As we all already know, the first signs of snow are the little piles of flour at the feet of lampposts. There used to be one on Mansfield Road in Oxford by the old car park, and in Cambridge there's a seeding site on the bridge by the Green Dragon.

I saw a man seeding snow by the First Public Drain. He had a handful of flour and an orange t-shirt. This was a few weeks ago. It hasn't worked yet.

posted at: 23:02 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

We have an Allington Pippin in the back garden. Every so often I twist a few rosy-looking low-hanging fruit to see if they're ready yet. What if I'm strengthening the stalks? I could end up with a garden covered in the apples from further up, and the assiduously exercised ones at the bottom holding fast for the frost to eat them.

posted at: 22:54 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

Cormorants, unable to produce waterproofing oil for their feathers, are obliged to hang their wings out to dry like laundry. The cormorant can be distinguished from other black seabirds of the same size by watching it dive into water. If the bird sinks, waterlogged, to the bottom and drowns, then it's a cormorant.

posted at: 11:45 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

Mythical German fowl. It has the head and foreparts of a duck, and the tail and hindquarters of a duck.

posted at: 17:16 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

In Düsseldorf in May I saw a black swan sitting by an unresponsive black bicycle, rubbing its beak against the front wheel and keening.

posted at: 13:36 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

The other day, over lunch, I saw a daddy-long-legs caught in a spider's web outside. A wasp came, unpicked the body from the legs, and flew away with it. It was about one-and-a-half times the size of the wasp.

Then the spider appeared at the bottom of the web, climbed up, bundled together the legs and scurried away.

posted at: 22:43 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

I often walk past a country-pursuits shop. From the exhibits in the window, I have worked out how to catch a heron for your dinner. Attach a silvery model fish to a flat tweed cap, and hide in a pond, waiting for a heron. When one arrives, and tries to eat your hat, stab it very hard with the samurai sword.

posted at: 22:42 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

I saw an otter throwing up. It wasn't very fluid, so it was like pink--brown toothpaste coming out of an enormous furry convulsing tube.

posted at: 22:41 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry