A PAPA Stour resident got a surprise at the weekend when an owl flew into his porch. ...

[Read more →]

WRITING about spring bulbs, corms and tubers in mid-November may strike some of my readers as a bit late, especially as the gardening publications tend to deal with this subject in August. ...

[Read more →]

FISH supper? Haddock, whiting, maybe plaice spring to mind. ...

[Read more →]

CONSIDERING the time of year, last week was a busy one for birds in the North Isles. ...

[Read more →]

THERE have been recent records of a Hume’s warbler from Unst and Whalsay and, on the 11th, there was one in Bressay. ...

[Read more →]

SHETLANDERS of old were great seafarers and explorers and must have been familiar with the idea of bringing home wild plants from foreign parts for the folks back home. ...

[Read more →]

ANALYSIS of this year’s seabird breeding data on RSPB’s coastal reserves shows that kittiwakes, Arctic terns and Arctic skuas have had a terrible season, with virtually no chicks reared to fledging in the far north of the UK. ...

[Read more →]

THE ESSENCE of my horticultural nostalgia has often been of a culinary nature, and has come to renewed prominence this summer. ...

[Read more →]

THE BBC Autumnwatch pro­g­­ram­me featured the waxwings which have been arriving along the east coast of Britain this week. ...

[Read more →]

GALES, storms, tempests, call them what you will, Shetland was battered, belted, thrashed and flayed by the winds, rain and hail just last week and roofs, fences and trees were tested to the limit. ...

[Read more →]