HeyJaredMark Cocker
- Indexed articles, last 90 days
- 7
- Latest publication
- Sep 25, 2026
- Outlet visibility, for Country Life
- Top 100K sites
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 16, 2026
Latest articles
If any animal could be considered an artist, it is surely the redstart (opens the original)
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If there is a more completely engrossing British bird than the common redstart, then I would struggle to name it. One indisputable aspect of this charisma is physical beauty. Not only is the male colourful, there is also a jeweller’s precision placement to the parts. The back is smooth slate grey, the breast is glistening terracotta, whereas the face is notable for a crisp jet-black triangle outlined with a white brow. Perhaps most remarkable is that, as he sings, he reveals a mouth lined with c
In classical times this bird was sacred to Aphrodite and for millennia served as an erotic symbol (opens the original)
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It is remarkable to reflect on the cultural stories that attach to our only native breeding goose, the greylag. In classical times, it was a bird sacred to Aphrodite (or Venus). For millennia, it served as an erotic symbol and a faint vestige of this is apparent in the nursery rhyme Goosey Goosey Gander, wherein a male bird is up to mischief in my lady’s chamber. You could also argue that greylag geese changed the course of Western history. A flock of the goddess Juno’s sacred wildfowl was kept
Silent assassin or scapegoat: Is the sparrowhawk really to blame for Britain’s vanishing songbirds? (opens the original)
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I am guessing that any reader, who, like me, spends much of their spare time out amid nature, has come up short on one specific set of observations: the moments that a bird of prey captures its food. Even observing a kestrel as it drops onto a vole after hovering over the field is rare. In 50 years of looking, I have never once glimpsed a sparrowhawk take a bird. I’ve regularly seen the moments immediately afterwards, when the deed is done and the hawk, with wings spread and cowling some poor ca
Why centuries of superstitions cast this bird as a villain and an omen of ill fortune (opens the original)
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If we judged magpies purely on looks, they would surely rank among the most visually arresting birds in Britain. It is not only the boldness of their black-and-white design. It is the subtle touches, such as the uppermost wing feathers (technically called tertials), which flash a brilliant azure or turquoise depending on the light. When magpies fly, they reveal that lovely long, shimmering tail, as well as delicate dark tips to nine white outer-wing feathers. Alas for the species, the voice is s
Pigeons are too successful for their own good — that's why we hate them so much (opens the original)
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There are two key moments in the year when wood pigeons can be enjoyed to their best advantage. In the breeding season, our largest and heaviest pigeon performs an impressive aerial display. The bird’s flight is strong and direct, but on these occasions an individual surges forward high above the trees, then rises dramatically with more exaggerated beats, so that the upper wings often come together above the back in a loud, feathery clap. This achieved, it then sails down in an open-winged glide
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Top 100K sites
For Country Life, the outlet · Measured Aug 1, 2026
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