Without ever crossing the border...

Not an international border, not a county or 
even parish border: without ever leaving my 
own property. 

I named this blog 'Nature is never far away' for a reason: because I believe it isn't. I'm not going to philosophise about what 'Nature' means to me, or anyone else for that matter. It means different things to different people, but I think the claim that 'It' (whatever 'It' is) is never far away is justifiable regardless of your personal definition.

While most of my posts so far have featured local wildlife - local as in 'not far away'; all of it has been within 30 minutes driving time - I recognise some people don't have the luxury of easy transport, and still others lack the physical ability to get out and about. It is easy to take this ability for granted. I have recognised before now how much I appreciate this personal blessing, an appropriate word I feel, and am hoping in due course to cater in some way for those who haven't been blessed with simple personal mobility through the opportunities The Riddy Wood Project, which I manage, offers.

On behalf of those for whom local needs to mean REALLY local, I thought I'd compile this post about what my garden has offered me in terms of observing nature. There will be a few related posts to follow: if this could be considered the home game, then there is an away game of two halves. These will be 'hosted' by my parents 'garden' and my parents-in-law garden respectively. They have cooler gardens than me in more interesting surroundings (no offence sub-urban Stoke-on-Trent). Keep tuned though: I have grand, wildlife friendly plans for my own garden, which has already under gone some fairly major cosmetic surgery since we moved in 3 1/2 years ago, but that's for another time...

Before I get pulled up on it, I am well aware that in this urbanised, high-rise day and age we live in there are many who don't have a garden, or indeed any sort of personal outdoor space, either. All I will say to that, because I can't please everyone, is if I were a betting man (and I'm not, just for the record), I would bet you ... something substantial, like a car... or a pair of Swarovski binoculars, that if you looked hard enough you could observe 10 species of something within a 60 second walk from your front door (external door - just for clarification!).

As an example of that, there are at least a dozen species of plant growing between the paving slabs on my driveway, or out of the wall which borders it. Among them are Common Dog-Violet (Viola riviniana), Dandelion (Tarraxacum spp), Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), Wood Avens (Geum urbanum), Common Nettle (Urtica dioica) and Maidenhair Spleenwort fern (Asplenium trichomanes).

On the invertebrate front I have recorded 7-spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata), 2-spot Ladybird (Adalia bipunctata), Vine Weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus) as well as several other species of beetle, various woodlice, various Spiders, no end of Flies, Butterflies including but not limited to Large White (Pieris brassicae), Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) and Peacock (Inachis io), and Hover flies a plenty when the above plants are flowering.

Without stepping foot off my drive way this year I have also been treated to House Sparrows () nesting in my next door neighbours eaves and a bee colony taking over a bird box on his wall! - not sure of species, sorry Aculeate Hymenoptera fans, I'll try harder I promise

That's all in a pretty narrow habitat niche, and its not really ALL anyway, just what I have noticed in passing as I've never actually set aside time for any form of formal survey - it also doesn't include the plants which I know are non-native and have just hopped the wall from the neighbours garden. 

If we move back into the garden proper we have a wider range of habitats niches, with a correspondingly wider range of species. Wild flowers (weeds to non-wildlifey folks), including in addition to those also found on the drive species such as Bramble (Rubus fructicosus), Meadow Buttercup (Rananculus acris), Forgot-me-not (Mysotosis sylvatica) and Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), draw in loads of different species of hover flies, bees and butterflies. And who wouldn't be drawn in? Between those 4 species along that's a kaleidoscope of white, yellow, blue and pink.

The next door neighbours Buddleia (Buddleja davidii) lived up to its alternative name of Butterfly Bush by being covered on a regular basis, including Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) - above - Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) and Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria). And not just by butterflies either - the hover flies, obviously vying for a name change for the plant were there in even greater numbers if anything. The Clematis which dominates the hedge on the other side of the garden was hardly less popular, and even more so since the Buddleia received a severe short back and sides.

