Vi Natura — IMMERSE YOURSELF IN NATURE

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN NATURE

The soul of
British Birds

Vi Natura — The Power of Nature

Photographer in the field

Patience, light, luck?
Capturing nature's essence.

Vi Natura is a long-form lifetime photographic study of the UK's wildlife and the cosmos above us. It is an attempt to move beyond field-guide accuracy and towards something closer to portraiture. Each image seeks to capture not just what something looks like, but who or what it truly is.

From the defiant red flash of a Robin holding its winter territory, to the improbable speed of a Kingfisher darting along a woodland stream, these are encounters built on immersion, stillness and presence within the natural world.

Then, moving from this world to the next, to the dust lanes of the Milky Way and the distant radiant glow of star-forming nebulae, we are reminded that we are a tiny part of the cosmos, yet an important one, because we are able to observe it, contemplate it, and consciously soak in its beauty.

All images are captured in the field across the UK's wetlands, woodlands, coastlines and uplands, and beneath its dark skies, entirely without captive or staged subjects.

Location — United Kingdom Focus — Wild Birds, Nature, Macro, Astro Equipment — Olympus OM1 MK II : Cotton Carrier : Wandrd Web Apps — WarbleUK · Listening stations

A camera catches a moment.
A microphone catches the rest.

Most of what happens in a garden or a wood happens when nobody is there to see it. The dawn chorus before you're up, the owls calling at midnight, the migrants passing over in the dark. It's like Merlin but 24/7.

So alongside the photographs, Vi Natura is working with BirdNET-Cloud to place small listening stations across the UK. Each one is a Raspberry Pi and a microphone, tucked into a garden, a hedgerow or a reserve, quietly listening day and night. Our live station, and the waitlist for your own, now live on Warble UK, our bird song learning site.

  • i.It listens. Around the clock, in all weathers.
  • ii.It identifies. The BirdNET model names each call and song it hears.
  • iii.It keeps the evidence. Every detection is saved with its recording and spectrogram, ready to explore online.
Explore our live station feed
–Detections
–Species
–Heard today

Live from our Chobham station

Warble UK Streak7

Who's singing?

Blackbird Song Thrush Mistle Thrush Robin

Free to playPlay now

You've seen them.
Can you name them by ear?

A Song Thrush says everything twice. A Wren sings far louder than anything that small has a right to. Once you start listening, every walk sounds different.

Warble UK is our free birdsong quiz. Listen to a real recording, pick the singer, and see how long you can keep your streak going.

  • i.Listen. A real UK bird recording, a few seconds long.
  • ii.Choose. Pick the singer from the options.
  • iii.Build your streak. Garden regulars first, then the trickier voices.
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Get in touch

To join our BirdNET-Cloud (waitlist) or information about WarbleUK.com, sponsorships, licensing, educational projects, hide and venue reviews, donations, home schooling guided sessions or invites to help capture a species in their essence. Please use the form below.