Summer is here at last! June is when you can make the most of your garden and enjoy the long summer evenings. There’s also plenty to do to help wildlife in June when there are lots of baby mouths to feed. Keep the bird baths topped up Water is so important for wildlife and when the sun shines it’s easy to forget that birds and small mammals need to find watering holes. Insects and pollinators, such as bees, also need water but it needs to be shallow so they don’t drow

Woodlark The swifts duly arrived a few days after the house martins and are now entertaining us with their screaming flypasts on the warmer evenings. They were closely followed by the first cuckoo that has taken up residence in the Seven Bridges area, awaiting the arrival of a mate. That area continues to be one of the most bird rich patches in the parish, and on one morning we watched a pair of reed buntings and a pair of grey wagtails plucking flies out of the air in bright

Red Campion May - or Floreal in the old French Republican calendar - is the floweriest month. What other wildflowers provide such sheets of colour as bluebells in our woods or buttercups in our meadows? The verges are livened by the froth of cow parsley, which some people know better by its folknames, Queen Anne's lace or 'keck'. One of the brightest of our Maytime flowers is red campion. Though 'shocking pink' rather than pure red, the flowers mass together on verges, accomp

Dandelion Folk name: wet-the-bed! April is the month for first sightings of spring. We watch the world around us greening and unfolding by the day. The dawn soloists swell into a chorus, the hedgerows burst into leaf, the lovely flowering of the 'blackthorn winter' is followed promptly by the blossom of wild cherry and wild apple and the first tender leaves of oak and beech slip from their buds. Only ash is still bare, apart f

Raven The swallows arrived over the Easter weekend, and have already been joined by the house martins, both a little earlier than last year. The swifts should be joining us in the next few weeks and will hopefully take up residence in the Square. Some may also accept the offer of the brand-new swift boxes on the South side of the High Street. Fingers crossed. Many birds return to the same nests year after year. These include the red kites that are at home here. We are aware o

May is one of the loveliest months in the year as the countryside starts looks its best after the winter. It’s a time when we really start to spend time outside making our gardens look their best for the summer months ahead. No Mow May If you’ve never done it before, ‘no mow May’ means no grass cutting for the whole of the month! This is undoubtedly a challenge for those of us who love our lawns to look neat and tidy. However, by not mowing for just one month your lawn

Woodlark April is a peak month for nest building and egg laying. One of the busiest birds at this time is the male wren which can build up to seven or eight nests before trying to persuade a female to choose one and produce a family. We have had a wren nesting in a bird box for the last three years, and a male has already built the beginnings of a nest and is singing its heart out to try and 'sell' it. We shall see if the offer is taken up. The wren is our commonest bird, wit

Whitlow grass After a mild, if excessively wet, winter, spring came early this year. Frogs were spawning as early as February, ladybirds were emerging from hibernation, and over-wintering butterflies were on the wing, mainly peacocks, commas and male brimstones. It never ceases to amaze me that these brimstones are still fresh and bright despite being seven months old (they emerged from the chrysalis last July). By the beginning of March there were bees about, both newly emer

As the weather gets milder, gardens become very busy places. Birds and bees start to nest and some species of insects such as moths are already breeding. Frogs and toads will have already left ponds after breeding and will be looking for nice damp places to shelter. Hungry Hedgehogs Hedgehogs will have typically emerged from hibernation in March and will be trying to fatten themselves up to be in good condition for breeding. If you do have any hedgehogs in your garden,

Hazel catkins ( Corylus avellana ) February is snowdrop month, a sign that spring is on the way, that the days are getting brighter despite the cold and, this year, the near-incessant rain. Snowdrop flowers are worth a close look (pick it and take it apart, there’s plenty to spare). If you peer into the open flower you find a marvellous symmetry: three outer, pure-white lobes, and then three inner ones forming a cup, each streaked with bright green

