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Richard Carter

writer & photographer

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Featured Articles

A personal selection of my favourite articles. To access all of my writing, please visit the Writing section.

19 July 2020

Comet Neowise
Comet Neowise over Old Town Mill, Hebden Bridge

Weeding, and a spot of comet-watching.

Published 19-Jul-2020
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: Calder valley, Darwin book, Hebden Bridge, plants

Bats podcast piece

New moon, Mercury and Venus setting over Heptonstall

I make a guest appearance in episode 16 of Melissa Harrison’s podcast ‘The Stubborn Light of Things’. Here’s an extended version.

Published 16-Jul-2020
Filed under: Featured Articles, News, Published Pieces Tags: bats, Melissa Harrison, podcasts

27 April 2020

Roe buck

A wonderful day’s wildlife.

Published 27-Apr-2020
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: birds, Calder valley, Hebden Bridge, insects, mammals, the Moor, videos

High tides and volant voles

An unplanned visit to the flooded Dee Marshes is rewarded with a wildlife spectacle.

Published 04-Jan-2018
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: birds, Dee marshes, expeditions, favourite places, proto-sidelines, Wirral

Orion’s belt-buckle

Orion
A small section of the Milky Way galaxy (Orion's Belt, centre).

In celebration of my adopted star.

Published 20-Jun-2017
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: astronomy, reminiscences, science

‘Spiritual’ won’t do

Trig point

In which I seek a better word to describe a profoundly uplifting sensation.

Published 23-Apr-2017
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: humanism, religion, skepticism, the Moor

The joy of the familiar—and the unfamiliar—on a local patch

Hen harrier
Female hen harrier.

Getting to know a place well means knowing what to look forward to, and appreciating when something unusual happens.

Published 11-Nov-2016
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: birds, Calder valley, favourite places, Hebden Bridge, the Moor, Yorkshire

An irrelevance in the landscape

Puffin Island
Looking towards Puffin Island, Anglesey.

On the realisation that the natural world gets on perfectly well without us.

Published 03-Oct-2016
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: Anglesey, birds, favourite places, nature waiting, Wales

Turtles of the air

Swifts

What links sea-turtles, swifts, and railway viaducts? Plus some handy ornithological photo tips.

Published 31-May-2016
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: birds, Calder valley, evolution, Hebden Bridge, photography, proto-sidelines, science, Yorkshire

A monument to lethargy

Our driveway
Our driveway.

Sloth is a much-maligned sin, as our driveway demonstrates.

Published 30-May-2016
Filed under: Featured Articles, Writing Tags: Calder valley, flowers, garden, Hebden Bridge, proto-sidelines, Yorkshire

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RSS Recent Newsletters

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RSS Recent Sidelines

  • 28 February 2021
    Late February seems to have decided it’s April.
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    A Zoom lecture makes me yearn for the golden days of blogging.
  • 21 February 2021
    The annual February pre-spring clean of our blue tit nest-box.
  • 14 February 2021
    I’ve generally had quite enough of winter, come February.

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    To mark the 300th anniversary of his birth, a brief account of Rev. Gilbert White’s influence on Charles Darwin.

RSS News

  • 2020: a year in photos
    My tenth annual video slideshow.
  • Bats podcast piece
    I make a guest appearance in episode 16 of Melissa Harrison’s podcast ‘The Stubborn Light of Things’. Here’s an extended version.

Recent Reading

Recent Photos

More photos »
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Richard Carter

The whole is greater than some of its parts