I’m contributing to the Great Spring Watch – and looking out for first sightings of: – oak leaves (17 April 2015) – hawthorn blossom – 7 spot ladybirds (12 April 2015) – orange tip butterfly – swallows (although I haven’t ever seen them here). My spring indicators list for Sydenham Hill woods would include: – […]

R and I saw our first honey bees on the first day of the month in a neighbours’ crocus patch.  Our local bird expert D told me not to worry that we haven’t had any lesser red polls in the garden this month.  As they’re passing through, this may not reflect population numbers but simply […]

We’ve been looking out for a white-headed long-tailed tit which has been reported in the woods in the Times nature diary. We’ve seen one in the garden today with a whiter head than usual but it looks more like a pale regular tit than a Northern one. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article4309034.ece

As the winter solstice approaches, it’s suddenly warm and wet in the woods.  Night-time walk on the solstice remarkably mild and pleasant.

October ended with extraordinary warm weather –  I saw a confused bumblebee and a butterfly (not sure what as it was high in the trees) in the woods. It has been great for my winter vegetables but it now feels properly autumn.

After a couple of weeks of rain the ground is slippery.

The sound of folk tunes drift through the woods on a sunny afternoon. Children clutch fishing nets while their parents eat cake.

Hornbeam fruit cover the ground paving the way to autumn.

On a warm and wet early morning run, I startled wrens at intervals along the path, and was scolded severely. Chiffchaffs called overhead. Didn’t see anyone else on the whole circuit.

A chilly start to May but a lovely stretch of bluebells in the woods. I heard a mysterious mechanical buzzing coming from a tree and the mystery was solved when an adult parakeet appeared to feed its young, the call reaching a crescendo as the adult perched by the nest hole. A cuckoo followed me […]