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Skylarks with Rosie: A Somerset Spring
March 2020: Stephen Moss's Somerset garden is awash with birdsong: chiffchaffs, wrens, robins and a new arrival, the blackcap, all competing to sing as the season gathers pace. Overhead, buzzards soar and ravens tumble, apparently as delighted as he is to herald the new season...But this Spring Equinox is unlike any other. As the nation stumbles toward a collective lockdown, Stephen begins to observe and record the wildlife in his immediate vicinity, with his fox-red Labrador, Rosie, as his companion on his daily exercise. As old routines fall away, and blue skies are no longer crisscrossed by contrails, they discover the bumblebees, butterflies and birdsong on their patch. This evocative account underlines how an unprecedented crisis has changed the way we relate to the natural world, giving us hope for the future at perhaps the darkest time in our lives. And it puts down a marker for the 'new normal': the many species around us, all enjoying, for once, a land less lived in than usual by humankind.
152 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2021
6 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Moss
75 books147 followersLibrarian Note: there is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, broadcaster, television producer and author. In a distinguished career at the BBC Natural History Unit his credits included Springwatch, Birds Britannia and The Nature of Britain. His books include The Robin: A Biography, A Bird in the Bush, The Bumper Book of Nature, Wild Hares and Hummingbirds and Wild Kingdom. He is also Senior Lecturer in Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa University. Originally from London, he lives with his family on the Somerset Levels, and is President of the Somerset Wildlife Trust. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian.
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, broadcaster, television producer and author. In a distinguished career at the BBC Natural History Unit his credits included Springwatch, Birds Britannia and The Nature of Britain. His books include The Robin: A Biography, A Bird in the Bush, The Bumper Book of Nature, Wild Hares and Hummingbirds and Wild Kingdom. He is also Senior Lecturer in Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa University. Originally from London, he lives with his family on the Somerset Levels, and is President of the Somerset Wildlife Trust. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 1, 2021
On the 23rd March 2020, the UK entered lockdown. Overnight everything changed for the country. Travel for essential items was only permitted, everything except food shops and a handful of others deemed essential were open. We were allowed an hour of exercise per day outside but we were to stay and work from home.
Even though Stephen Moss mostly works from home now, but in normal time there are events in bookshops, Birdfair and other foreign trips that were all cancelled as the pandemic swamped out lives. Whilst he has seen many birds on his local patch, he would normally be of look elsewhere for all manner of different birds. Life for the foreseeable future would be different.
Written in a weekly diary form, this is his account of life under lockdown and the rediscovery of his local patch and accounts of the many walks and rides that he took around what he calls the loop, a three-mile. After a week of lockdown, he noticed that the volume and intensity of birdsong whilst cycling around the loop. But he didn’t know whether it was that the regular distractions of modern life would normally stop him noticing or that the silence of planes and cars made their songs sound louder. He was not the only one to notice this and he appeared on the Today programme to talk about how the dawn chorus was soothing the nation.
After a couple of weeks he had developed a routine, he would emerge from his garden office having completed some work and join his wife, Suzanne, and their dog, Rosie for morning coffee in the garden. They would scan the skies for raptors and they would often see them in the distance wheeling around on the thermals. A few days later he heard a tawny owl hoot just as he was going to bed, something that he wasn’t sure he’d hear again after finding a dead one nearby.
Being confined to his locality was becoming special in lots of ways, rather than passing things by in the rush to get somewhere else, he was taking the time to get to know his local patch intimately and gain that deep-rooted sense of place that naturalists like John Clare experienced. As lockdown begins to ease, he is able to move further afield and meet up with friends elsewhere on the Somerset levels. But it is the regular trips around the loop that he grows most fond of. Moving at a slow walking pace with Rosie he starts to learn individual birds habits, when and where they will be singing from as well. It is a tonic for his soul every day.
It has been one of the strangest periods of my life, and whilst it feels that we are getting back to normal, there is still a way to go. Moss’s book on how he coped with the pandemic is a wonderful response to this strange time and I really enjoyed this book. Moss is on top form in his prose as ever when writing about the wildlife that he sees on his walks and cycle rides. It is probably his most political book too; he gets really angry about the response from the government to the pandemic fairly often! Highly recommended. 4.5 stars
Even though Stephen Moss mostly works from home now, but in normal time there are events in bookshops, Birdfair and other foreign trips that were all cancelled as the pandemic swamped out lives. Whilst he has seen many birds on his local patch, he would normally be of look elsewhere for all manner of different birds. Life for the foreseeable future would be different.
