If you have found your way to this blog there is a pretty good chance that you are a fisherman. If you are not, that´s no big deal. Welcome! It is likely, particularly if you have a fishing background, that you are familiar with the salmon farming industry and with the impact it has on wild fish. This is a widely known story but, I suspect, among a fairly narrow band of people. It is time that we spread the message a little further and I was hoping you might consider helping with that effort.
Continue readingCategory: Natural history
I have just returned from a field trip to the national park of Doñana in the south of Spain with a group of my sixth form Biology students. We were shown around by Aitor who is a guide and friend. Aitor and I have introduced this area to many groups of students over the years, but this time he took me to a place that we had not visited together before and it was quite an experience. It was the highest point around and he billed it as the place where two “oceans” meet.
Continue readingThey say that, if you have had a stressful day, a stiff gin and tonic could be just the medicine for you. My mum thinks this and so I think it must be true too. So, after work today, I dropped in to the nearest Mercadona to pick up a couple of essentials. When the checkout assistant looked over at what I had added to the conveyor he gave me a knowing look. Behind the rigid screen separating my purchases from the customer in front were my essentials: one litre of tonic, one litre of Larios gin and a kilo or two of ice cubes.
Continue readingI am planning an excursion for 100 or so students which involves a trip aboard a boat in search of dolphins, and later a chance to get close to and to photograph butterflies just a short hop along the coast. I thought I might try out both activities myself today just to see how the whole day might hang together.
Continue readingI just came back from walking my two dogs along a dusty road in the campo. We were out about an hour. When we left it was daylight and when we were done it was dark and the path was illuminated chiefly from light reflected from clouds which were, in turn, reflecting the streetlights of Villafranco del Guadalhorce and, more distantly by the city lights of Málaga and Alhaurín de la Torre.
Continue readingTwice yesterday I bumped into a huge mixed flock of sheep and goats. I heard the animals, before I saw them, in each instance, because of clanging bells that several have attached to their collars. The river has its way of slowing time, which is not a bad reason to go there, but the sheep and goats do something more. They seem to make time go backwards and suggest that things, not long ago, were less complicated and less urgent.
Continue readingI fished the river the other day and concluded that the fish, or at least most of them, were fast asleep. They were not remotely as wary of me as they normally are and with a stealthy approach I could get quite close to them. At one point I waded up to a fish to see if I could actually touch it. I got pretty close with the fish turning when I was perhaps three or four feet away.
Continue readingI was joined by an otter yesterday as I was fishing a pool on the Guadalhorce. It made its way upstream through the shallows before easing itself into the slow-flowing pool. I don´t think the otter was frightened but he knew I was there. He eased himself through the water on the opposite bank before vanishing into the plants in the margin.
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