Nature Notes

by Andy Johnston Rewilding is all the rage at the moment. However it may come as a surprise that there are over 2,000 non-native species of plants & animals already established in the UK. Many have been deliberately introduced, but a significant number have arrived accidentally. Examples in our neighbourhood include Himalayan balsam, Japanese knot-weed,…

Recently the north of England was subject to a ridge of high pressure and a NE airflow. These conditions were ideal for the creation of Britain’s only named wind ‘The Helm Wind’.

Those of you who live near the Green or at the top of Ham Hall Lane are well aware of the rooks.

While admiring the spring flowers in the church yard, I noticed grey squirrels chasing each other along the church wall.

At last signs of spring: great tits, robins, starlings, mistle thrushes and song thrushes are all starting to sing.

Ten years ago the sight or a photo of an otter on the Swale would have made the local newspapers. Today they are more common than kingfishers.

by Andy Johnson The Twelve Days of Christmas is an old English Carol* featuring mainly animals.  A partridge is an English or grey partridge. Turtle doves are now rare but occasionally seen locally. French hens are thought to be Breton hens. Calling birds (or ‘colly’ in early versions) meant blackbirds. Gold rings were thought to…

Tuesday 18 Oct. began sunny but by mid-afternoon the easterly wind and grey clouds brought a huge migration of red-wings and blackbirds from Scandinavia.

Summer is over and after a very good breeding season and swallows, house martins and swifts are on their way to Africa.

We recently had a hummingbird hawk-moth feeding on flowers in our garden. These day time feeding moths migrate from around the Mediterranean to Britain and Northern Europe.