Written in a weekly diary form, this is his account of life under lockdown and the rediscovery of his local patch and accounts of the many walks and rides that he took around what he calls the loop, a three-mile. After a week of lockdown, he noticed that the volume and intensity of birdsong whilst cycling around the loop. But he didn’t know whether it was that the regular distractions of modern life would normally stop him noticing or that the silence of planes and cars made their songs sound louder. He was not the only one to notice this and he appeared on the Today programme to talk about how the dawn chorus was soothing the nation.
After a couple of weeks he had developed a routine, he would emerge from his garden office having completed some work and join his wife, Suzanne, and their dog, Rosie for morning coffee in the garden. They would scan the skies for raptors and they would often see them in the distance wheeling around on the thermals. A few days later he heard a tawny owl hoot just as he was going to bed, something that he wasn’t sure he’d hear again after finding a dead one nearby.
Being confined to his locality was becoming special in lots of ways, rather than passing things by in the rush to get somewhere else, he was taking the time to get to know his local patch intimately and gain that deep-rooted sense of place that naturalists like John Clare experienced. As lockdown begins to ease, he is able to move further afield and meet up with friends elsewhere on the Somerset levels. But it is the regular trips around the loop that he grows most fond of. Moving at a slow walking pace with Rosie he starts to learn individual birds habits, when and where they will be singing from as well. It is a tonic for his soul every day.
It has been one of the strangest periods of my life, and whilst it feels that we are getting back to normal, there is still a way to go. Moss’s book on how he coped with the pandemic is a wonderful response to this strange time and I really enjoyed this book. Moss is on top form in his prose as ever when writing about the wildlife that he sees on his walks and cycle rides. It is probably his most political book too; he gets really angry about the response from the government to the pandemic fairly often! Highly recommended. 4.5 stars
April 24, 2021
(3.5) The prolific Moss’s latest reflects on the spring of 2020 in diary format. Devoting one chapter to each of the 13 weeks of the first lockdown, he traces the season’s development alongside his family’s experiences and the national news. With four of his children at home, along with one of their partners and a convalescing friend, it’s a pleasingly full house. There are daily cycles or walks around “the loop,” a three-mile circuit from their front door, often with Rosie the Labrador; there are also jaunts to corners of the nearby Avalon Marshes. Nature also comes to him, with songbirds in the garden hedges and various birds of prey flying over during their 11:00 coffee breaks.
His speaking engagements and trips cancelled, Moss turns to online events instead. Twitter serves as a place for sharing outrage over UK politics and world events like George Floyd’s murder, but also as a welcoming community for sharing nature sightings. As the lockdown come to a close, he realizes that this time has had unexpected benefits: “Having to press the pause button … has made me rethink my life, in a good way.” He feels that, for once, he has truly appreciated the spring, “rediscovering the joys of wildlife-watching close to home”. This made for perfect reading in Somerset last week.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
His speaking engagements and trips cancelled, Moss turns to online events instead. Twitter serves as a place for sharing outrage over UK politics and world events like George Floyd’s murder, but also as a welcoming community for sharing nature sightings. As the lockdown come to a close, he realizes that this time has had unexpected benefits: “Having to press the pause button … has made me rethink my life, in a good way.” He feels that, for once, he has truly appreciated the spring, “rediscovering the joys of wildlife-watching close to home”. This made for perfect reading in Somerset last week.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
July 16, 2021
Ok, if one more nature writer tells me about how the nation connected with nature more during lockdown I might explode. Point made, move on.
But that’s my main gripe, it didn’t move on. I felt like I was listening to
lists of birds seen and repeats of daily walks. Moss intersperses his bird observations with a repeat of 2020 news stories and tweets. It lacked any analysis of the events of 2020. I found the tone clichéd, condescending, and even patronising. It felt like a quickly produced “lockdown diary” and I’m annoyed that it made the longlist!
