Author Archives: Northwest nature and history

Lurking in the Canal; Perch, the Highly Adaptable Piscine Predator

The European perch, Perca fluviatilis, is a highly adaptable predatory freshwater fish native to the British isles. It is found in a wide variety of habitats from ponds and lakes to brooks and rivers but has found a particularly thriving niche in our man-made canals.

Forest City: a Critical Dissection of Proposals and Suggestions of Viable Alternatives

Forest City 1 is a recently proposed city development planned for agricultural land on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border. A private initiative its purported aims are to address the housing crisis in the UK and stimulate economic growth.

Here I dissect these proposals, uncover the flaws within them that may cause irreparable harm to our environment and society, and suggest some viable alternatives and solutions.

Common Ivy

Common ivy, scientifically known as Hedera helix, is an evergreen climbing plant native to, and ubiquitous throughout the British Isles, excepting the far north and a few spots like the Isle of Man.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my subscribers and visitors, I’m just having a break from writing until after Christmas, (mainly because I’ve got so much still left to do!) So I’d like wish you all peace and goodwill and I leave you with this joyful and thoughtful poem by the Lancastrian poet Edwin Waugh; Christmas MorningContinue reading “Merry Christmas!”

Gallinago the Bog Drummer

If you’ve ever stood in the reeds of Chat Moss, the wet sheep-pastures of the Ribble estuary, the peat-bogs of Bowland or the rushy fields around Martin Mere on a still April evening, you might have heard a weird, somewhat spooky, sound that you couldn’t quite put your finger on; a bleating, almost goat-like humming that seemed to come from the sky itself, and you may have wondered what made it.