Nature On Your Doorstep

As I’m out and about between gardening clients, allotment or just walking the streets, I often notice strange bugs and interesting wildlife. For anyone that says British fauna is not interesting, they need to stop talking and start looking. We are surrounded by creatures, even more so as we encroach on their habitat forcing them to live among us. From the larger urban foxes and snuffling hedgehogs, to the small insects such as damsel flies and ants. When you take the time to actually stop and notice, it suddenly becomes apparent just how much is actually there.

I always have my phone on me and have started to record what I see, more out of sheer curiosity more than anything else. I fact dear Leone has now started to call me Wervert (Wildlife Pervert) because I always have my phone at the ready and spend ages inspecting even the tiniest of creature. But why not? Why not appreciate life around us? We can certainly learn from it and the more you start to look, the more you will begin to notice.

I was ecstatic the other day when I found the most amazing crab spider. Having read a multitude of Gerald Durrell books when I was young, I was always intrigued by these little arachnids that sat and waited to ambush prey, changing colour to suit their habitat as they did so. And then, whilst clipping back a particularly overgrown St. John’s Wort I found it….a bright yello crab spider, the size of my thumb nail, with a damsel fly clenched in its mouth. Wonderful! The joys of urban wildlife.