ONE day a bear walked into a bar, sat down, and ordered a beer. The barman was amazed, and in a state of shock proceeded to pour the bear a drink. “How much?” said the bear. By this time the barman was getting over his shock and realising the bear, although obviously smart, has no idea of the price of beer, decided to overcharge him. “Twelve dollars sir”, said the barman. The bear paid him and slowly drank his beer. After a while the barman’s curiousity got the better of him, so he tried to engage the bear in conversation.…

As I look out of the window onto the peaceful suburbs of Perth, the rain falls gently from an overcast sky, marking the end of one of the longest spells of dry, warm, sunny weather in recent years. While I’ve been largely desk-bound editing wedding photographs these past few months, my landscape photography kit has been gathering dust in a cupboard in my house at the other end of the A9, and my much-loved bike has been languishing in my shed since a mild day at the beginning of February. Along with my walking boots, running shoes, and gardening gloves,…

A wasp found its way into my flat and settled on my windowsill recently. Being the snap-happy nature nut that I am, I don’t discriminate with my lens and therefore seized the opportunity to get a close-up photo of this much-maligned interloper, and then posted it on my blog with the accompanying blurb: “They’re really rather beautiful, if you can just see past that sting” The sentiment was genuine. That stark contrast of colour, with intricate black markings set against the bright yellow of its back, legs and head, and not to mention those cute wee club-like antennae. Yep, wasps…

David Lintern reports on the ‘Rewilding and Repeopling‘ event held by the Cairngorms National Park last month. In May, Cairngorms National Park held an interesting talk at Boat of Garten as part of their Big Weekend (which aims to encourage active interest and participation in wildlife and nature). Before the discussion was opened out to the audience, there were presentations from Managing Director for Rewilding Europe; Frans Schepers, Rob McMorran from the Wildland Research Institute, the new Policy Director of Community Land Scotland; Calum Macleod, and Stuart Brooks; Head of Natural Heritage Policy at National Trust for Scotland. What’s the…