An old town on the Baltic - Stralsund

Please take a little walk with me along the streets of the old Hanseatic city of Stralsund, which looks out across the Baltic from the German coast.

In medieval times, famous and wealthy as a trading centre - hence the huge and fine buildings, some rebuilt after the heavy bombing suffered here in World War II - and now a tourist destination and fishing port complete with its Ozeaneum 

Looking inland from the old docks area.

A corner of the dock where fishermen sit in the early morning.

Massive warehouses on the dock and in their midst - clad in ship's steel - the totally
incongruous shape of the Ozeaneum. 

The splendid Gorch Fock - a tall-ship of the German Navy built in 1933

The Harbour Master's House

Inside the Ozeaneum - a state of the art museum and aquarium

Brown trout on display

Inside the great whale hall where you can peer up from the seabed at life-sized whales artfully illuminated - here a sperm whale tangles with a giant squid.

And finally a few views of the old town square: 

and looking down on the town as the day ends.

The Fruits of Autumn

As the air cools and the nights draw in, we can celebrate the sweet harvest.

Late Summer on the canal

Banded demoiselle - a damselfly

Nuthatch

Wood mouse

Somewhere on Dartmoor - a dipper watches a petal fall.

After dark in the late Summer garden

Undercover of darkness (as the evenings close in again), here come the garden visitors.

The evening before was even busier.

CITES Scenes 2019

Around the halls of the recent Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Trade in Endangered species of Fauna and Flora = the CITES CoP.

But first here is LINK to a Blog exploring the similarities between CITES and the International Whalng Commission written by me and Nicola Beynon. Click HERE.

Team Badger

Three badgers came visiting one July evening. Sisters? Brothers? Impossible to know but they enjoyed a fee snacks and then left as quietly as they arrived.

Osprey Country

View of Snowdon, Cnicht and The Moelwyns

There is a place in North Wales where the osprey - the UK's 'fish eagle' - has been reintroduced. This is a landscape of hanging oak woodlands, rich wetlands and spectacular views looking south to mountainous Snowdonia.

On a sunny afternoon in July, the landscape shines and the parent ospreys soar overhead. There are two large chicks in the heavily guarded nest.I hope they fledge successfully and return another year.

Distant osprey.

An adult osprey briefly rests.

More about the ospreys (great pictures and live link to the nest) and all about the organisation set up to help them

HERE.

London Whale Protest and Blog

Yesterday saw protestors defy the heat on the streets and march to the Japanese embassy to decry Japan's decision to launch overtly commercial whaling again.

HERE is a blog piece from me trying to explain this issue and below some photos from the anti-whaling rally.

Thanks to Rob Lott/WDC for the 3rd and 5th photos above.