Spring!

May I recommend this gorgeous anthology of writing about wildlife? Commissioned by Costa-shortlisted Melissa Harrison, the pieces come from a range of classic and contemporary authors and follow the season as it passes through each month. It's an uplifting book to dip into and would make a lovely Mothers' Day gift. My own small contribution is about hedgehogs, and there's a cracking chapter on water voles by Jo Cartmell.

All proceeds go to the Wildlife Trust.

More info here: http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/2016/02/17/spring-anthology-changing-seasons
and here: Spring

Field Voles at Worthenbury

Quoted in the March edition of BBC Wildlife magazine!

Field vole - note the shortness of the tail

Above, excellent field vole habitat, and below, a latrine - each dropping is about the size of a grain of rice.

Badgers

No vole signs yet, so you'll have to make do with badger paths, badger bedding and buzzards.

The Big Garden Birdwatch

 My garden sparrows 

Fieldfares from the public footpath at Worthenbury

Woodpigeon doing his best to bump up the biomass

Numbers were definitely down this year - only 29 birds in all, and 9 of those were house sparrows. Other species recorded: blue tit, long-tailed tit, coal tit, robin, wren, blackbird, woodpigeon, jackdaw. No finches, no starlings and no dunnocks, which is unusual. I wonder if other birdwatchers have found this kind of a dip?

Grey Wagtail

Fabulous Amphibians to open 2016!

Do check underneath piles of garden rubbish if you're moving them at this time of year. Some little animals use them to over-winter in.

Merry Christmas to all wildlife fans. Hoping the voles will return in 2016 - I'll be posting sightings as soon as they come!