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"Teach me half the gladness in a turtle dove’s song, For it must know in its heart that the world is listening on such a summer day” PK The countryside and our gardens have been full of baby bids calling from within hedgerows or high up in the trees waiting for their hard -working parents to feed them. It is safer for these youngsters than remaining in their old nest, as the noise they make will attract crows, magpies and sparrow hawks, all on the lookout for a free meal. Nature is red in tooth and claw! 

Even during the worst days of ‘lockdown’, people were keen to record on camera or just to watch and listen, as nature provided some wonderful sights and sounds, For instance, a camera trap that caught a fox cub and a hedgehog sharing food from a dog’s bowl, a pair of robins that built a nest in a gardener’s coat pocket in a tool shed and fledged five youngsters . And a swift that was re-launched from a bedroom window by my granddaughter after it misjudged the entrance to its nest and landed on her bed. 

Nature has certainly given us a lift and helped us through a difficult time. High up on the hills the meadow brown and skipper butterflies dance over the grass and the blue flowers of the harebell are making a show. Old country names include ‘witch bells’ and there have been some connection with the hare as an animal associated with witchcraft. They are known as Scottish bluebells north of the border.

Philip Kedward

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