Nature Flash

The millipede fauna inhabiting deep soil are poorly known. They are small and threadlike, slow moving, lacking pigmentation, and rarely encountered due to their obscure underground way of life. One family, the Siphonorhinidae, encompasses four genera and 12 species in a fragmentary distribution in...

Cressage, Shropshire: The Severn has risen, reoccupying its floodplain to create a shimmering new waterscape

Mitchell’s Fold, Shropshire: Battles over territory are never fully resolved, not according to the skylarks anyway...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The ‘pious’ redbreast is a creature of propaganda.There is no compassion in its call...

A beautifully lyrical collection of essays on the natural world in Britain by the Guardian’s country diary writer Paul Evans

With a title taken from the 1940 Batsford book, this is nature writing for the modern reader. It is a book both for those that live in the country and those that don’t, but experience nature every day through brownfield edge lands, transport corridors, urban greenspace, industrialised agriculture and garments of ancient countryside. Evans weaves historical, cultural and literary references into his writing, ranging from TS Eliot to Bridget Riley, from Hieronymus Bosh to Napoleon. Read more and read extracts at https://www.paulevanswenlockedge.com/how-to-see-nature-by-paul-evans

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The chaffinch’s chest is dawn-lit, his head grey, the heraldry of his flash-feathers signalling the breeding season to come

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire This shrub and its toxic fruit have a minor but magical part in ancient woodland

Country diary: The Long Mynd, Shropshire There have been ponies here since the iron age hillfort was occupied, but few workers toil the fields at harvest time

Shake off the winter blues and enjoy longer, warmer days on one of these great country walks – all with pub stops – chosen by top British nature writers

Country diary: Wenlock Edge Since the 1960s the great tit population has doubled. They are becoming a global power

Eyebright has small, white flowers with purple veins and yellow centres. It likes short grasslands, from clifftops to heaths, and is one of a number of species and hybrids that are hard to tell apart.

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: A little wonder occurs when, like planetary alignments, fly, flower and sunlight dock together

Lligwy, Anglesey: The butterfly seeks a moment’s respite from the bullying sea breeze

Lune Estuary, Lancaster: Some oystercatchers piped the first bars of their call and then, as if a signal that dawn had broken, a curlew summoned sunrise

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire Suddenly the familiar had been enchanted, even the bull and the blackbird in the blizzard

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire It couldn’t be the power-station chimney, it was in the wrong place. And it was too late in the year to be a stack of hay

Shake off the winter blues and enjoy longer, warmer days on one of these great country walks – all with pub stops – chosen by top British nature writers