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The magic of 'The Magic Hour'


When I was just 10 years old my Grandad took me out at 4am one summer's day and said...

"Talk if you must but in a whisper, or you will break the spell of the Magic hour" How true that was!

The 'magic hour' isn't just an hour, nor is it just at dawn, It's that time when the sun is coming up or going down. At this time of year, when most folk are still in bed or are going to bed!

This evening I took this short video to try and explain it, at 8pm, way up in the Downs.

Note the silence except for the breeze and bird song, the light, the serenity,... the magic!


 
 
 

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Oct' 2021

 I was invited by the Sussex group 'Greenhavens'  to have a stall at the their annual event in the Port of Newhaven to advertise my

guided natural history walks & talks and

to display some of the extraordinary

'Inside the wave view' photographs

that I took of the local Mackerel & Whitebait

migration/feeding frenzy... 

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This one of a Mackerel (right) surfing the wave full of

Whitebait is my favourite. 

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Christmas Eve 2021

 Volunteering  again for the Ouse and Adur Seatrout spawning watch team I was able to film a pair of these elusive fish spawning on the first day they were noted on my stretch, just before 'rain stopped play' and the river was in a spate again, thick with dirt runoff and the last chance of the year.

"Merry Christmas all"

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                                                       CV 

( Natural History)

                                                        ---

1985 - My first Photo exhibition was in Shoreham by Sea.

 I was  highlighting the flora & fauna of a man made 'corridor'

The old railway line from Shoreham to Beeding cement works

   made a unique connection from the

South Downs chalkland habitat to the tidal estuary

adjacent to a SSSI shingle beach and brackish lagoon.

Consequently, I was invited by Adur District Council to form the

Adur District Conservation Society

and was voted chairman and task officer.

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1987 - Having moved to the Cumbrian Lake District

I completed a course in Nature Conservation and Management

run by Newcastle University in Keswick.

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After a second photo exhibition in Carlisle Museum on the colour variations of individual Adders on the Solway Peat Bogs,

I took a 'further education' course also via Newcastle university,

on Peat bog formation and Biodiversity

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In the 1990's I hand reared and released Barn Owls into the wild.

The chicks were excess to requirements at the

Muncaster Castle Birds of Prey Centre.

I sourced, and was granted for the purpose,

a rough meadow habitat with

a healthy population of Short tailed voles

and an empty old barn and suitable owl nesting box

 by Lord Rochdale on his Lingholm  estate at Portinscale,

 on the western shore of Derwentwater, near Keswick.

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2012 - I was invited by the South Devon Natural History Society to give a slideshow talk (my first of many),

on my lifetime's experiences nature watching.

I was introduced by wildlife artist and author, Michael Loates,

who subsequently became a good friend.

 'Mickie' kindly illustrated my book 'Source to Sea'

with his spectacular paintings

2013 - I was invited to take part in an Environment Agency

netting and recording species survey in the R. Adur

 back at Shoreham- by sea.

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2014 - I became a volunteer Sea Trout spawning recorder for

The Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust in Sussex 

which increased my fascination for photographing life

underwater rather than fishing.

2015/6 - I set about studying the mysterious annual spectacle of

Thin Lipped Grey Mullet at Lewes in the R. Ouse,

filming them underwater with a camera on a boom.

This lead to an appearance on BBC SPRINGWATCH

that I nicknamed  'A Murmuration of Mullet'

It was an unrecorded phenomena and lead to a series of

slideshow talks in the adjacent Railway Land Nature Reserve,

  for which I was awarded a honorary lifetime membership.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wwztx?msclkid=8f8a7001affe11ecadcc60150fa0a72a

2017 -  I was asked by BBC RADIO SUSSEX to teach

roving reporter Simon Jenkins how to

catch a Mackerel, live on air.  I succeeded and was then asked to chat on air about my book 'Source to Sea' which was serialised over a week from the BBC in Brighton. I am regularly asked to join live chats on BBC stations all over the UK 

