The Woodland Trust is a national charity dedicated to conserving existing trees and planting new woods. The Trust encourages everyone to get out and about communing with nature and has released a list of ten lesser-known woodland inhabitants for people to look out for when they visit their local wood. Two species on the list …
It seems incongruous for someone who lives in the lee of the weather-forecasting Clee Hills to be counted in Worcestershire’s administrative district of Malvern Hills. It is true that I do not need to go far to see The Malvern’s north-south spine, but I rarely get to explore the distant hills on foot.A recent visit …
Worms! What are they for? When were they in the news? Why am I writing about them? Well, back in February, just as I was helping with a local farmland bird survey, another farmland wildlife survey hit the news. My survey involved a quiet stroll with a pair of binoculars and a pencil, but the …
Spring is here and I am really looking forward to spending more time in my garden. One of the aims of all wildlife-lovers is to encourage wild creatures to come closer so that we can enjoy watching them nearer to hand. If you have a garden, a little patch left untidy is the best way …
March’s subject is ivy. “Ha”, you’re thinking, “she’s lost the plot, ivy is a Christmas subject”. Well in a way it is, because it was a chance comment overheard at Christmas that set me thinking that I might make ivy a subject for one of these articles.We live in a low-ceilinged cottage which has some …
In December, the Teme Valley Wildlife Group visited a National Nature Reserve in Staffordshire to see a natural phenomenon known as a starling murmuration. The site, along with Ham Wall on the Somerset levels and the pier at Aberystwyth, regularly sees huge sun-down gatherings of wheeling and chattering starlings. The birds fly in tight formation …
After getting embroiled in slugs and snails last month, here, as promised, are a few words on hedgerows. When travelling through unfamiliar landscapes, I’m always struck by the differences in the colour of the soil, the size and shape of the fields, the types of livestock, and the plants that make up the living hedge …
Back in September I mentioned some slug and snail control methods in an article about slug pellets and hedgehogs. Imagine my dismay when I opened the paper today, to see a headline announcing “Gardeners are losing war on slugs”. The Royal Horticultural Society has released the results of a study that found that many commonly …
This month I’m writing about slow worms. There are three types of lizard in the British Isles: the common lizard, the sand lizard and the legless lizard. The latter is better known as the slow worm (or blind worm), although it is not slow/blind and not a worm. Slow worms are quite common in the …
Now is the best time of year to see some of Britain’s largest butterflies in flight. One such is the silver-washed fritillary, which I was delighted to spot for the first time this year in our local wood, back at the beginning of July. It is large a woodland butterfly, a striking creature, bright orange …