Traces of Wild Boar
On a family holiday in the Wye valley, there was a good opportunity to try to catch a glimpse of one of the area’s most elusive yet controversial wild animals, the wild boar. There is little consensus over the true number of wild boar remaining in the area, some say there are as few as…
Foreign Ospreys
During the spring holidays I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Majorca south-east of Spain. There are few indigenous large mammals due to its isolation but it has similar birds to the rest of Europe. One bird I was particularly keen to spot was an Osprey, which sometimes can be spotted soaring…
Winter Storms and Fallen Giants
During the recent storms with strong winds and heavy rain, buildings weren’t alone in being damaged. Many large trees, some very old, have been blown over and uprooted by the extreme winds. Although wind is a natural phenomenon, areas in the lowlands that rarely experience winds have been exposed to an intensity of wind not…
The Knepp Estate
Most people don’t walk through kilometres of scrubby pasture on a regular basis but Tom Forward does since he is an ecologist at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, home to an ambitious “wilding” project which has received a large amount of media attention in recent years due to the rare and unusual species turning…
Little Owl Fledgling
A couple of weeks ago I came across a Little Owl fledgling in an old farm shed. Going up the weathered stone steps, I could hear peculiar scratching and scrambling sounds and found it curled up under a wooden box of some sort. It must have come down from the nest prematurely as it seemed…
Britain’s Native Grasslands
I think there is a lack of appreciation in the UK for its native grasslands despite them being a semi-natural habitat like woodland. Unlike woodland, grasslands are perceived to be unnatural areas created and maintained by people for agricultural interests. However, more and more evidence shows that our woodlands are not as wild as was…
Pollarding willow
During the middle of the last lockdown, I decided to have a go at pollarding. I had never pollarded a tree before and I have never had any training of any kind that involves cutting wood. However, I did some research online about pollarding to try and find out more. People have been pollarding trees…
Kingfisher Encounter
In recent weeks there has been lots of commotion along the rivers and ponds near my home. A pair of Cormorants has arrived at one of the ponds and the cygnets that hatched earlier this year have grown rapidly and are now nearly as large as the adults. All of this is interesting, but there…
“Rewilding”: A Conservation Renaissance
The term “rewilding” has become a controversial topic over the past few years. The National Farmers Union is worried it will destroy the very fabric of the countryside. While many conservationists argue it needs to be done in order to restore Britain’s lost wildlife. But what is it and what will it do to the…
Planting trees
Often we hear about how the key to solving climate change is planting millions of trees. It probably isn’t quite that simple, but in a garden it can be a good way to encourage wildlife as well as reducing your carbon footprint. In a small garden one can plant only a small handful of trees…
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