In a recent Facebook post, Julie Crabb spoke about a Great Spotted Woodpecker that had come to a feeder near her window: “A wonderfully entertaining visitor at my working from home office window this morning.” In another post, Thomas Anderson said about deer running past his kitchen window: “Felt very privileged to see these two […]
What’s the big deal about finding or seeing something that is rare? What does it tell us about the local natural environment when a rare species turns up? The answer is that sometimes the presence of a rarity signals something significant about the local environment, but in other cases it has no significance in this […]
“Gosh, that looks just like …. “: a bee, a leaf, a flower, a stick, or something else. “But, it’s not!” Sometimes, nature can deceive you into thinking you are seeing something else, or not seeing anything at all. A moth, sat on a branch, may blend in so well with the branch, that you […]
Borage and Bees It is sometimes known as Starflower because of the distinctive shape of its flower. However, the other name for Borage reveals why it is considered to be such a wildlife-friendly plant: Bee’s Bread. All sorts of bees will visit this plant. No bee-friendly garden should be without at least one Borage plant. There are three […]
An acid-green, wildlife-friendly plant When I first moved to Bredfield, I was on the lookout for plants and flowers to put in the garden. With many other house-moving matters to think of, I wasn’t always very systematic about what I chose. Whilst driving though Boulge one day, a house there was selling plants outside. I […]
Several Bredfield residents took part in this year’s RSPB Big Garden Watch. Watching and counting garden birds during this annual event is a delight but, in recent years, the edge has been taken off this delight when the results reveal a decline in some of our favourite garden birds. Perhaps the saddest news is that […]
Herbs are an important element of wildlife gardening and this is especially true for mint. Mint is great for bees, hoverflies and some butterflies, and you’ll find lots of culinary uses for it too: herbal tea, mint sauce, salad ingredient, and spicing up those boiled potatoes. The only problem with mint is that it is […]
After 140 years of absence, Ravens are returning to Suffolk and, this year, they have been seen in Bredfield. On 1st March 1921, Paul Wigens was alerted by a distinctive ‘gronk, gronk’ call above. When he looked up, three Ravens were flying overhead. They were seen twice again the same day, and once again the […]
Several types of tree have catkins – including Alder, White Willow and Silver Birch – but the earliest to appear in the year are the familiar golden-coloured Hazel catkins. Bunches of Hazel catkins, drooping from branch twigs, can be seen from January to March. The catkins are the male flowers of the Hazel tree and, if you look very close, […]
