A highlight of our recent visit to Japan was getting to see cormorant fishing on the Uji River which runs through Uji city in Kyoto. We came across this opportunity by chance, having climbed nearby to see the macaques on a nearby hilltop (these are monkeys famously seen bathing in hot springs during the depths of winter). Having worked up quite a sweat we decided to “chill” for a little while aboard a little hired rowing boat on the river nearby. It was only when we returned our boat that we came across a poster advertising boat trips to witness the ancient tradition of fishing with cormorants. We decided that we would return to do so the next evening.
Continue readingCategory: Natural history
I spent last week with a group of school kids and a few colleagues in Doñana which, if you are not familiar with it, is an important National Park in Huelva Province on Spain´s southern Atlantic coast. Doñana is particularly famous for the population of Iberian Lynx which thrive there and a breeding centre located here has been instrumental in bringing these endangered felines back from the brink of extinction.
Continue readingA couple of weeks ago I had a day off and my wife Catriona was away for her work. So it occurred to me that I could do a lot worse than head off fishing in the Conde del Guadalhorce reservoir at El Chorro and have a crack at the carp that occasionally venture into the shallow margins.
Continue readingYesterday morning I took my little trio of newly-tied carp flies to the reservoir at El Chorro to see whether I might come across a carp to tell me whether or not they were up to scratch. As mentioned previously, the carp here may or may not put in an appearance. They´re kind of moody.
Continue readingYesterday we returned from the coast with some shopping in the back of the car and, as we normally do, went to and fro a couple of times between the car and the house carrying the bits and pieces we picked up. It was only as the last of these short errands were completed that I glanced over to a wall at the end of the house and noticed a mountain goat standing on it. It seems likely that it had been standing there all along.
Continue readingA weird thing happened today. There was this dead rabbit lying on the ground next to the fence of our property. I noticed it as Catriona and I were walking by. And then later on, the next time I went there, it was gone.
Continue readingMy local stretch of the Guadalhorce river is now reduced to a thread and you can step right across it in places. Even where it is too wide to do this, you may be able to walk across the tops of medium size stones and get from side to side without even getting your feet wet. It is difficult to imagine, during the heat of summer, that the lower branches of bank side trees capture the debris flushed down when the river is in flood. It is now as low as I have seen it for many years.
Continue readingIf 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 readingI 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.
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