But that’s my main gripe, it didn’t move on. I felt like I was listening to
lists of birds seen and repeats of daily walks. Moss intersperses his bird observations with a repeat of 2020 news stories and tweets. It lacked any analysis of the events of 2020. I found the tone clichéd, condescending, and even patronising. It felt like a quickly produced “lockdown diary” and I’m annoyed that it made the longlist!
May 12, 2022
Not sure why I haven’t read this author before; I read his column in ‘The Guardian’, and he is a very prolific writer. This particular title is an account of the English Spring of 2020 - the lockdown spring, when the world paused because of COVID19. Moss spent this time with his immediate family in his house on the Somerset Levels. Like us all, his attention was focussed on his immediate surroundings, and in his case, a particular English landscape of garden, country lanes, Sheep fields and moorland. As a birder, Moss is well placed to appreciate the return of all the spring migrants, which he can identify by song alone (something I’m deeply envious of - I can manage a few, but...)
The brilliant weather and the outburst of life contrasts sharply with the desperate situation of humanity world-wide, and the errors and betrayals made by the British government in dealing with the pandemic. I will read other books by this author.
The brilliant weather and the outburst of life contrasts sharply with the desperate situation of humanity world-wide, and the errors and betrayals made by the British government in dealing with the pandemic. I will read other books by this author.
April 18, 2021
This book is wonderful- I really found it uplifting.
Stephen Moss has written several books on birds, & is a regular contributor to the Guardian. This book details the 1st 3 months of lockdown in the UK, and is basically a nature diary of what he saw in & around his home in Somerset between the Spring Equinox & Summer Solstice.
Stephen also offers an occasional commentary on political events in the UK in that 1st Lockdown- including THAT trip to Barnard Castle....
Definitely worthy of your time.
Stephen Moss has written several books on birds, & is a regular contributor to the Guardian. This book details the 1st 3 months of lockdown in the UK, and is basically a nature diary of what he saw in & around his home in Somerset between the Spring Equinox & Summer Solstice.
Stephen also offers an occasional commentary on political events in the UK in that 1st Lockdown- including THAT trip to Barnard Castle....
Definitely worthy of your time.
February 8, 2023
Fabulous account of nature observing, particularly birds, during the first lock down in 2020. It intersperses the natural world with snippets of personal reaction as well as news items from this unsettling time. I particularly like the point that there is something special about really getting to know the natural history of our own locality.
As always there is a perfect blend of observation, information and lyrical language. Who else would think of describing a bird sounding 'like a jazz musician riffing on a theme?' Fabulous.
As always there is a perfect blend of observation, information and lyrical language. Who else would think of describing a bird sounding 'like a jazz musician riffing on a theme?' Fabulous.
May 18, 2022
I really enjoyed Stephen Moss’s positivity and hopeful tone which supports his premise of nature causing happiness. I find myself listening for birds outside when I would have ignored them prior to this read. Because I live in a subtropical climate my birds are different, but I enjoyed looking up the ones mentioned in the book. Online you can even hear their sounds! So now when I walk my mutts under the singing birds I think about Rosie and the skylarks.
August 24, 2022
Bestselling author, broadcaster, and naturalist, Stephen Moss documents the springtime in his rural Somerset home. The countryside is awash with life, the author detailing the birds, butterflies, and other creatures that thrive in this delightful enclave. But due to the lockdown, this becomes a spring like no other, and events lead Moss to consider more than ever our relationship with nature, and hope for humanity on the planet.
August 19, 2023
This is such a sweet little book! In the first three months of the pandemic lockdown, Stephen Moss wrote week-by-week observations of the natural environment around his home in the Somerset Levels in England. While most of the birds and butterflies he mentioned are unknown to me, I enjoyed the pastoral scenes he described, especially because his home is a mere 30 miles from where some of my ancestors once lived. Who knows? Maybe I'll get there myself one day.
August 18, 2021
This book is written by a chap that teaches natural history at Bath Spa university. He documents his time over spring 2020 (lockdown and restrictions) in his home of Somerset. A lovely, gentle, meditative read.
December 6, 2022
I enjoyed this diary of lockdown walks and the wildlife seen while out each day exercising or in the garden. There would be a lot more to come after this, as we all know.
