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Richard Carter

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Featured Writing

A personal selection of my writing on this website. To access all of my writing, please visit the Writing section.

Comet Neowise
Comet Neowise over Old Town Mill, Hebden Bridge

19 July 2020

Weeding, and a spot of comet-watching.

Published 19-Jul-2020
Filed under: Featured Writing, Writing Tags: astronomy, barn owls, Calder Valley, Darwin book, Hebden Bridge, plants
New moon, Mercury and Venus setting over Heptonstall

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.

Published 16-Jul-2020
Filed under: Featured Writing, News, Published Pieces Tags: bats, mammals, Melissa Harrison, podcasts
Roe buck

27 April 2020

A wonderful day’s wildlife.

Published 27-Apr-2020
Filed under: Featured Writing, Writing Tags: archaeology, barn owls, birds, Calder Valley, coronavirus, curlews, garden, goat willows, Hebden Bridge, insects, kestrels, lapwings, mammals, meadow pipits, mistle thrushes, red grouse, roe deer, skylarks, stonechats, swallows, the Moor, trig point 4144, videos, wheatears

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 Writing, Writing Tags: birds, black-headed gulls, Dee Marshes, expeditions, favourite places, gulls, proto-sidelines, voles, water rails, Wirral
Orion
A small section of the Milky Way galaxy (Orion's Belt, centre).

Orion’s belt-buckle

In celebration of my adopted star.

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

‘Spiritual’ won’t do

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

Published 23-Apr-2017
Filed under: Articles, Featured Writing, Writing Tags: humanism, religion, skepticism, the Moor
Hen harrier
Female hen harrier.

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

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: Articles, Featured Writing, Writing Tags: birds, Calder Valley, favourite places, flowers, golden plovers, harebells, heather, Hebden Bridge, hen harriers, kestrels, lapwings, meadow pipits, red grouse, snipe, swallows, the Moor, wheatears, Yorkshire
Puffin Island

An irrelevance in the landscape

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

Published 03-Oct-2016
Filed under: Articles, Featured Writing, Writing Tags: Anglesey, birds, cormorants, dolphins, favourite places, gannets, grey seals, gulls, herring gulls, Manx shearwaters, nature waiting, oystercatchers, turnstones, Wales
Swifts

Turtles of the air

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

Published 31-May-2016
Filed under: Featured Writing, Writing Tags: birds, Calder Valley, evolution, Hebden Bridge, photography, proto-sidelines, science, swifts, Tobago, turtles, Yorkshire
Our driveway
Our driveway.

A monument to lethargy

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

Published 30-May-2016
Filed under: Featured Writing, Writing Tags: Calder Valley, flowers, garden, Hebden Bridge, proto-sidelines, rough patches, Yorkshire
More bluebells

A British wildlife spectacle

Every spring, something happens in Britain that ranks alongside any wildlife spectacle you might see on telly.

Published 16-May-2016
Filed under: Featured Writing, Writing Tags: bluebells, Calder Valley, flowers, Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge, proto-sidelines, Yorkshire
Peregrine
Peregrine over the Dee Marshes.

Peregrine-harrier tag-team challenge

In which I witness a peregrine and marsh harrier hunting together—almost as a team.

Published 10-Mar-2016
Filed under: Featured Writing, Writing Tags: birds, Dee Marshes, favourite places, marsh harriers, peregrines, proto-sidelines, Wirral

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RECENT SIDELINES

The Correspondence of Charles Darwin Darwinian smut On my new ‘Daily Darwin’ project.
Gannet 2022: a year in photos My twelfth annual video slideshow.
‘Darwin in Conversation’ exhibition, Cambridge University Library Cambridge Darwin pilgrimage A trip to see a treasure-trove of Darwinalia.
Darwin’s study at Down House Charles Darwin’s note-making system An exploration of how Darwin kept track of his various notes, enabling him to produce a huge body of work.

LATEST NEWSLETTER

Rich Text Newsletter No. 31: ‘When nice old ladies wave’ Crossing paths with the queen · medieval books · palimpsests · pelicans · prehistoric forests · runways · light pollution · Stendhal · spiders · Musk · and more…

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Richard Carter
The whole is greater than some of its parts.