August Moths

As well as adventures down by the river, photographing beavers, August has also seen Evelyn and I turning the moth trap on to see what we could find in the garden.

I was really surprised at the different moths that were in the trap, just a few weeks after the last time.

Again, I will reiterate that my knowledge of moths is not a patch on my dad’s, but the more I empty the trap, the more starts to come back to me! If I have identified them wrongly, please do let me know.

Here are some photos of some of the beautiful moths we caught this time.

Burnished Brass

Poplar Hawk-Moth

Spectacle Moth

Orange Swift on my shoe!

And this is my best effort of a full list of what we caught.

Common Wainscot	20
Poplar Hawk-Moth	2
Emerald Moth	1
Burnished Brass Moth	1
European Corn Borer	1
Clay Triple Lines	1
Common Purple and Gold	1
Spectacle Moth	3
Willow Beauty	1
Heart and Dart Moth	4
Setaceous Hebrew Character	1
Mother of Pearl Moth	5
Owlet moth? (I think)	1
Dark Spectacle Moth	1
Common Quaker Moth	1
Common Rustic Moth	2
Silver Y	1
Orange Swift	1
Common Carpet Moth	1

As well as night flying moths, we have also had an influx of hummingbird hawk moths in the garden, and Evelyn has rescued a couple of them from her poly tunnel, where she grows all of her tomatoes.

She seems to have some sort of magic touch,  because after very gently catching them in her hands she lifts her top hand off, and instead of flying away, more than one hummingbird hawk moth and several butterflies have just sat in her hands for a rest, before fluttering away! I’ve never seen that happen before, but she is very pleased with herself.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

And away!

Now the weather is slightly cooler, we are looking forward to turning on the trap once more to see what we can find in September. We will keep you posted.

No moths were harmed in the creation of this blog post! 

Messing about by the river

With the exceptionally hot weather of late, getting outside with the children during daylight hours has felt somewhat of an impossibility, none of us cope well in the heat! So, it was a welcome relief to be able to join our mum, (Julie), and Benno (in his air-conditioned van) last Thursday evening, to sit on the cool banks of the River Stour and see a creature that I have never seen in the wild before...

The main reason for this trip really relates back to my dad, as all of these escapades seem to in some way or another.

As you all know if you have been following this blog for a while, Dylan (my dad) was a really good wildlife photographer, and he took some incredible images of the birds and animals that he found on his wanders through the wild. Here are some examples of how good he was with a camera.

A few weeks before we discovered he was very unwell, he had taken it upon himself to drive all the way to Burgess Hill to buy himself an enormous Cannon EF 600mm 1:4L IS USM lens, as a 70th birthday/ Christmas present. It is almost the same size as me! He always intended to take it out when he was feeling better, but sadly that never happened.

In the last few weeks of his life, when Benno and I said that we would like to continue with this blog, dad was really keen for us to learn to use his camera with the lens and take it out to do some wildlife photography. So, that’s exactly what we did. 

On a very warm summers evening, the three of us drove to a location along the River Stour, I can’t tell you where it is, not because it’s top secret, but because I have no sense of direction! Benno drove, I looked out of the window.

Thankfully our mum, is also a brilliant photographer, so, after we had carried all of the equipment to the riverbank, she was able to show Ben how to set the camera up and use it.

I don’t think that there is much better subject matter to photograph on this river than beavers in the wild. I had never seen one in the wild and I have to say that I was not disappointed, they came so close to us, I was able to film them with my phone. They seemed completely unfazed that three humans and a giant camera lens were staring right at them.

Here are some of the first images that Benno was able to take with dad’s lens. I’m sure dad would have been proud of our efforts and would have probably laughed at Benno carting a lens and a giant tripod up and down the banks of the river! I definitely giggled more than once.

There will be plenty more photos taken with that lens, I’m sure. It was a really special way to spend an evening and to remember dad. I wonder where we will go next…

A change of tactics and a change of fortunes

It was around 04:15 on Sunday morning when I arrived at my chosen swim, the blackness of night just beginning to succumb to the inky blue of dawn on the eastern horizon. The forecast had it being a cooler, overcast day, which suited me just fine.

Perfection.