Cetti’s warbler A couple of walks in Burnt Copse with watery sunshine have produced an interesting variety of birds. As well as multiple robins we saw blue, great, long tailed and marsh tits. An over wintering blackcap was in fine voice, and may well be thinking about nesting here, which would be very special. A male goldcrest came very close, and as the wind pushed it’s crest up it was a dramatic orange. A female bullfinch flew by, and we waited in vain to see its beautiful

Water forget-me-not Myosotis scorpioides Temperatures in March can still fall below zero so March can be difficult time for garden wildlife. Here are a few tips to help the wildlife on your doorstep. Feeding birds Garden birds will have eaten all but the last of the berries in your garden and earthworms and insects may well be taking shelter, so it’s important to keep feeding the birds. Also, this is the time when they need to be strong for breeding so birds in partic

Petty spurge It is mid-winter, cold and frosty, and with less than eight hours of daylight. Wild plants seem to be asleep. Except that in many cases they aren’t. These days, annuals such as groundsel, shepherd’s purse and red dead-nettle flower as freely in winter as in summer. Under south-facing brick walls, which act as storage heaters, the vegetation can even be quite lush. Near the Paddocks, for instance, there was a dense flowering of petty spurge, a humble relative of t

Raven One of the first birds to lay eggs in the new year is the Raven. Most pairs will have laid between four and seven eggs by the end of February. Our local birds have been seen building or refurbishing their nests, as they often use the same nest for several years. The eggs will be incubated by the female, who is fed by the male, for 18 -21 days. The chicks will remain in the nest for 5 to 7 weeks, being fed by both parents, and will stay nearby for weeks after that. Great

Despite the early signs of Spring, February can be a very cold and wet month, so it’s really important to keep looking after the wildlife in your garden. Nesting Boxes If you haven’t already done so, February is a good month to clean out any nesting boxes. Birds may be using nesting boxes for shelter and will soon look to find a place to bring up their young. If you’re putting up nesting boxes, make sure they’re fixed at the correct height and facing the correct way fo

Redlead roundhead Leratiomyces ceres After one of the best seasons for mushrooms and toadstools in years, fungi were fruiting on mild days almost into December. Woodchip mulch is widely used on flowerbeds, especially in public places, to suppress weeds and maintain relatively warm, moist soil underneath. The chips break down slowly with the help of fungi, and over the years a specialised fungus flora has developed there, that is rich in nonnative species from as far away

Water rail Looking down from Spring Hill we watched a heron chasing a great white egret along the valley until they landed on different sides of the Manor Lake. These are two of our largest birds, one very common indeed and the other a relative rarity. The egret was probably Edgar, our regular winter visitor that terrorized our village ponds a couple of years ago. The egret has a wingspan of 1.5 metres, while the heron can be up to nearly 2 metres. Clearly the heron was the a

Once the shortest day has passed and the days start to get longer, we can start to think of Spring. January, however, can be a tough time of year for wildlife as food starts to run out and the temperatures drop. There are still lots of things you can do to help the creatures in your garden survive the cold. Feeding Birds Now is the time to fill your feeders with a higher calorie food to help birds withstand the drop in temperature. Providing suet balls are a really goo

As winter draws in, this is when the wildlife in your garden, really does need a helping hand albeit by providing food and water or simply, helping to preserve their habitats. Leave Fallen Leaves Whilst it’s tempting to want to tidy up your garden and remove any fallen leaves, leaving them in a corner of the garden will provide shelter for insects and small mammals. Avoid disturbing your garden too much also helps wildlife find food and shelter undisturbed. Keep an eye

Honey fungus The autumn colours have been particularly intense this year. Passing though Savernake on the way to Marlborough the effect on the trees in full sun was like sunlight streaming through stained glass, all vivid yellows, golds, copper-browns, and even red and purple tints, as well as the leaves that still remained green. Why are some years better than others? I suspect that our sunny, warm summer had something to do with it, but only something. The process of how de