The Frightened Face of Nature – Speaking up for Nature.
By Graham Wellstead. The Countryside Alliance recently published news that Defra are signalling opportunities for the re-introduction of a number of species, including beaver, Scottish wildcats and golden eagles. A…
By Dr Valerie Jeffries FLS. Exploration of the Solar System looking for evidence of habitability is about ‘primitive life’, with no expectation of anything beyond tiny bacterial-style cells, possibly with…
By Dr Valerie Jeffries FLS Language of Life The term ‘Earthlife’ acknowledges that all life we know uses the same universal coding system to read its DNA. The way it translates…
By John and Margaret Cooper It is May and spring is progressing apace here in West Norfolk. During the past week we have had periods of sunshine, alternating with light…
I thought I would appeal to all the birders out there, who might be at a loose end and looking for some fun on Saturday. The Cornell Lab and ebird…
By Dr Valerie Jeffries FLS. Are we alone ? We no longer believe that Planet Earth holds the only possibility of life, just as we know that our whole Solar…
Last week co-founder of the FFON website, John Cooper received the letter below from the Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES) bestowing upon him Honorary Life Membership of the AES. I received…
Dear Simon, John and Margaret We have written a very quick note below from our encounter a few days ago and also attached a couple of pictures if you would…
By Dr. David Glynne Fox This article is based on almost seventy years of personal observations in the wild, primarily in and around my home county of Nottinghamshire, although these…
How You Can Help Write letters, raise awareness, talk to people – visit https://www.linnean.org/the-society/savebh/how-you-can-help to find out more (before it’s too late).
Written by John and Margaret Cooper: Pentney to King’s Lynn walk 13 – 15 July 2020. A report on our walk – and the natural history that we saw –…
To: Helen Whately MP, Minister for Social Care. Dear Helen, I am writing to tell you about the Linnean Society of London, of which I am a Fellow, and how…
The future of three learned societies at London’s famous Burlington House is now under threat as rents increase by over 3,000% and continue to escalate Geological Society and Linnean Society…
James Wild MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA Dear Mr Wild Save Burlington House Campaign May I draw your attention to an article in The Guardian dated 28 February…
Lia Nici MP Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby Martin Vickers MP Member of Parliament for the Cleethorpes Constituency Dear Lia and Martin I am writing to you as my local…
By Dr. David Glynne Fox The Water Spider (Argyroneta aquatica) is, as far as is known, the only truly aquatic spider in the world, living almost entirely submerged in ponds…
What a treat to see around thirty Redwing in the garden this morning all foraging for insects under leaves. Lucky me. Watch out for the winter thrushes in your garden.…
Here we are, the world-dominating Hominin, miserably in thrall to the tiniest and simplest form of life, a virus. It’s not even alive in some opinions, depending on your definition…
2020 was our biggest year for the FFON website – readership grew by more than 200% and came courtesy of 90 plus countries. We couldn’t have created so much wonderful…
The following article, “Butterfly feeding experiment”, is by Rowan Allen, who is eight-years-old. Readers of FFON will remember Rowan’s previous contributions to the website – a poem about an ocelot…
By Graham Wellstead. I expect many of my generation will echo in some way, but my life growing up in the 1940s and 50s was not run-of-the-mill. I lived with…
Welcome to autumn: Simon, John and Margaret join forces this autumn/winter with the wonderful team at Haith’s wild bird food (https://www.haiths.com/) to launch their new project – “Make Nature Your…
No. 113 Autumn/Winter 2020. Visit https://hawkandowltrust.org to find out more about The Hawk and Owl Trust.
John and Margaret Cooper’s Pentney to King’s Lynn ‘safari’ 13 – 15 July 2020. A report on our walk – and the natural history that we saw – for the…
By Dr Valerie Jeffries FLS. Rev Gilbert White FRS (18 July 1720 – 26 June 1793) was a pioneer naturalist, who collected over 40 years’ observations of the flora and…
By Graham Wellstead. It would not be to difficult to calculate how much of my life has been enriched in terms of years, an educated guess would be 3 to…
By Susan Underkoffler – our Pennsylvania, USA correspondent. I met someone during my first experience away from home at university. His name was Marco and he was from Iceland. Stocky…
By Dr Valerie Jeffries FLS If you missed Part I, it’s here. Franz Witte back in Leiden could hardly believe what he was hearing on the crackly phone line from…
I (Simon King) heard recently from naturalist Graham Wellstead who was keen to write about a special place for FFON readers – he wrote: “Here I am taking liberties. I…
