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OAKMOSS

Despite its name, it is actually lichen - Oakmoss grows primarily on the trunk and branches of Oak trees, but can also be found growing...

CANADA GOOSE

In bed, awake at midnight, I hear them calling to each other in the darkness as they fly overhead. Out in the snow yesterday, the same...

YELLOW BRAIN

Also known as Golden Jelly, Witches Butter or Yellow Trembler is a jelly fungus (helpfully named because they look like jelly, not...

LARCH

These common trees are unusual in that they are deciduous conifers – their green needles go orange-brown in autumn and fall. There are...

PIED WAGTAIL

My battered old copy of the Observer’s Book of British Birds notes that this is also known as the Water Wagtail or Dish-washer (no, me...

BARN OWL

You can see these incredible birds hunting in the fields and hedgerows just to the east of Otley, a habitat set to be destroyed by the...

EUROPEAN HOLLY

Their winter-ripening red berries and glossy green leaves bring natural colour into our homes at Christmas, and also into our woods,...

LITTLE EGRET

These small white herons still seem quite exotic to me – more a bird of the Nile (or at least the Dordogne) than the Wharfe. Many UK...

SHIELD LICHEN

Lichens are a symbiosis, a composite organism emerging from algae or cyanobacteria living among the filaments of fungi. Algae or...

VELVET SHANK

Fairly common around Otley, especially down by the river this year, it is most commonly found on Ash trees, but can also be found on...

KING ALFREDS CAKES

We don’t know for certain that the story of the king letting the peasant woman’s cakes burn is true, but he was a really interesting...

TREECREEPER

We don’t have many birds with curved bills, and I’m struggling to think of another small one. You can see them spiralling up and round...

TIGER WORM

You can buy these earthworms, because they are particularly good at rapidly processing organic waste into nutrient-rich compost, but the...

SCOTS PINE

Pine trees can leave me a bit cold – I’m thinking of David Bellamy’s “arboreal slums” – lines of monotonous ever-greens in dark...

TROOPING CRUMBLE CAP

Also known as Fairy Ink Cap, they are quite common at this time of year, and fairly easy to spot as they always form dense mats over dead...

MIXED FLOCK OF TITS

One of the great joys of Autumn for me, along with the changing colour of the leaves, are mixed flocks of tits flittering around the...

WHITE SADDLE MUSHROOM

Looking like something has chewed it up and spat it out, the white saddle mushroom is one of those fungi that look otherworldly strange...

MOORHEN

One of the world’s commonest birds, these are easy to spot down at the Gallows Hill ponds, though they come out of the water much more...

PIXY CUP LICHEN

Similes abound for this distinctive lichen – it is also compared with golf tees and even Shrek’s ears – but the pixie reference is...

COMMON IVY

There are two native subspecies of Ivy in the UK – one that climbs and one that spreads across the ground. There are many great examples...