Sunset between two worlds #UKCanals #Nature #NaturePhotography

This episode discusses the implications of the Whitchurch breach following a difficult year (2025) on the canal network for the future of life on the canal and the boating world. *Spoiler - it is not all doom and gloom!* #ukcanals #podcast #boatlife #nature www.noswpod.com/canal-life/

Witches, poison, sauna's and ice - I've uploaded a travel essay I published with Marlowe review in Spring on my substack today. 🔊voice-over added for pottering about open.substack.com/pub/jenratcl... #travel #norway #naturewriting #quietsky

'17' dangles from a branch, blue as playdough with accompanying faded rose lead. Keys juggled by a tree - lost token limbo, strung as lights at eye level. When I see shrubs wearing mittens or rocks donning beanie-hats, I consider the small kindness to attempt their return and smile. #HumanNature

After a week of ice The flash of a kingfisher Along the moorings. The spark of hope Is kingfisher blue. #naturewriting #ukcanals #naturepoetry #hope #birds #winter

Generation Gamma - younger than Beta (born after Alpha = after Gen Z = after millenial, X, boomer) - Began being born in 2024... They're growing up in a post AI world, post-pandemic, post climate tipping point. What would you teach/ share with Gen G, on how to experience joy, beauty, fun?

Instead of dieting: Commuters can lose up to three kilograms a year if they switch from driving to public transportation. This was the finding of a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania. The reason is simple: the daily walk to the bus stop helps you lose weight.

First bird of my day: a pair of cuddling jackdaws perched on their chimney looking down on the sleepy village. #firstbirdofmyday #whatsyours

For a shot of perspective, it's always worth taking a moment to look up at the stars when a chance arises. Never fails. And should the wild & evocative hooting call of an owl be heard, in that same moment, all the better!

A greater yellowlegs wading through its shallow wetland habitat for the #natural habitat theme of #birdoftheday picked by @alan678.bsky.social #birds #photography #nature #eastcoastkin

Day 11 - Every Summer thousands of Corellas arrive & take up residents in the trees in town. You cant get away from them. This was taken as they flew over my garden. #365Project #Day11 #photography #wildlife #birds #silhouette #nature @bskyphotos.bsky.social 📷📸 🐤

My cheeks covered in salt, a car full of family 'stop!' I cry (on an empty road) - a lonely quiet curlew in a field. There's something about showing others a bird they've never seen before that is quite magical. #birdsfromfaraway #birder #lifer

If you're looking for. Nature filled listen or read to start the morning slowly with - here is my latest Substack tinyurl.com/DecDNature3 Owls, moons and boats, oh my #ukcanals #substsck #podcast #birds #birder #slow

Coastal air crashes my hair into new styles, my lungs licking invisible salts laced from a thousand journeys across it. Cherry-beaked chough's caw boisterously as they delicately race down cliffs making smooth line of jagged edges. Good morning 🌅 How has your Saturday began? #birder #nature #calm

Bliss 🔊for the waves #QuietSky

Spent yesterday at my parents - positioned near the window. When my mum returned from work she queried: 'anything to report in the garden today?' 'blue tits are checking out real estate - what did you notice from your window?' Rather a lovely first question over 'how's work?' #NatureWriting

Last night the world was tucked in its cool cotton sheets, but by morning it had tussled them away in thawing sleep. My eyes searched for the missing beauty like a child looking for presents under a Christmas tree... but within me the sister who is going on a Welsh road trip was verily relieved

Goldfinches cheerily flitter through churchyard limes winter-bare & mist-wrapped. Amid the cold stoney grey & pre-storm calm, the birds as one resemble flickering specks & streaks of golden light; the tree tops appear to sparkle, as if showered with magic dust in the wake of a spell cast over them.

; the plan is: there is no plan. #7syllablesentence #plan

This feels a very appropriate word for today! Try, go, succeed, fail: plan again

Today the world is a blue-light hugged under grey cloth. Two blue tits trial several birdboxes in my father's garden and the blank page before me remains so, as I let their adventure guide my curiosity. #DailyNature Closing Notes [Dec 15 - 31] : Goodbye 2025 tinyurl.com/DecDNature3 #quietsky

Lovely dream: gold finch was picking out almonds from the small nest nearby and dropping them down whilst tutting. Panicking the squirrel who had put them there. Only on waking did I realise this was all in a sketch style. Looking at the nest now with no visitors its all came flooding back to me.

'Trees' - by Japanese artist Soichiro Tomioka (1922–1994) who loved to paint snowy landscapes #trees #art

I've spent the day photographing and uploading a lot of work to my website that normally doesn't make it online. But if I'm going to stop stock control issues at live events, this is the only way forward. Anyway, you can have a gander here should you need diverting from World Events. #ceramics

Outside rain as thick as a shire horse's tail is whipping new life into the soil, the sun's cheeks round and inquisitive are watching beyond the clouds. This is a good day.

