Nature In Your Own Street

When we were living in Sutton, Surrey, Steve and I regularly used to get parakeets in the garden. The area was renown for them and it was nothing unusual to see half a dozen or more squabbling over the birdfeeders and whole flocks flying over on their way to roost. The emerald green of their feathers made them hard to miss, as did the racket they used to make sometimes. But we never got tired of seeing them and I have photos galore somewhere in the archives of these new birds of the suburbs.

Sadly since moving to Westcliff, we have seen nothing of the parakeets and in fact it took us a while to start spotting any species of wildlife in our area. We didn't even see a fox for the first six months or so after we arrived. Then of course, as reported on here over a year ago, we found our garden being systematically decimated by badgers. It took us a while to work out what these powerful creatures must be to dig such deep holes under our fences, but once we realised it was clearly a tale of two emotions; loathe them for the damage they were creating or love them for the unfamiliar sight they were. I will never forget the night I sat at my kitchen door at two in the morning watching three badgers snuffle about on our patio. That was the closest I had ever got to such elusive animals.

Maybe our stay-at-home messages have made urban wildlife bolder, as it has become decidedly easier right now to see it. We looked out of our bedroom window a couple of weeks ago and spotted a whole family of foxes in next door's garden, four lively little cubs all tumbling over one another under the watchful eye of their mum. And to top it all off, just a couple of mornings ago, what should I see waddling up our road but a duck with eight little ducklings trailing, in single file, after her. I was so ridicuously excited by this that I took several photos of their progress. Then did nothing but show those photos all day, including to Steve who kind of wondered why I was waggling my mobile phone in front of his face when I got home. Take a look around your area; I'll bet you'll be surprised. And just listen to all that birdsong everyday. I mean really; how lucky are we?