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About ME!

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  Some years ago,   I decided to learn my way around digital photography so that I could keep pictorial records of the wildlife and nature on my local patch as I began to explore it – an area of   of woodland and farmland near to where I live with a fallow field.  To say I was surprised at the variety of birds, insect life and flora would be an understatement.     When I was considerably younger (a mere Tween!) I had thoroughly enjoyed a bit of birdwatching, so with the interest very much re-awakened, this time with different eyes and taking a very different approach with an appreciation now of seeing the natural world far more, observing and wondering at how, from the soil upwards, through plants and insects to birds, reptiles and mammals, everything fits together in an incredible way with an important place in the huge Nature Jigsaw.  This time around, no tick lists, instead, everything I watched and or photographed I was going to learn something...
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Big Garden Birdwatch January 2020

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  One of the first things I do when I get my new calendar every year is to add a reminder for the Big Garden Birdwatch; as well as it being a little bit of Citizen Science (which snowballs into LOT of Citizen Science with so many folk across the country taking part) it is also a perfectly reasonable ‘timeout’ to just sit, wrapped up warm and with a big mug of something hot, watch and be entertained by our garden visitors.  The first arrival was one of the Robins, appearing in the remains of an elderly Ceanothus before darting across the garden into the depths of the Bay Tree.    A familiar bubbling chatter was heard and a pair of Long Tailed Tits appeared next to the feeders in the middle recently we have had a pair visit as well as a little family group. Within the ivy along the fence and the branches of the Field Maple, as well as from the depths of the Bay Tree, the local flock of Sparrows could be heard discussing whether to approach the feeders… Graduall...
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2020 A Local Patch Retrospective...

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  Where was I?  Ah yes, beginning of May 2020.  Apologies for the huge gap, but with concentrating on getting through last year, I somehow never had the words to go with the pictures, so, whilst things are still not great, am a bit more used to ‘hands, face, space’ so feel that am in calmer waters whilst in a holding pattern until things are safer…   Anyhow, I digress! In between working from home and trying not to lose the plot entirely, I did manage to get out for quite a few walks on my local patch and as always kept a photo diary of what I was watching, so I’ve been through the photos and pieced together some of the moments that were particularly special.  Very often, those walks were a saving grace in a life where routines and plans were suddenly in disarray and observing Nature’s unhindered progress through the season was strangely of comfort when I was feeling as though I’d somehow woken into a chaotic frightening disaster movie.   My local patch...
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Magic Moments 2019

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  Well now that the dust has started to settle on 2019, I had a browse back through my Nature Diary to try to choose my favourite moments….  There were A LOT of moments!  I’m not entirely certain where the year went – it seemed, once again to pass in a flash, however thank heavens for the camera with which I was able to record more than a few magic moments through the year. Those of you who follow and read regularly will know that I will happily take pot luck with what I watch and am definitely not a ‘tick and click’ person; unless I’m at a bird reserve, where I’ll lurk in a hide for a while, pretty much everything watched has been ‘on the hoof’ so to speak, so watching ‘new’ or ‘firsts’ are special moments indeed. I managed to lose the first part of the year due to a nasty bout of lurgy, however towards the end of January I managed to venture, somewhat wonkily out, first on my local patch  where as well as watching the regulars I also spotted one of the elusive ...
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Then April Arrived...

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  Then April arrived.  With an overwhelming amount of news bulletins, statistics, frightening information and continuing to adjust to the new ‘normal’, my local patch wander has given something of a respite, reset and refresh – Nature really has become, for certain health aspects, the best medicine… There is something very comforting in watching a familiar clock ticking away the seasons with all the players, whether flora or fauna making their expected timed entrances and simply getting on with it…    Green shoots began to burst their buds, With more Wood Anemones appearing, now joined by the brilliant yellow of Lesser Celandine And Greater Stitchwort putting in an appearance. The Bluebell buds swelled, in preparation for a grand display, Whilst the Blackthorn came into bloom and provided food for Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells as well as numerous Bees, hoverflies and other minibeasts. Here and there hints of brilliant pink appeared as Scarlet Camp...
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Simple, Beautiful Fluttering Things...

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  When I was preparing a list for my Darting, Buzzing and Jumping blog,   I'd intended to include my butterfly sightings as well, thinking that I'd not seen that many this year, well I was wrong!  Whilst I have definitely seen lower numbers of the usual visitors to my local patch compared to previous years, there has certainly been no lack of variety in butterflies and moths.   In the early part of the year, there were cold and mild spells of weather which continued well into June, some of the time it was exceedingly wet as well as being unseasonably cool.  Many of the usual plants and trees were in blossom out of season and in some cases, like brambles or thistles, bloomed late and in some cases 'finished' a lot faster than I recall for previous years. The fallow field that I frequent is bordered by banks of brambles and woodland, there are patches of nettles and stands of Common Hogweed.  In the main part of the field, as well as the Hogweed, fro...
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Spring Things on the Local Patch.

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  Since Easter, rather a lot of  'Springy things' have been appearing on my local patch, so here is a selection from my Nature diary of what I've been seeing.   Early signs that Spring really was about to get started were the appearance of Lesser Celandine flowers and dainty white Wood Anemones; as the woodland floor began to green-up, there were bright spots of these delicate yellow and white flowers Lesser Celandine Wood Anemone   Another hint was that  some of the birds had started nest building, this one was taken back in February of a Long Tailed Tit pair - I watched it's construction over about three weeks and at one point in March, did see Mum or Dad peeping out, whilst either brooding or waiting for the other to return with food for the youngsters.  Going by timescale I think a brood may have been successfully raised and fledged, although I have not seen a little troupe in the surrounding trees and bushes.   (The photo was taken with a lo...
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