It’s a Dog’s Life!
‘A dog is a man’s best friend’, so they say. They are our companions. They are, like us, social carnivores that hunt in the daylight. We were made to collaborate. How much more effective we would have been as hunters with dogs to detect and chase our prey. And dogs would have played a crucial role in the development of civilization by protecting our crops and home and herding our animals. But there’s more to it than that. Dogs offer us their devotion. To them we are the pack leaders –... Read more »
If you go down to the woods today …….
Dark eyed, tired, seemingly bored with life, they lumber salivating out of the forest dark, enticed by the sound of the tractor and the scent of one hundred kilograms of salmon hidden under logs in four caches. Ursus arctos may have a muzzle like a dog, but it also bears some... Read more »
It’s summer; so follow the geese, go north!
Exhausted with the pressure of work, the bustle and clutter of city life? Then don't head for the crowded beaches of the Mediterranean, follow the geese; go north to Finland. Arola farm is in the region of Eastern Finland known as Suomussalmi, just south of the Arctic Circle and within sight... Read more »
The Curious Intimacy of the Shag
'The common Cormorant or Shag Lays its eggs in a paper bag.' So wrote Christopher Isherwood, but he was wrong on both counts. The common Cormorant is not the same bird as the Shag. It is much bigger and has a white patch below its beak and under its belly. The Shag is... Read more »
