Lichen article

Lecanora campestris grows on an old headstone

While I have been away in the field studying waders and eagles, I missed the publication of one of my articles on lichens in the May edition of the Leopard magazine. This is such a wide topic with thousands of species in the UK alone, so I focused on readily accessible species which people can find growing on gravestones.

Lichens can be difficult to identify, partly because some need to be keyed out to microscopic or chemical characteristics, but also because so few have common names. Scientific double nomenclature can put people off, and in the case of lichens seem overwhelming. I am a scientist, but I do not like aloofness, I like to share my knowledge and experiences of wildlife with people. And the more I share, the more I find I learn. Perhaps if more people were to become interested in lichens more of them would gain common names? Do not be afraid of scientific snobbery, get out there and enjoy the variety of colour and shapes which abound in the wild outdoors 

Xanthoria parietina grows on a gravestone where bird-droppings enrich the surface

Magazine article

Leopard magazine have published an article in their August issue based on pieces lifted from the Eagle Days book. This is a general interest, and the best-selling magazine in north east Scotland. So it is good that some of what I have described in the book will now reach people who do not usually read wildlife books or magazines. 

Magazine article

A copy of the Leopard magazine arrived with the post today from Scotland. And there on the cover was one of  my photographs of a ptarmigan taken last summer while I was over there. There is a full four page article inside, which I wrote for the magazine with more of my shots illustrating the ptarmigan's life in the Scottish Highlands. Go to http://www.leopardmag.co.uk/ for more info. One of the inside photographs and caption is copied below.

A hen ptarmigan in summer plumage. The fine pattern of browns, yellows, black and white mix to form an excellent match with the colours of the heather, blaeberry, lichens and rocks of the high hilltops.