Jen Ratcliffe

It absolutely does and I had already admired your beautiful words actually earlier - saw some red kites from the train the other day and it was glorious 💙 Thank you for tagging

Walking today in gale-driven, face-stinging rain, I happened to have a red kite above me for precious moments. I watched it spiral, swoop & wheel about—essentially move in any which way it wanted. Seemingly for fun. This bird fired answers back at the questioning wind—was always in absolute control!

Fieldfares, perched atop a bare hedgerow oak, fluffed up & facing a keen breeze; their “chack-chacks” taken beyond the sun-glittered, ruffled waters of the nearby canal. Then a surprise curlew!—high overhead, silently on slow-beating wings, above the wheatfield I walk—unexpected, & wonderful for it.

#DailyNature & #photography
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Dinner is served
March 2026
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I love how every single mushroom is unique and nature seems to have an infinite supply of shapes and whims.
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#fungifriends #trametes #shrooms #mycology #nature #fungi #mushrooms #whims

And
Even on darker days
There is colour.

#DailyNature #naturepoetry #plants #spring

"Slowly I Have Found My Way In" The Living Mountain, regenerative stewardship, right relationship, and buildings that restore aliveness

“Slowly I have found my way in”

… Maybe this then is our role, not in creating new ways, new technologies, but in stewarding the removal of barriers, stopping harm, repairing damage so living systems can restore themselves.
#naturewriting #regennotes
#dailynature
open.substack.com/pub/fairsnap...

Even the gulls have places to be. They drift by in the path of a reader. From the cabin I watched clouds change faces for hours - fatigue rolling over me like a drifting swamp heat. Letting the lazy laze. Bird sporting from trains? Red kite, buzzard, what even seemed to be an owl!

#DailyNature

Trotting up to London to celebrate the wonderful @lucylapwing.bsky.social & the launch of this utter delight of a book. #LoveisaToad is a beautiful, funny, moving & deliciously nerdy, nature joy of a read that will be much-loved, I know.

Reaching net zero by 2050 ‘cheaper for UK than one fossil fuel crisis’ Climate change committee finds move to renewable energy would also bring health, economic and security benefits

Our dependency on fossil fuels makes us vulnerable. Wars across the world are pushing up prices for households in the UK.

Why keep waiting for the next crisis? We need to transition to clean power as fast as we can to protect people and our economy.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rivers bloom in conversation
poured dark or pale
like coffee
sweetened by memory
supped in presence

Long they have meandered
inside,

Even longer still
lived
living

#DailyNature

- actually yesterdays daily nature but I did indeed forget to post it!

#NatureWriting #Rivers

It's that time again 💚🌲

Join us this equinox month in a challenge to celebrate Ostara! 🥚🌈🌸

🐇 1st - 31st March
🐤 1 Post each day
🐑 About a moment in nature
🦌Tag it #DailyNature

I'll select a few each week to go up on the Substack recap

Will you be joining in?

#NatureWriting #Challenge #QuietSky

Muscovy duck. The proportions got away from me on this one. The beak drifted down. I thought I was done but it bothered me to much so I did my best to correct it.

Here ya go @jazzrat2000.bsky.social
#birds #ducks #oilpastel #sketch

Our house came with a dull fir hedge. We let “weeds” grow through it and one of them is now a lovely yellow-flowered tree! Another one will have beautiful lilac blossoms later in the year. Let nature take its course a bit. #DailyNature

Just heard my first Chiffchaff of the year in the garden. Spring has sprung! (the mist made it look more like November/early February yesterday)

Why do these branches sound like music to my eyes?

#canvasback #duck #flight
#DetroitRiver #MI

#birds
#photography
#birdphotography
#BirdWatching
#birdsofbluesky
#nature
#wildlife
#wildlifephotography

Memory Lane: Wilson's Phalarope, September 22nd 2021 With my camera out of action and my chances of getting out birding in the immediate future slim to none, a couple of people have suggested t...

Thanks to everyone who's been in touch over the camera and blog. I took your advice and dug out an old photo, and the memory sparked an idea. This is the first in a mini-series of Memory Lane blogs, starting with Wilson's Phalarope from September 2021. Thank you for reading! #UKbirding #birds

For those looking for a heartwarming podcast 🛶

Ah I can't wait to listen. Will save for my journey home back to the towpath 💚

#UKCanals #QuietSky

#DailyNature & #photography

Entanglements
March 2026
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Most lichen are the result of multiple entanglements between fungi, algae & bacteria. To see these entangled worlds entangled emphasises a core task of rewilding: to give room to entanglements & diversity.
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#lichen #fungifriends #rewilding

Lichen are so interesting! Showing us how to really be symbiotic with other life

#DailyNature Mr Mole has been busy adding points of interest to the canal towpath. It’s amazing how much is going on that we only notice because of little signs and tracks and clues.

Rose-ringed parakeet between the cherry blossom 🌸🦜

Loneliness sweeps in a cold spring afternoon, then a glow - hazy and sweet. Perfumed with laughter, curiosity - a park. I hear it's swueek before its feathers, pecking blossom for tea.

#ALTTXTIsPoetry #DailyNature #NatureWriting #birder

It's crazy how it can mean different things to different people. Yes there's that ghostly seem on the water with an in-between world. I imagine up on the fens it becomes quite the annoyance having been up there in the mist recently (but of course as a short break it's something new and interesting)

#DailyNature & #photography
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Hazel wrap
March 2026
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#spring #hazel

Since being a boater my appreciation of mist has intensified (I've always loved it so bias to begin with) 💚

#DailyNature

There seems nothing plain
about London Plane
Tall and muscular
Silver, gold and bronze
dividing, grinding, defying
concrete hives
and small terrorising passers-by
their hands burst into electric fibre
bald from winter - brutalist beauties.

Honestly between mud and bogs I'm surprised I haven't lost a leg yet 😂

Are You Wild or Feral? - Your March #DailyNature Week 1 Roundup Pigeons, Horses, Boat DIY, Ostara, Cheshire forests and standout entries form the community challenge.

Morning all 🌅

The first of Ostara #DailyNature Roundup posts is up on Substack - grab a coffee and have a listen ☕ 👂

Are you wild or are you feral?

open.substack.com/pub/jenratcl...

#NatureWriting #QuietSky #WildHorses #Commmunity #Substack

The theme for today's #BirdOfTheDay is #StandingInWater.

Gone for a bit of an arty one today. Two waders which I think are probably redshanks; bills a bit short for godwits.

#birds #photography

Sound on to hear the bird-life soundtrack to my mid-morning walk, including the noisy lapwings! #DailyNature