Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

Emergence

This heavily pregnant conker was briefly destined for billboard-sized stardom. I found it sitting atop a hedge whilst I searched for suitable subjects to photograph for a commission for a new antenatal unit at Homerton University Hospital. It turned out to be a very suitable subject, and this image initially got chosen to grace a full […]

Sticky Feet

Recently I discovered that there are people who climb up cliffs which are so extremely massive that they have to sleep hanging off the cliff-face in a tent. A terrifying prospect if ever I heard one, and one that requires some seriously specialist equipment. Yet just around the corner from my home I find this […]

Do Pigeons Eat Grass?

It turns out that grass is actually rather difficult to eat. One reason is that the blades contain a gritty compound called silica, the same stuff that is found in sand, and used to make glass. It is a very hard, abrasive substance, and functions as a line of defence against being eaten, as it […]

How The Other Half Live

Whilst humans go about their daily lives, scurrying in and out of their big brick buildings, here, amongst this delicious leaf litter, there is a whole community of little animals living where these large and unexpected mushrooms have burst forth. Snails, woodlice, earwigs, millipedes, beetle larvae, fully-fledged beetles, slugs, earthworms…all manner of minibeasts abide here. […]

Cobweb Criss-Cross

Spider silk – whether in the form of a perfect spiral web covered in dewdrops glinting in the sunshine, scrunched up in dirty blobs stuck to your jumper after an accidental collision, or, like here, built up in layers over the unused window of a deserted shed – is a truly amazing material. It’s stronger […]

Who Has Been Doodling On This Leaf?

Nobody! Because the doodling is actually happening from the very inside of the leaf! There is a tiny insect larva in there, munching its meandering way, boring a path through the cells of the leaf, leaving in its wake this translucent tunnel. The dark spot at the end of the doodle – the eye – […]

Playing With a Feather

When was the last time you played with a feather? I found this one sticking out of a patch of grass; I think it once belonged to a pigeon. So I picked it up and have been playing with it. Close-up, the structure is beautiful – delicate and perfectly stripy. I really wanted to hear […]

Booby Trapping

Rays of web radiating out in what looks like a mini galactic explosion, these are in fact trip-wires laid down by a big black spider with bright green jaws (a tube web spider). If you happen to stumble across this set-up in the darkness of the night, you are quite likely to get gobbled up […]

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