During August I had the pleasure of getting along to two rather special days at work with Northumberland Wildlife Trust. The first was in a remarkably midge free Kielder Forest where the final release was made as part of Restoring Ratty. This project has seen more than 2000 water voles released into some of the small burns and ditches around the forest as part of… Read More »New to the Wild
May was ‘No Mow May’ – so how did it go? Well for those who did participate, I hope you have stuck it out well into June because most of the flowers haven’t yet burst into bloom. May was such a chilly month that we are significantly behind an average year but even if it were a more typical year, May is still a little… Read More »Long & Short of it
Spring is always a positive time of year for wildlife enthusiasts. Somehow the fresh growth and returning birds gives a sense that all is well. Of course, the problems of climate change, global pandemics and the like are still looming large but for a while the small oases of wild flowers or the skylark singing overhead takes you away from these worries for a moment… Read More »Wildlife in Spring
With spring on its way and Easter coming up many of us will turn to our gardens. For some it’s the start of an annual battle to maintain some semblance of order; for others a carefully choreographed year of management to produce the perfect show of flowers or prize winning vegetables. Around 25 years ago this time of year coincided with an annual campaign to… Read More »Wildlife Gardening
If spring is about flowers, summer is butterflies and insects then surely autumn is fungi. Now that the damp autumn days are very much upon us so the fungi are springing up. We tend to associate fungi with woodlands and decay but there is so much more to them. Some of our smallest and brightest fungi are species of unimproved grasslands, waxcaps can be bright… Read More »Wild Fungi
One of the greatest pleasures of the natural world is that there is always so much to find out; it’s also one of the biggest frustrations. For those starting out the mountain can seem enormous as you try to get to grips with the difference between a small tortoiseshell and painted lady butterfly, or between a chaffinch and bullfinch. For those with many years behind… Read More »Recording Nature
If there is one thing that has come out of the last few months it has been the chance to rediscover my own patch. Now I accept that I am lucky to live in a small village, with open countryside all around, and many did not have that luxury, but, watching the spring turn slowly into summer while spending most of that time within a… Read More »No lockdown for Nature
