The Wild I See

"Kings are like stars. They rise and they set, they have the worship of the world, but no repose." - Percy Bysshe Shelley It's a Sunday at Kildalkey Bay and there's a cool, crisp breeze curling in from the ocean as the waves lap languidly at the shore. The ebb and flow of a benign continuum? It must be. I watch and listen, hypnotised, as cobbles are swept down and out, and up and over each other in a tranquil monotony, joined every so often by a few returning kings. The salty air swirls through me in a wonderful way, invigorating a sense of nostalgia. The sun sits in the sky to the west, smiling large, as the penguins fill the air with a bustling cacophony of whistles and trumpets. It's a packed day at the beach and I'm staring straight into their lives, trying to understand. Life as a king penguin is rather harsh. They’re continually exposed to wind, rain, snow and ice pellets and the only form of shelter is to huddle together. Individua...

The term biophilia literally means 'love of life or living systems' and has been used by Edward O. Wilson, the father of sociobiology and a professor of entomology at Harvard University, to describe the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life. We haven't always lived in urban environments. We were wild once. And that wild instinct is buried deep within us, resurfacing every time we immerse ourselves in the wildness of the natural world. The reality is that most of us now live in cities and are immersed in urban life. We have created unique environments for ourselves, with elaborate networks of roads and highways weaving between buildings and winding through landscapes. We have had such an influence on the structure of the environment that the vast expanse of cities and towns can be seen from space. There are few areas left on the planet where the mark of Homo sapiens urbanus is not evident, which means that there is little left o...

Leopard seals ( Hydrurga leptonyx ) are solitary animals that inhabit the pack-ice surrounding Antarctica. They have a fearsome reputation as top predators and eat almost anything from fish to elephant seals. Although they are mainly found in Antarctica, every so often a few venture North to see what the sub-Antarctic islands have on the menu. The other day Chris was doing an elephant seal census from base to Repettos when he came across a juvenile leopard seal sleeping on the cobbles. That evening he radio'd us the news and the next morning Ryan, Maelle and I set off early to catch a glimpse of this incredible creature. When we got to King Penguin Bay we found him sound asleep on a bed of kelp and were all quite stoked that he hadn't changed his spots.

A tranquil pitter patter swirled down from the ceiling and licked at my eardrums. On the window in front of me a hundred or so little droplets cascaded steadily downwards as I watched them with simplicity. I watched how they would sometimes reach out to each other in moments of stillness and upon touching would scurry off with gravity. I watched how as the wind blew, their movements would shift in a jagged synchronicity, catapulting them in unison across the glass. I looked past them and saw the ocean explode into the sky. ‘It’s wild out there’ I thought, turning my eyes on a frigid sea saturated with mountainous swells. I watched as an icy blue crest unfurled an angry lip and crashed into the shallows, turning everything white. The surge launched up the volcanic rock-face of the shore and scattered a vast white blanket over the sky. It lingered, suspended momentarily as if each droplet had wings. Then it fell gently and the droplets returned to a sense of peace and place, filt...