Nature – Bills Posts

2010 – Letter to Steve XV – From Ants to Stars

Dear Steve, I found it very difficult to respond directly to Gilbert’s Letter XV. His world was very different to ours. If I see something like an unusual bird, I’d want to photograph it, and then use the internet to learn about the bird, in the meantime is hopefully working on its nest. Gilbert’s response,Continue reading “2010 – Letter to Steve XV – From Ants to Stars”

2001 Stokes Bay

I was thinking of a small trip out that we did to a small place not far from us called Warsash. I’ve just found the photos that I took there, and I’m slightly distressed to find that the trip was over 4 years ago. That came as a bit of a shock. But it wasn’tContinue reading “2001 Stokes Bay”

1996 – Letter to Steve XIII

Dear Steve, Gilbert’s letter 13 is quite a long one. He goes into a level of detail about birds that I could never hope to match. That doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore birds, far from it. I love watching the birds. I have a hanging feeder which I fill with mealworms. I tried seed,Continue reading “1996 – Letter to Steve XIII”

1990 – Letter to Steve XII

Dear Steve, If I were in a position to be able to photograph the nest of a harvest mouse, I’d eagerly grab it, obviously without disturbing the occupants. The nests are quite a feat of engineering. I certainly wouldn’t do what Gilbert did, take one indoors and roll it around on the table, apparently withContinue reading “1990 – Letter to Steve XII”

1983 – Letter to Steve XI

Dear Steve, I read through Letter XI, and I confess, I was more than a bit surprised by the first paragraph. Gilbert had acquired a dead falcon. Taking it into his home, he took measurements of it, and looked at its characteristics. That kind of floored me a bit. What could I do that wasContinue reading “1983 – Letter to Steve XI”

1976 – Letter to Steve X

Gilbert starts his letter X by expressing his frustration that he has no local like-minded people with whom he can share his interests. Writing his letters to his two friends is as close as he gets to conversing with anybody who shares his interests. I found myself asking how long a normal exchange of lettersContinue reading “1976 – Letter to Steve X”

1949 – Letter to Steve VI

Letter VI Gilbert’s Letter VI talks of a fairly extensive forest adjacent to Selborne. The Forest of Wolmer. Now, I am not aware of a forest of equivalent size near Gosport (the New Forest is too far away), but what we do have is the Alver Valley. This is a lovely nature reserve with aContinue reading “1949 – Letter to Steve VI”

1927 – Sorry – Stargazing with Heath Robinson

I really don’t know how I managed to get a slightly out-of-focus picture with the Nikon, obviously a bad shutter / aperture combination. Anyhow, this is where Heath Robinson paid a visit today. The picture shows my attempt to get a kind of Head-up Display. On the phone, the plan is to have Stellarium running,Continue reading “1927 – Sorry – Stargazing with Heath Robinson”

1921 – The Gilbert White Letter II.

I’ve repeated the use of last nights bad picture quite deliberately. In my post 1911 Making Smoke, I wrote a letter to my friend Steve on the lines of Gilbert Whites Letter No. II from his book, The Natural History of Selborne. Today’s post continues what I hope will be a trend of letters; HiContinue reading “1921 – The Gilbert White Letter II.”

1911 – Making Smoke

I saw this boat on Tuesday, it really was kicking out a lot of smoke. I wrote on Tuesday about the Gilbert White letters, and have now read his Letter No. I, addressed to Thomas Pennant doesn’t have a date. So I googled to find that the letter was never posted and indeed was writtenContinue reading “1911 – Making Smoke”