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It’s time to ban balloon releases
A new petition has been launched calling on the government to outlaw the release of ecologically damaging balloons and sky lanterns. The unnecessary practice of…
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Birders Behaving Badly
By large, birders are a nice bunch and bad behaviour and poor etiquette among devotees is, thankfully, rather scarce – though this does not mean…
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Putting nature back into the Peak District
Wading birds gathered in record numbers at Dove Stone in the Peak District this breeding season, all thanks to an ambitious ongoing bog restoration programme…
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Half-Penny: aliens and interlopers
There are many words used to describe species which, through human intervention, have found themselves existing far outside of their historic, natural range. Terms such…
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New Nature issue 9!
This month has seen a bit of a change in the New Nature team. Due to the success of previous issues, we now have three…
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BBC Wildlife Blogger of the Week
This week, I was kindly awarded the honour of Blogger of the Week by BBC Wildlife Magazine for my recent piece regarding my local patch:…
Current Fascinations
By my own admission, I am prone to falling down rabbit holes from time to time. Typically, this involves deep-diving into a particular subject and learning as much as possible before, inevitably, another topic comes along to take its place. Regardless, below you’ll find my current areas of interest…
Botanical Bits
Botany is my main interest, and whether it’s ferns, snowdrops, grasses, ancient woodland plants, or even humble pavement weeds, I try to spend as much time as possible seeking out our wild plants.
North East Botany
Here you’ll find musings on plant identification, trip reports, sightings from walks and courses and just about anything else relating to botany in North East England.
Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside
The Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside is the first comprehensive account of the wild plants growing across the Newcastle and North Tyneside conurbation, one of the largest in the UK.
Based on six years of fieldwork, the book documents more than 1,120 native and naturalised plants -around a third of Britain’s entire flora.
Meet James
Born and raised in North East England, James is a botanist, general naturalist and biological recorder with a passion for sharing the joys of North East nature with others.
He currently works as Senior Naturalist for the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) and volunteers as a vice-county recorder for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI), both of which allow him to spend ample time outdoors leading trips, courses, surveys and guided walks.
