Perhaps, but not excessively so, and they are sitting in a nice, sheltered spot. This is not some rural woodland though; in fact these are on the uni campus, just next to the Roscoe building.

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Jan 04 2026
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The sparrow keeps warm

Saturday 3rd January 2026, 11.05am (day 5,245)

Sparrow on moss, 3/1/26

Along the stone retaining wall of Hebden Bridge railway station grow substantial patches of moss, and this little fellow was hopping along and burrowing into every little bit of it this morning, in search of food, unconcerned by my relatively nearby presence and far more bothered about staying warm on a cold winter’s day. Look how fluffed up its feathers are. I hope it sees out the winter.

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Dec 29 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Southwaite services, ancillary cleaners

Sunday 28th December 2025, 1.00pm (day 5,239)

Southwaite seagulls, 28/12/25

“Hi Bob. Good pickings today, don’t you think?”

“Definitely. Must be all those people driving back from their Christmasses in Scotland. Ahh… look, I see an abandoned Kit-kat over there.”

“Sure — see you later….”

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Dec 11 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Hard at work, in the wrong place

Wednesday 10th December 2025, 9.55am (day 5,221)

Spider at work, 10/12/25

This spider was not a big one, but its web was expansive enough, and as you can see, it’s still hard at work with the building. What marvellous creatures these are: there are many species which build some kind of dwelling, of course, but can’t manage it purely with goo extruded out from their bodies.

However, you can see that it’s working on the outside of a rather grubby window (the kitchen one, as it happens). By the evening, evidence (like, a bill on the doormat) then suggested our window cleaner had been round on one of his seasonal visits and all this was nowhere to be seen. I bet the spider was substantially pissed off, I know I would have been.

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Dec 03 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Firethorn berries

Tuesday 2nd December 2025, 12.30pm (day 5,213)

Firethorn berries, 2/12/25

I believe these clusters of bright and, definitely, orange berries are firethorn [genus Pyracantha] — doubtless someone will correct me if I am wrong. A whole slew of them have grown to cover the fence outside the Ellen Wilkinson Building, anyway. Valuable winter bird food, apparently.

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Nov 23 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Rose hip

Saturday 22nd November 2025, 2.35pm (day 5,203)

Rose hip, 22/11/25

There have been a couple of exceptions — namely 2018, when I was in Germany, and 2021 on St Helena (and in 2019 I was about to go to Indonesia but not quite yet on my way) — but the 22nd November is not usually a date on which much happens. I find this a depressing, enervating time of year to be honest. Everything’s in decline yet we are still weeks from the turnaround point at the solstice. This rose hip (and feel free to correct me if I’ve got the botany wrong) is still putting in an effort, I guess, but most of the rest of nature has kinda given up. I know how it feels.

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Nov 19 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Poison dart frog

Tuesday 18th November 2025, 3.05pm (day 5,199)

Poison dart frog, 18/11/25

This little feller is, at most, two inches long but what does he care? In the wild these kinds of frog accumulate enough poison in their skin to kill a dozen people. But apparently they acquire it by eating certain types of ant and other insects, and when fed a different diet in captivity, the toxicity is lost. Maybe he doesn’t know. If he did, would he care? (Taken in the Manchester Museum’s vivarium, where saw some of his cousins before, in 2014.)

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Oct 29 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Spotted near town

Wednesday 29th October 2025, 1.40pm (day 5,179)

Hurst Road deer, 29/10/25

Yes guys — you’ve been spotted. Then again with those bright buttocks you might as well paint a target on your behinds: I have relatives who will get itchy trigger fingers just looking at this photo.

This is not the nearest to the centre of Hebden Bridge that I’ve ever seen deer — that award is still held by the one spotted at the railway station in April 2019 — but let’s say it’s the second-closest: 15 minutes’ walk from the market square, at most, and with houses just yards away.

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Oct 23 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The courtyard

Tuesday 21st October 2025, 12 noon (day 5,171)

EWB courtyard, 21/10/25

The courtyard within it continues to be the only truly nice thing about the Ellen Wilkinson Building, my place of work for the last 20 years and, more or less, three months. Will I miss it when I finally do manage to leave? Probably not. But it can look nice, at different times of the year.

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