2018 - I was invited to stage a photo exhibition in Lewes

to highlight the natural History and views along the newly opened Egrets Way cycle and footpath along the River Ouse from 

Lewes to Newhaven

in the South Downs National Park

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2019 - Walks & Talks were requested by many individuals,

groups and organisation on a variety of subjects;

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2020 - Covid restriction came into force but as they relaxed I was one of the first to arrange Covid safe Walks & Talks

and was employed by Newhaven, Seaford and Lewes Councils and the Group; 'Love Our Ouse'

during  festivals to take groups

out on Tidemills beach on the subject of 'The Living Shoreline'

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2021 - Commissioned by PhD student Esmeralda Pereira

at the Marine and Environmental Research Centre in Portugal

 to obtain genetic samples, via catch and release,

of British catadromous Thin-lipped Mullet Chelon ramada 

for studies of the migratory dynamic.

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I was very pleased to have been accepted as a member of

The Tide Mills Project, between Newhaven and Seaford.               From the shoreline to the railway line, the Mill and accompanying buildings were abandoned and destroyed ahead of the expected invasion of German forces in WWII

I have been asked to be a natural history guide alongside the historians during the celebrations in September.

Funded by the Lottery Heritage and the Southdowns National Park

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 Newhaven Town council invited me to do a series of 

'Reconnect to Nature' Walk & Talks

for the public during the whole of September and October 

as part of their Newhaven Festival

and

Brighton Council have also invited me to do similar

'The Living Shoreline'

as part of their October 2021

'Homeward Bound'  Festival

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 I was invited as after business speaker

at Railway Land Wildlife Trust Lewes

Sea Trout spawning in Sussex
The Living Shoreline - Newhaven
Southdowns National Park
Walks and Talks Subjects
Michael Strachan
Railway Lan Wildlife Trust Lewess
Mackerel and Whitebait in Sussex

2022

Film maker Jack Perks & Cameraman Ross Birnie asked for my help in making a piece for their project;  'Britains Hidden Fishes'

Twitter -  @RiverFishUk  @JackPerksPhoto 

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March 2022

I was invited to take 4 walks & talks via 'Visit Lewes' commissioned by Lewes District Council

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April 2022

I was invited by the Sussex group

'Fire and Wild'

to take regular Walks & Talks proceeding their fabulous 

woodland feasts of game,

foraged fruit, vegetables and herbs.

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August 2022

 

Perhaps my most unusual walk & talk was actually a request to Paddle & Talk for a kayak club who nature watched from the water in the Cuckmere valley in the Southdowns National park

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Sept 2022

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I was invited to take out 3 back to back

illustrated Walks & Talks

for the 'Love our Ouse'

Festival.

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As ever, I design my own posters

and photo packs for participants

Dec' 2022 

 

I was asked to take a Walk & Talk for the public and to advise the developers on ecological impact, around and adjacent to the new Eco housing development at Lewes in the Southdowns National Park.

The Pheonix Human Nature project is something unique to this area and I'm extremely grateful to be able to contribute my local knowledge.

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Feb' 2023

I was asked, by the editor of 'The Lewesian' magazine Sally Edwards,

to be their resident monthly Nature notes writer. 1st article Mar' issue

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     I have always wanted to do that.

   Thank you Sally

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July 2023

I have been given an additional monthly Foraging page in the Lewesian magazine.

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After giving a talk on

Wildlife Gardening

at the

Royal Horticultural Society partner 

'Bates Green Garden'

Sussex

I have secured bookingd for

 Spring, Summer and Autumn

Walks & Talks

2024

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2024

I attended a course in Lewes run by Love our Ouse www.loveourouse.org

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To become a volunteer

Citizen scientist/River guardian

 recording and reporting

on all elements of

condition and pollution of

 waterways in the River Ouse

system in Sussex

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