October 2021

Planet Earth is changing fast. You and I have both been affected (hopefully not infected) by a minute virus we call called COVID-19. In addition, we are all ageing and new babies are being born. Life goes on and the climate continues to change. We all have to adapt to survive.

Circumstances have permitted my wife and I to visit our place in France for a short while after a year of no management or maintenance. Many of you will have heard of the new trend in ecology called re-wilding. This philosophy essentially means letting nature take its natural course with minimal intervention. Unless you try it, you cannot know what surprises nature can present after one year of natural freedom!

Neighbours told us that the colours in the meadows that were our lawns during May were wonderful. However, on arrival in August, the lawns had become hay fields with grass over 1 metre tall in places. We apparently had a visit from a stone marten during our absence who got into the attic, left its calling card and gnawed through a door into the main body of the house. A stone marten is a cat sized relative of the weasel. Apart from a few urine stains no further damage. Indeed, there were no mice in the house when we arrived, stone martens like to eat mice.

Birds currently in our garden would wow even hardened bird watchers and include pied flycatchers, cirl buntings, stonechats, wheatear, whinchat and black redstarts. That list itself is a good recommendation for rewilding. However, in order to access to the ground, we have had to do a certain amount of de-wilding. Even nature reserves need managing to make room for humans and control alien invaders such as (here) American Robinia pseudoacacia trees and bamboo. In doing so, we discovered some interesting insects including praying mantids, coneheads, fritillary butterflies and wart-biter bush crickets.

We hear owls calling at night, they also like to eat mice. We also hear a chorus of crickets and other insects calling to each other in the hope of reproducing, as they have done for 300 million years! This morning I watched a roe deer quietly walking across a neighbouring field and a fox left its calling card on our (now) newly mown lawn.