The two antagonists square up, eyeballing each other from close range, probing for a weakness. Huge cherry-red eyes meet huge bright blue eyes. Who will give ground first?

I pick my way slowly through the tangle of vegetation, placing my welly-clad feet down carefully on the rough, marshy ground. This place is teeming with life – buzzing, fluttering, rustling.…

It’s a sight to stop you in your tracks – dozens of butterflies clustered in one spot. I watch, fascinated, as they flutter and feed together. But these green-veined whites haven’t been attracted…

The puffin waddles to the very edge of the cliff, the strong claws on its big, orange feet gripping the crumbly, chalk surface. Its beak – an enormous red, blue and yellow triangle that really…

It’s 4.40am on a calm spring morning. I pull into the layby next to North Cliffe Wood and strap on the head torch that’ll help me find my way through the darkness. There’s no traffic at this…

They’ve been laughing at me all day. I first heard them within a few minutes of arriving at Barlow Common at 8.30am on this dazzlingly bright spring morning, and their raucous “yaffle” calls have…

The marsh harrier glides low over the watery landscape – a big, powerful predator on the hunt for a meal. In a few slow wing beats it’s above the reedbed. Then it swoops down...

Winter at Staveley: mist drifting across the fields; water droplets glistening on twigs; patches of ice lurking in the ponds and lakes.

We watch in anticipation as the sun sinks slowly behind a tree: when the flaming, pale-yellow ball finally drops out of sight, the show – hopefully - will begin.

Summer is giving way to autumn. Clusters of deep red berries nestle among the green leaves of the hawthorn hedges. If you look closely, there are other colours hidden here too – blue, brown and…