Choose a quiet time one day to watch the comings and goings of the industrious and useful ants. Some are dragging along pine needles, leaves, others a dead fly. Do you know that an ant can carry 100 times its own weight? Our cities are said to have a lot in common with ant colonies, […]
Have you ever wondered why the Common Seal with its beautiful large round heartmelting eyes wins you over before you even know it? This is one of the many tales about the Ark of Noah. But it is also a moving tale about unconditional mother love. In long gone times when the earth was being […]
HIMALAYAN BALSAM The fatal wedding dress Take the time to enjoy the beautiful flowers of the tall Himalayan Balsam with this fairy tale in mind as you do. A story of determination and strife. A fairy tale about beauty which refuses to bow to evil influences. This touching story of Meying...
Great tits and blue tits have adapted to human beings. They are happy to visit our gardens in wintertime and enjoy the strings of peanuts and fat balls. Just take a look some time at the black stripe across the breast of the great tits. They vary in width from one bird to another. Did […]
Lying with my back against the dunes I often enjoy watching the white seagulls with their black wing tips standing out against the blue sky while they quietly let themselves be carried on the thermals. Then I fantasize about the origins of their behaviour. This resulted in the story below. At...
What a powerful presence an eagle emanates. No wonder the Greeks saw the bird as being the right hand of the supreme god Zeus. And that kings, emperors and other rulers have been keen to use this king of the birds as a symbol to enhance their own importance: its image decorates many flags,...
They are easy to spot in birch trees in the autumn and the winter: one or more branches with a large number of smaller side growth. The so-called Witches Broom. How these resulted from a wild growth of twigs and involved witches is the subject of the following tale whose roots certainly lie in...
From the time of the Hesperides in Ancient Greece up until the era of Snow White’s stepmother, the apple has been one of the most important fruits figuring in myths, legends and fairy tales. It is always pictured in a positive light. Could this be due to the apple having a healthy image because...
Literally translated, the common Dutch name for the Green Sandpiper is “Little White Butt”. Seriously! It is a nervous wader which often goes undetected because of its colouring which acts as camouflage. Why did it become so nervous? How did it get its small white butt? To find out...
Blaue Reiher sind bekannte Erscheinungen an Graben und Pfützen. Vielleicht ist es dir aufgefallen daβ Reiher etwas widersprüchliches haben. Einerseits benehmen sie sich vornehm und graziös, aber andererseits stehen sie frech neben Fischern zu betteln und wandern manchmal sogar in die Küche um...