Nature Chain Winsley

 Blog 8 - 24 Feb In a blue sky above, three buzzards have been calling, circling, spiralling upwards on welcome thermals. In sheltered places below, an opening hellebore brings another smile of Spring. Further up the garden hill, animals are behaving in more of an autumnal fashion.... grabbing apples! Fruit stored from the autumn is getting past its ‘sell by date’ and we are amplifying the usual wildlife allocation with extra rations. Corvids are so clever they probably remember this procedure from last year, and not surprisingly, a vigilant magpie is on the scene immediately. The previous few days this one and mate and another pair have been bickering over nest site rites. The squirrel, our Advanced Level acrobat, also views everything that’s going on and grabs and eats ...blatantly in the open in front of the camera!   The pheasant arriving on consecutive days is more of a surprise visitor. We tend to hear him call across the valley more than we see him. In previous years a ...

  BLOG 7 17 th Feb 2025 You only truly value something when you stand to lose it... or it has already gone, quietly and unnoticed, like the cuckoos from Turleigh valley. Forty years ago, their incessant calls were Spring’s wallpaper. Since 1945, 98 % of our meadows have quietly disappeared. Today, modern ’lookalikes’ are being created by people in Winsley via ‘no mow’ (1) , packets of Wildflower Meadow seed (limestone/appropriate) , and mini plant plugs. Paul Jupp is an expert on meadows and is sharing his knowledge, experience and his local grown, harvested seeds with us on 26 th February . There will be much to learn! Meadows harbour an amazing diversity. There are high rise flowers like Corn Poppies , Moon Daisies , waving heads of delicate grasses and Wild Carrot, high flying insects and multitudes of invertebrate creepy crawlies below ground maintaining all-important soil. Ground-hugging leaf rosettes give rise to the many yellows  of Hawkbit, Mouse-ear H...

Blog 2 - 13 January 2025 Now is the time – they need you and you need them! Who? The birds... “ Bizarre, Brilliant, Beautiful” - words from the Natural History Museum. A description applicable all over the world, and in your garden and mine. They have become part of life’s backdrop. They have been here a long time... since the dinosaurs. But this doesn’t guarantee them a place in the future; globally one in eight bird species is endangered. Our local “ordinary” sparrows, starlings, greenfinches, house martins, etc have steadily dwindled. Our busy lives go on - behind schedule, too much to do, and suddenly one notices “the usual” is absent. Birds need us... The best way to help birds (particularly in lean winter months), is to have wilder areas where they can forage naturally, as well as feeding them - breadcrumbs, kitchen scraps, seed, peanuts, fat. Feeding gives a reliable backup when natural food is scarce... and gives you a chance to see and appreciate their ways. Feeder choice depe...

 6th Jan 2025 Facebook From last year’s loss comes this year’s hope...a victim of ash dieback had to be felled – and the chainsaw then magically transforms the stump into a wildlife riverside scene for inspiration and joy for people. But more to come! Not just more... but better! Our kind neighbours dropped the wood over the fence by our compost heap – for firewood (once well dried out*– very important!). Then, between plates of wood and sawdust (Photo 2) lay the real treasure!!  The timescale was summer until mid-November - life had arrived (Photos 3,4). Golden sawdust (see bottom of photo 1) had transformed to brown earth. Wondrous creatures were transforming death and destruction into plant heaven. Helped and speeded up by chainsaw-created sawdust, worms of all sizes (photo 2) were consuming, burrowing, digesting all the dead organic stuff from powdery wood, mixing, oxygenating and leaving wormcast granules of airy, fresh earth (vermicompost) improving soil chemicals and ph...