Hi, I am Steve Parr.

I’m an ecologist and photographer who enjoys being out and about watching the seasons turn and wildlife do its thing.   I started out birdwatching over 40 years ago, and have become increasingly interested in butterflies, wildflowers, and new landscapes.

I like the seasons and temperate climes and wish I felt more at home in the Tropics but, in truth, I just get hot and bothered. Instead, I’m most at home in the Mediterranean but still need to visit the Americas (a plan for 2019).

I have worked in the New Forest, Wales, Seychelles, South Asia, the Middle East and now back in south east England (where I grew up) for conservation organisations and ecology consultancies.  I am probably too much of a dreamer with itchy feet to stay put in one place for long, always more interested in walking over to the greener side of the valley.

I often think it is a shame we don’t live for 10,000 years because our attitude to ecological change would be quite different and our management of natural assets much more considered. If this were so, I would have been born in the last Ice age when England would have been a frozen wasteland. Then, I would have been witness to a warming wilderness; the spread of great temperate forests and the increasing impact of humans on the environment; and the many and varied changes that the changing climate and human footprint has wrought.  But we live a few decades so only see what is in front of us and we are unable to take the long view.  What will the place look like in 500 years?  I am an optimist and think things will look much better ecologically speaking.

Photography is a way to capture nature of the moment and so live in the moment. I also find local people and their culture, history and architecture captivating but always with an eye for the wildlife round the corner. I enjoy the sense of place that comes from being in a location for a period of time, so I have spent springs in the Mediterranean where the world is slower, richer, and where the last Ice Age never quite reached.  I do my best to correctly identify everything I photograph and usually photography helps me see more and identify more.  I’m most interested in the art of nature but a science background helps make sense of the beautiful chaos.

This blog tells the stories of days in the field mainly in southern England but also Europe and the Middle East; I don’t collect countries but it is always fun to travel a new road and then meander from it.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions and interact – I hope the stories and photographs are interesting and, at times, stimulating.

And I hope one day to take a really, really good photograph that makes you go ‘wow’. Until then, I’ll be out in the field.

Cheers,

Steve