Raven on the Wing
Latest from the Blog
Wild man a wondering – Week 2
The deep, white layer of frost on the 10th January covered almost everything that I might see and write about, but it couldn’t help revealing something. In a narrow line along the shelf at the back of our conservatory were some small, delicate canine prints. I can’t always distinguish a fox print from a dog…
Wild man a wondering – The weekly wildlife journal of a would-be naturalist
Week 1 (OK, week 2, but let’s pretend it’s week 1) Consistency has always been my problem; my spirit animal ought to be a butterfly. If you’d asked me what I wanted to do once I was retired, I would have said, “I want to write more”. So, now that I am retired I determined…
The Harvest Mouse in North East England
This article is the third update of the Harvest Mouse species account which I initially wrote for the book, “Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles of the North East” which was published by the Natural History Society of Northumbria in 2012 and is free to download from the home page of this website. It has only been…
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Ian Bond
Wildlife enthusiast by nature; professional wildlife consultant by good fortune; ageing, amateur athlete by doggedness and aspiring writer by choice.
Welcome to my website. It is meant simply as somewhere to hang the various bits of writing that I have done and hopefully will continue to do; mostly about nature with the occasional diversion into running or other topics.
Writing is something I’d always fancied having a go at but never got round to trying, except for some slightly tongue-in-cheek columns called “Big Cat Diaries” and “Droppings” which I wrote for Northumbria Mammal Group’s quarterly newsletter for several years. Then, in 2007 I finally went for it and entered BBC Wildlife magazine’s annual Wildlife Travel Writing competition. My tale about not finding Red Squirrels in Hartlepool won the competition that year and following that I wrote a few other essays, mostly about wildlife, which were published in the Northern Echo.
I hope that you enjoy reading them. Of the traits I list in my bio, I don’t regard myself as good at any of them other than enthusiasm. But enthusiasm is contagious and if I manage to enthuse anyone about wildlife or exercise then I will be a happy man.
Tales of a Timid Traveller
An unexpected journey; in this case the safari that I won in BBC Wildlife Magazine
How the Bat Got its Wings
Ever wondered what it would be like to be a bat? What would you need to change?
A vibrantly illustrated poem imagining how the bat got its wings.
Towards the end of the book, there is a bat-fact section, aimed at children from ages six to 10, which touches on aspects of the National Curriculum for this age group.
£1.00 from each book sold will be donated to the Bat Conservation Trust.
You can order your copy now for £5.99, plus £2 postage and packaging, via PayPal, by clicking here.
The Path of the Panther
Ian Bond
Northumbria’s very own Big Cat Diaries, a light hearted compilation of big cat reports in North East England spanning the first decade of this century.
To See a Thousand Things
A Northumbrian Nature Quest
My attempt to see 1,000 different species in north east England in 2021.
Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles
of the North East
Edited by Ian Bond
The historical and recent (2012) status of all the species found in North East England. My thanks to the Natural History Society of Northumbria for kindly permitting me to reproduce it on this website.
Droppings – the full latrine
Ian Bond
All the editions of “Droppings”, which was a column containing bits of information about mammals, mostly in North East England, written for Northumbria Mammal Group’s quarterly newsletter, from 2001 to 2014.
Raven on the Wing 