by willoughbypc | May 12, 2017 | Natural History Page, Nature & Wildlife
There is a whole world of grasses at our feet waiting to be explored and appreciated as part of the scenery and of our rural environment. If we count the cereal crops, which we should include because botanically and genetically they belong amongst the grasses, then 26...
by willoughbypc | May 12, 2017 | Church, Natural History Page
The thought that a church yard is full of echoes of the history of its parish and of rural England is deeply embedded in our culture, and I feel conscious of it whenever I sit on the seat for a rest and a think, or cut the west hedge. The sentiment appears in...
by willoughbypc | May 12, 2017 | Natural History Page, Nature & Wildlife
Willoughby has no formally designated wild flower gardens, though some gardens are semi-wild by default, including mine. In its wildness some cowslips mysteriously colonised my front lawn many years ago, and with no encouragement beyond taking care to avoid them with...
by willoughbypc | May 11, 2017 | Natural History Page, Nature & Wildlife
I think I have identified over 40 species of bird in Willoughby in recent years, but I dare say that there are many residents, far more expert in ornithology, who could name many more. Of all the vertebrate wild animal life, it is probably the birds which attract the...
by willoughbypc | Apr 12, 2017 | Autumn, Natural History Page, Nature & Wildlife
“To autumn” by John Keats (1792-1821) must surely be one of the most quoted poems in English, with its “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. But what of our local natural history in autumn, and of its fruitfulness? As drivers we’re not always pleased to see the...