I'm so so grateful to David & @ldnwildlifetrust.bsky.social for making this trailer for my book Wild Pavements - Exploring Britain's Cities with an Urban Naturalist, which is available to pre-order & out 5 Mar. 😀💚 www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

A blue tit calls in threes from the top stalk of a bare pear tree. It scatters quickly - announcing following rain: jam-thick with icy hue. I've been dreading this rain, weather-paranoid that the sky would seek revenge for a dry year. Instead I smile, greeting winter in retrouvailles #NatureWriting

A frozen reed-edged mere, with distant huddles of wigeon. Blissful calm in biting cold.

A week into the solar new year already! I hope everyone is feeling rested and has that excitable look-forward feeling. Here's a Substack Note featuring three moments of joy from yesterday's icy walk ❄️ As well as a link to the latest #DailyNature blog #NatureWriting substack.com/@jenratcliff...

Very sad news that Roger Maskew has passed away. Roger had been one of our #BSBImembers since the 1980s, was our in-house expert on Roses & co-authored (with Gareth Knass) 'Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland', the #BSBIHandbook published last year. More info here: bsbi.org/about/news/l...

Up and running with my 2026 #LadybirdYearList! 🐞 1️⃣ 7-spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) on my local heathland. What a great place for an over-winter snooze! #UKLadybirds

Happy Twelfth Night / Epiphany! Thank you to everyone who joined in #DailyNature during December - the final roundup is live and ready below. Featuring owls, environmental end of year news, look forward and a spectacular wolf moon! tinyurl.com/DecDNature3 #NatureWriting #Birder #Owls #UKCanals

Effulgent

#DailyNature Day31 Eve old but year young, each day passed like air through lung. Sun doesn't stop, nor does the Earth, yet we light up our mantras in this little rebirth: warm are the seasons gone and to come, but saunter a while in this rare long night, where old and young sit in the same light.

Beautiful image, poetry and sentiment 💙

#DailyNature Day30 The profile of a chiselled face like white ore, burns out from navy satin, caramelising ice sparkled clouds. In a double ring are the sweet violet, indigo and grass layers of a moonbow, melting like a giant gobstopper in the air, next year forecast: full of colour #NatureWriting

#DailyNature Day29 A chonky squirrels with tail bristled like snow l-tipped pinecone sits in a window basket. It grasps a nut, from where I do not know, I tap the window, it slumps down into relaxation, it's almond eyes holding my reflection. We watch the pigeon walk across the grass together.

There's nothing more captivating and magical than a wintery Starling murmuration ❤️ #TLAMOB #MagicOfBirds #Nature #Wildlife #Murmuration

December #DailyNature A trip to the coast, searching the marshes in vain for a Hen Harrier, but finding Marsh Harriers at least.

#DailyNature Day28 Starless. Shrouded from time travelling torches galaxies apart. Is there some great eye that can see us still, like a hunter spots the deer? A chill enrobes me and I know we are locked in on this planet together. Me, myself and the night air. #NatureWriting

This translation of Brecht's poem, from Tom Paulin's Namanlagh, sits ambiguously between both themes of the collection. It could address the notion questioning if a poet has stopped writing are they still a poet? Or is it a metaphor for partition? #poetry #poemoftheday

#Day27 The watcher In west can lay Down her head, For light once more Comes on racing clouds From the east. #DailyNature #dawn #ukcanals

#DailyNature Day27 Pineapple, plum and poseidon mists dance across the day. A blue tit sings at the pire of a fruitless pear tree dressed in similar plumage, each day more songs seem to add themselves to the dawn. Still the dark comes early, frost strengthening into the new year. #NatureWriting

#DailyNature Day26 A flicker of shadow, a phantom fairy... or miniature dragon - behind the window as the roast potatoes are being served, to whimsy guests with grins, and again and again they come to wish us good will. The bats that came to Christmas dinner. #NatureWriting #Nocturnal #Christmas

#Day26 After a couple of days of wind The day dawns calm(er) The oak is almost still Only the alder catkins And willowherb whisps Shiver and dance. Two mallards swim by The drake eyes me They keep close to each other. I hear their soft chuckles And chuntering. I too, am reassured. #DailyNature

#DailyNature & #photography Fruiting thorn cup lichen, Cladonia unicialis, the ‘corals’ of the dunes & forests. Location: dunes, forest, island of Usedom, Baltic Sea #lichen #cladonia #cuplichen #fungifriends #mycology #mushroomsky #nature #corals #forest #forestfriends #dunes #BalticSea #usedom

#Day25 The wind blows cold On this Christmas morning Creating furrows in the water. An unfortunate pheasant Flushed from hedgerow sanctuary Rooks hooligan gloriously As the sun returns A robin perched Among the rosehips Surfs the wild and wicked wind. #DailyNature #naturewriting #winter #poetry

#DailyNature & #photography Mushroom magic in the forest. #fungifriends #forestfriends #forests

#DailyNature Day 25 Husky berceuse of wood pigeon brings me into the soft reality of awakedom. Slowly now, a blue tit, then a crow and a far off robin. Magpie glints past, apatite feathers catching morning light. It may snow, but for now violet tinted cream mounds of clouds drift. Merry Christmas!