Stephen Moss

United Kingdom

Features Writer at The Guardian

'When one has no particular aptitude for anything, one takes to the pen and poses as a talented person' – Balzac

Articles

The wader with a muddy name whose numbers are in steep decline

2 weeks ago | msn.com | Stephen Moss

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
The wader with a muddy name whose numbers are in steep decline

2 weeks ago | msn.com | Stephen Moss

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Birdwatch: The wader with a muddy name whose numbers are in steep decline

2 weeks 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.
Weatherwatch: climate shifts threaten birds’ return as spring arrives

1 month 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.
Richard Fortey obituary

1 month ago | msn.com | Stephen Moss

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Richard Fortey obituary

1 month 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.
Birdwatch: in spring, the unshowy grey plover undergoes a transformation

1 month 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.
in spring, the unshowy grey plover undergoes a transformation

1 month ago | msn.com | Stephen Moss

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Weatherwatch: how bitter cold of February 1917 quietened Britain’s birds

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Stephen Moss

February often brings the first signs of spring in the bird world, with mild, sunny days producing plenty of birdsong and the start of breeding activity, including nest building for many resident species. What a contrast with more than a century ago when February 1917 was one of the coldest on record. On Valentine’s Day, as the snow and ice had finally begun to thaw, those birdwatchers not fighting in Flanders met to share their observations.
Birdwatch: a nostalgic sighting of a roadrunner in Nevada

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Stephen Moss

“Beep beep.” If you’re of a certain age you’ll probably recall the old TV cartoon featuring the Road Runner and his hapless adversary Wile E Coyote. But you might not be aware that it was based on a real bird: the greater roadrunner found in the arid regions of northern Mexico and the US south-west.