The setting is quite familiar to my wife and I. We stayed in Mark village in April 2021, in a self-catering property on Mark Causeway and found we could walk down the long paddock behind the property and do a round of the lanes there....briefly returning to the village down Vole Road by the White Horse Inn mentioned in the text. I'm not sure if this was the round the author was referring to but it was suggested by the property owner and we really enjoyed it!
As a result, it was the cover picture that piqued my interest straight away as I recognised the terrain and The Mendips in the distance. It is a distinct area of the country which is well worth reading about and getting to know better, if you get the chance.
Holidays felt a lot like a privilege during this whole period and since.
Stephen Moss writes well and his observations are interesting for any Brit with an interest in birdlife in particular and wildlife in general. He had a lucky first lockdown!
I entirely agree with his points as this short book draws to a close and wonder how he would rewrite them now, with hindsight from November 2022, as I write this?
Covid-19 gave us pause, literally! His points from 2020/21 on how the government conducted itself through this period are well made....as we know.....there was and is much to come!!!
A good read!! Stephen Moss is a much better birder than I'll ever be. His points on the state of land use, farming and wildlife are very well made. Even if you don't know the birds so well, this book is well worth reading for those wider comments and the sense of place he evokes on the Somerset Levels.
The setting is quite familiar to my wife and I. We stayed in Mark village in April 2021, in a self-catering property on Mark Causeway and found we could walk down the long paddock behind the property and do a round of the lanes there....briefly returning to the village down Vole Road by the White Horse Inn mentioned in the text. I'm not sure if this was the round the author was referring to but it was suggested by the property owner and we really enjoyed it!
As a result, it was the cover picture that piqued my interest straight away as I recognised the terrain and The Mendips in the distance. It is a distinct area of the country which is well worth reading about and getting to know better, if you get the chance.
Holidays felt a lot like a privilege during this whole period and since.
Stephen Moss writes well and his observations are interesting for any Brit with an interest in birdlife in particular and wildlife in general. He had a lucky first lockdown!
I entirely agree with his points as this short book draws to a close and wonder how he would rewrite them now, with hindsight from November 2022, as I write this?
Covid-19 gave us pause, literally! His points from 2020/21 on how the government conducted itself through this period are well made....as we know.....there was and is much to come!!!
A good read!! Stephen Moss is a much better birder than I'll ever be. His points on the state of land use, farming and wildlife are very well made. Even if you don't know the birds so well, this book is well worth reading for those wider comments and the sense of place he evokes on the Somerset Levels.
January 18, 2023
Stephen Moss recounts his nature observations from March to June 2020, when confined to his ‘local patch’ by the lockdown. It was interesting for me to reflect on my own experience in comparison, but as I went through this book it was disappointing that Moss didn’t really develop his theme, so that it got rather repetitive after about half way.
April 7, 2021
4.5 Stars and an informative Spring read / reflection
April 19, 2021
Excellent nature diary, only spoilt by the politics
August 23, 2021
Enjoyable account of spring 2020, when the UK was locked down and many people reconnected with nature. Excellent nature writing.
October 6, 2021
Not my usual read, but I enjoyed this nature diary set during the weird world of the first lockdown in the UK.
August 19, 2023
Interesting read especially reflecting the height of the pandemic and the nations rekindled love with nature
July 22, 2024
1rounded up from .5 because the cover is the best part of the book!
It was quite boring actually; basically, just a bunch of anecdotes put together to cover the months of the lockdown n UK during the pandemic. It could have been so much better with more thought and time put into it and read like a weak rough draft instead of a fully realized book. The tone in places was condescending and patronizing and the comment about chem trails by a naturalist who travels by plane around the world seems hypocritical to me.
Don’t think I’ll read another by this author.
It was quite boring actually; basically, just a bunch of anecdotes put together to cover the months of the lockdown n UK during the pandemic. It could have been so much better with more thought and time put into it and read like a weak rough draft instead of a fully realized book. The tone in places was condescending and patronizing and the comment about chem trails by a naturalist who travels by plane around the world seems hypocritical to me.
Don’t think I’ll read another by this author.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews