Worcestershire Wildlife Trust

Doorstep Wildlife

What odd times we’re living through. Whether in your gardens or daily exercise routes I’m sure that, like me, many of you will have been taking comfort in the natural world carrying on as normal whilst our society has been turned on its head. Perhaps this has given you pause for thought, time to reflect on the wild happenings in your Bromsgrove patch?

Certainly for many people that we’ve been chatting to through our digital channels – social media and emails – they’ve been doing exactly that. Nature has brought them comfort and many have noticed wildlife in their gardens that they’ve never spotted before or taken a bit more time to notice the trees and plants in their local area.

Take Bromsgrove resident Richard Clifford (@ Rich_Clifford), for example. In the absence of being able to go to some of his favourite places further afield, he’s been keeping a close eye on the insects using his garden and keeping a watchful look out for wildlife on his daily walks. Even when he’s been indoors he’s been letting nature inspire him by creating artwork of one of his favourite butterflies and he’s invested in one or two new books to help him identify what he’s been finding. The photos used to illustrate my piece in this issue are all his and all from his local patch.

It’s difficult to say whether our actions have had an impact on wildlife. We took the decision to close our nature reserves because it was becoming impossible to ensure social distancing was taking place so perhaps some of the wildlife there has had respite from human visitors. Local peat-free and organic nurseries have been offering deliveries so maybe keen gardeners have been able to plant up for pollinating insects. Other gardeners will have taken the opportunity to tidy their patches – removing ‘scruffy’ but important habitats or disturbing nesting birds by trimming hedges and trees. A drop in pollution levels will certainly have helped us all.

Whatever you’ve been up to and however long this goes on for, please take a moment to head outside where you can safely do so, breathe in, listen to the birds and the bees and take some time to notice the natural world. Then why not join us on social media to join in the #DoorstepWildlife conversations and visit our website for plenty of videos, activities and games to keep you and your families connected to nature www. worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/doorstep-wildlife

Take care and stay safe.

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