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Wigeon

Pictures of the male suggest the painter gave up “colouring-in” after the front third: the head and chest have an unusual...

Grey Knight

Also commonly known as the Dirty Tricholoma. Can be found throughout Europe, where fruiting bodies appear under conifers, particularly...

Shaggy Inkcap

Not short of great names, this fungus is also known as Lawyer’s Wig, and is quite common in Otley’s meadows, woods and verges (and...

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Probably my favourite insect, though not one I associate with Otley, more with holidays in France, but here we have a video to prove the...

Sweet Chestnut

These are the chestnuts that you can eat, once you’ve extracted them from their formidable spiky cases and cooked them to help remove the...

Forest Bug

An intriguing looking shield bug, the shoulders of the Forest bug are very distinctive and distinguish them from other shield bugs. I...

Marsh Woundwort

Another wort in flower right now, also known as clown's woundwort, clown's heal-all and marsh hedgenettle. Its traditional use was to...

Crowned Orb Weaver

Also (more prosaically) know as the Common Garden Spider, it’s worth overcoming any inclinations to arachnophobia to examine the...

Bugglewort

Autumn is almost here but there are still wildflowers to be found. I found this one finding its way through the wooden slats of the...

Gatekeeper

Not a common butterfly in Otley – they prefer the warmer south of the country – but spotted on Ragwort in Alex Eve’s wilded garden on the...

Common Tern

This angular, slender seabird visits Otley in the summer for the fishing at Knotford Nook and the Wetlands, though they will also eat...

Two Spot Ladybird

These common, carnivorous beetles are sometimes used as a biological control agent, consuming aphids in greenhouses for example, and it...

Common field grasshopper

These noisy invertebrates can be seen in Otley’s fields and gardens from May to October. The sound, of course, is once again...

ringlet

This brown butterfly has a variable number of small, yellow-rimmed eye-spots (the “ringlets”), but when it emerges its wings are...

Common whitethroat

Another insect-eating warbler that crosses the Sahara to spend the summer with us, adding its almost angry-sounding, “scratchy” song to...

brimstone moth

BRIMSTONE MOTH: This beautiful moth has quite distinctive colouring: yellow with chestnut markings at the edges. You might even be able...

wintercress

Whilst out walking with a friend recently, he asked me if a plant was edible, I said to him that most plants are ‘edible’ but if they are...

blue bottle fly

We are well into fly season, any sunny day from now on is going to be accompanied by swathes of flies. Whilst you are batting them away...

green alkanet

Green Alkanet More piercing blue flowers are to be found in the wilder spaces of Otley, the pretty flowers of the forget-me-not relative...

st mark's fly

ST MARK’S FLY: This is that shiny black fly with the dangly legs that you see in swarms at this time of year. Some people find them...