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

Golden plover Autumn is now firmly with us, as are our regular autumn visitors. Modest flocks of redwing can now be seen and heard on the lower slopes of Spring Hill, while higher up the first of the golden plover have made their way down from the North Yorkshire Moors to winter with us. We were very privileged this month to join a group of bird ringers for an early morning to the west of the village. In just a few hours, they had caught and ringed over twenty-four different

Honey fungus This bounteous autumn continues. One of the sounds this year is the pit-a-pat of acorns falling from the laden boughs or, in the case of a walk we did on the coat-tails of Storm Amy, whizzing through the air like bullets. The hollow-way through which we usually reach Hens Wood was blocked by a series of fallen trees that seem to have come down like skittles. This is a great year for chestnuts, not conkers which seem to have been no better than average, but delici

Canada Goose One sign of autumn is that the tawny owls in the churchyard have become very vocal, and their calls on a cold, clear evening are quite haunting. We also have the apparent return of Edgar, the great white egret that terrorized our garden ponds two years ago. He was recently seen at the river, not far from a little egret, which emphasised just how large he is! We are still awaiting the return of the golden plover to Spring Hill, but the skylarks, yellowhammers and

Now that the temperature is really starting to drop, there are lots of things we can do to help wildlife to overwinter until Spring.   Resist tidying up too much! The trees in November are full of autumn colour as they shed their leaves for the winter.  Whilst it’s very tempting remove all the fallen leaves from your garden, raking the leaves into piles in corners or under shrubs will keep your garden tidy but still help wildlife.  Leaf piles create shelter for insects, amphi

Winter is now truly upon us and there are lots of things that will make a difference to the wildlife in your garden. Helping frogs in the winter Male frogs often spend winter in the muddy depths of ponds, breathing through their skin. But if the pond freezes over, gases caused by decaying plant material can get trapped and poison them. Remove debris from ponds now, and float a tennis or golf ball on the surface to prevent ice from sealing it. Autumn planting for nature Autumn

Green Sandpiper Unusually, there are still some swallows and house martins around, but they will surely have left before the beginning of October. Those summer visitors will be replaced by our autumn visitors, including redwing and fieldfare as well as our regular flock of golden plover. The redwings and fieldfare only travel at night, and it is worth heading outside on a clear frosty October evening and listening hard with your hands cupped over your ears. You may well hear

Hornet Hoverfly This bounteous autumn peaked in early September with branches laden with hips, haws, acorns and sloes. I doubt I have ever seen such clustered masses of cherry-red haws, bending the boughs under their weight. We have had just the right combination of sunshine and, latterly, rain, to produce an exceptional harvest. Such abundance seems wasteful, but the more seeds there are, the better the chances of some of them escaping the hungry jaws of wildlife and generat

Hobby I think that the swifts left us on August 1st for their immense journey south. The swallows and house  martins are still with us...

Wall brown butterfly By the second week in August the landscape was looking autumnal; the pale, parched grass contrasting with the deep...