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.

Graham Bourne recently complained that he had ‘mole problems’ in his lawn. Sure enough there were the tell tale mole hills.

The dawn and evening chorus has come to an end this mid-summer week. It tends to be dominated by blackbirds.

For the past month I have been watching a queen wasp building its nest in my wooden garden shed.

Similar to last year, April’s weather has been dominated by a cool northerly airstream, but without the devastating frosts. Consequently cherry and magnolia blossom, daffodils and tulips have been good and long lasting.