Flyladyphotography By Wendy Cooper

  Well I've been browsing through my 'Nature Year' and there have been quite a few special 'Nature Moments', both on my local patch and further afield, so I thought I'd share a few of them here...    The early part of the year was a bit on the quiet side, although I had a good Big Garden Birdwatch    both in my back garden and also an improvised one on a couple of days away   On my local patch, things ticked over quietly until March / April time, when along with a first sighting of the Local Common Lizards,    I also got to watch a pair of Treecreepers courting for a while.  (Given that I usually see just one, a pair was something of a treat!) and a few weeks after watched one collecting nesting material.  Around this time I aslo saw a few early butterflies and also got to watch a pair of Long Tailed Tits nest building, whist being 'Chiff Chaffed' at by one of the many Chiff Chaffs which had returned to the local patch.     In April, we spent 

  Well 'Brian' is hurling himself at the front of the house, with an occasional wail around the sides and clouds are scudding across the sky in bright autumn sunshine, so instead of wandering in the woods and coming back wearing a tree (so not a good look!) I've been browsing through my photo diary from from recent wanderings and noticed that autumn has gradually appeared.   On a warm day a while back, I was at the start of my usual circuit on my Local Patch, when I noticed that whilst the tree were holding their colour, the path ahead and the woodland floor had a new carpet of russety dry leaves.  Here and there along the path though, Speckled Wood Butterflies were still defending their posts, fluttering around furiously in the dappled sunshine at any hint of disturbance. and scampering could be heard up and down the trees as squirrels chased each other around, sometimes pausing to eat or just sit and grumble and bark.   The birds, whilst I could hear them, were all stay