Stephen Moss

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Stephen Moss

When the tide is out on my Somerset coastal patch, there’s so much mud it looks as if you could walk all the way across the bay to Wales. That seemed apt when I came across a flock of black-tailed godwits, whose scientific name, Limosa limosa, literally means “muddy muddy”. The name seems inappropriate for such an elegant bird, although their long legs do allow them to feed in the muddiest places.

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Stephen Moss

Thursday is the spring equinox, when day and night are more or less equal all over the world. For naturalists, it marks the official start of spring, though judging by the birdsong in my Somerset garden, the season began several weeks ago. As we eagerly await the return of swifts, swallows, warblers and flycatchers – all long-distance migrants from sub-Saharan Africa – we should reflect on how shifts in the world’s climate are causing them problems.

2 months ago | msn.com | Stephen Moss

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2 months ago | theguardian.com | Stephen Moss

While on a school field trip to Pembrokeshire in Wales in the early 1960s, the 14-year-old Richard Fortey stumbled across his first trilobite – the 500-million-year-old fossil of a prehistoric marine animal. This chance event ultimately led him to a long and distinguished career as a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum. He also forged a parallel career as an inspirational communicator via his books and TV series.

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Stephen Moss

Any bird with “grey” in its name is not likely to make the average birder quiver with excitement. And it is true that in winter, when grey plovers visit our shores from the high Arctic, they are easy to overlook, especially among the spectacular flocks of lapwings, golden plovers and avocets on my Somerset coastal patch. Stout and unassuming, grey plovers usually lurk on the edge of the mud beneath the sea wall, patiently picking off shellfish and marine worms with their short bills.