Shed and garden walls are frequently used as basking spots for flies, and where there are flies you can sure there are spiders - no shortage here, including Zebra jumping spiders (Salticus scenicus), by the way, isn't that a cool name?! No shortage either of woodlice, centipedes, slugs, snails etc etc. The compost bin teems with a wide variety of fly species, although not so much at this time of year, to say nothing of the worms that work there way up into it form the soil below. We've even had the priveledge of a few Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) over the years, though I'm not sure why because there aren't any garden ponds nearby that I know of, nor in fact any sort of water body. 

Despite our extremely urban surroundings we are visited fairly regularly by a Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) or two, which also occasional work their way up the side of the drive way and cross the road to the houses opposite - I've never yet worked out why but there must be some reason. I must admit at this point that I'm not a big fan of 'the grey': partly because of their invasive status and the impact they have had on the native (and much more endearing in my book) Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris), but also professionally, as a woodland manager we are not on speaking terms. However, in an urban environment, long since abandoned by any hint of a red ear tuft, with no young trees to ring bark or nuts to munch through before they ripen up, they do provide a visible 'wild' mammal for people to observe. Whatever your definition of nature the ability to see it, experience it, interact with it is inextricable from our enjoyment of it in my opinion. I well remember my own excitement as a child of seeing a squirrels up close when they visited our housing estate bird table; when I first got a camera squirrels were a regular target - I even managed on one occasion to photograph one doing a handstand! ... OK, so it was actually just jumping off a bird bath, and I, by pure luck, caught it as it had is front feet on the ground and the rest of its body airborne. But that's beside the point. Without some species being visible, easy to spot, identify and watch, where behaviour other than running for cover can be frequently observed, we will find it difficult to inspire a generation of nature lovers. Even if their first fling in the natural world has to be a non-native bully.

Off topic again, my apologies, back to the garden: we were told shortly after moving in that a Fox (Vulpes vulpes) used our garden as a cut through. I have yet to see it, but... a few years back when we had heavy snow I did find a footprint in the garden which could only have been a fox track. So either I need to increase my efforts to catch it in the act, or its stopped using our garden except in desperate circumstances like deep snow. What I should really do is leave the camera trap out there for a while - I keep putting it off because I just know that for every potential fox image I will end up having to sort through hundreds of shots of the ecological terrorists (domestic cats) which seem to have an unshakable belief that my garden is their personal litter box! I must strengthen my resolve and take the plunge though, for the sake of my own curiosity if nothing else.

When we moved in I told myself not to expect too much from our garden from the wildlife side of things, and took solace in the fact that their was a local nature reserve just a few minutes walk away. But I should have allowed myself to hope. Just a month or so after moving in, having started the gargantuan task of sorting out the landfill site located where my garden should have been I heard a familiar cry and looked up to see a Buzzard (Buteo buteo) circling overhead. Some while later I had just come out of the back door, loading the car for some journey or other if I remember correctly, and was again stopped in my tracks by a familiar call, this time from the tree overshadowing our garden from behind. Sure enough a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major) shot out of the tree a few seconds later and away down the row of gardens. Never again have I seen these two visitors from the garden, although I see both quite regularly at my 'local patches' not far away, but they did at least remind me that 'Nature' doesn't read the rule book, and will turn up where it jolly well pleases.

Something we do see regularly are the Magpies (Pica pica) - we hear them regularly too! - because they nest, every year so far, in the large Sycamore tree (Acer psuedoplatanus) behind, much to the distaste of the various small song birds which nest in the tangle of the bushes at the end of the neighbours garden!

Since we moved in I have become far more interested in invertebrates than I was before and these have kept me pretty well occupied for garden wildlife for a few seasons now. I have breezed over them largely because I don't have photos to do the depth of species there justice, something I will aim to remedy for the coming year, but also because a list of species doesn't really tell the story. I'd rather do stories than lists, they're more engaging. And so I shall aim to keep sharing the odd garden story, among the others to remind myself and others than 'Nature' isn't as far away as you may think...

Richard

NB - All of these pictures were taken in my garden.