I live in a 2-year-old new-build in Gawcott.  The front was a horrible desert – completely block-paved.  We ripped up the block paving, re-laying just enough to serve as a driveway, and returned the rest back to nature as far as we could. We chose to put a rowan tree in – to be honest, in the very ambitious hope that we might get waxwings in winter one day.  It flowered like mad this spring and the berries are coming on well.

I was amazed to do a bit of “washing-up time” birding from the kitchen window today and see a blackbird already setting about the berries.  It might not be my target bird but I was still very pleased to see that when you invite nature in, it will come.

(Not a great photo but not bad, given I was up to my elbows in washing up suds the minute before!)

Sue Hetherington
July 2020