 A change of tactics was in order, just to see what could be learned, so the prawns had been swapped out for lobworms. I had previously tried to move away from the worms due to the fact that even with a half worm on the hook, it’s too easy for fish to pick up one end of the worm and swim off without the hook in their mouth, leaving me (the frustrated angler) to strike into nothing and spend the rest of the session wondering what I’m doing wrong. Prawns on the other hand are a perfect mouthful, the issues with them being that they’re very soft, so they can be pinched from the hook easily, and, the main one, they’re just not as attractive as lobworms. So, the solution? Chop the worms up as usual, then instead of using a half worm on the hook, use four or five small pieces of worm threaded on to the hook, topped off with a fake maggot to stop them being removed, and bingo, probably the best days fishing of my season so far. I have tried “worm kebabs” previously, where you put small sections of worms on a hair rig, but I had the same issue with fish tugging at the worms without the hook in their mouths. I distinctly remember dad having this exact same epiphany when he was fishing for eels in the past “put the bait on the hook”, simple when you think about it. 

The action was fairly intense from the get-go, I had landed three perch to 1lb and 3 tench to 6lb before 6:30am, then the eels switched on once it got properly light (not the way round it’s supposed to be), I ended up catching 5 eels between 1lb and 2lb 12oz, which is of course not a big eel, but the biggest one I’ve managed by design so far, and it put up a great fight on the 1.5lb barbel rods. God only knows what a 5lb fish would fight like… 

2lb 12oz, must do better with the photography next time.

2lb 6oz.

It was the first day it had been cool enough to wear the jumper again,
coincidence?

These two tench were both in the net at the same time,
my attempts at a "brace shot" were terrible, so singles it is.

All in all, a fabulous days fishing, everything I owned was completely covered in slime and my shed smells like a fishmongers. Can’t wait for next week now! 

Tight Lines,

Benno.

The early bird catches the… Eel?

As you may be able to guess from my lack of blog content recently, I have been struggling. Not only struggling to catch anything blog-worthy, but struggling in this weather, I am not cut out for hot weather, I think that’s why I love pike fishing so much, because it’s always done in the winter when you can add clothing to obtain the correct body temperature. Thankfully my big sister has been filled with the creative sparks required for blog posts lately, so thank you sis x 

My happy place. 

All that said, I have managed a few short sessions down at the syndicate, I decided to start fishing my perch/eel ledger tactics early to try and refine them before the autumn when they will really matter. The result has been a mixed bag, four eels which were all around 2lb, two perch, one of which was around 1lb and one was 8oz if I’m being generous, and of course, an obligatory 7lb tench. The major changes to the tactics for this season are the introduction of circle hooks and floating braid. The circle hooks should hopefully reduce any possibility of deep hooking the fish and the floating braid stays up off of the lake bed so there’s no line drag across the bottom adding resistance to the setup. When I came up with the floating braid plan, I hadn’t accounted for how much desire this line has to float, with the light swingers I use, it can overcome the weight of them and float up to the surface which makes it susceptible to the wind blowing it all over the place. Further research required. 

This fish had a big old frame on her, who knows what she would have gone in peak condition?

Prawns have been my main line of attack so far with this project, I have been reliably informed that if I can catch a 5lb eel, it can go on the honours board in the clubhouse, so that’s the target, I haven’t got myself organised or mentally prepared to be able to fish nights yet, so I realise that the chances of a really big eel are dramatically reduced, I do however get to the lake at 4am, so as the autumn days draw in, I will have a good few hours of darkness to have a go at them. There have been reports of some very big eels falling to the carp anglers baits, so I am definitely in the right place. The advantage of fishing prawns or worms is that everything that lives in that lake loves them, so it’s never certain what might be on the end when that swinger starts to rise, it could be a 12lb tench, a 4lb perch, an 8lb eel or a 50lb carp, all of which would be most welcome! 

There’s a big old snake in there somewhere with my name on it. 

Hopefully we will get some cooler weather and perhaps even some desperately needed rain soon, then my full motivation will return and I can go and get after it properly.

Tight lines,

Benno. 

          

 

Things that eat slugs in the night...

I’d like to begin this post by saying thank you so much to everyone who read my last bit of writing about The Nature of Grief. I’m so pleased that it struck a chord with so many of you, thank you for all of your kind comments.

Often I forget that I’m allowed to grieve for the loss of my dad, and I try to push through it all so that I can get things done, but nature always reminds me of him and it reminds me that I can slow down and just appreciate the calmness and slowness of the world around me. The fact that I’m surrounded by wildlife all the time really helps to ground me and bring me into the present.

Although sometimes being so immersed in so much wildlife can be a bit extreme. For example, the other night there was a frog sitting by the bathroom door when I got out of the shower! (I think it was waiting it’s turn.) And the alarming thing was that I didn’t even question why there was a frog in my house! I just scooped him up in a jug and had a chat with him whilst we walked back to the pond. This is what happens when you have grown up with Dylan as your dad!

The frog who was waiting outside the bathroom for me!

Now, onto the main reason for this post, the night time happenings in the garden…

I can often be found in my garden at night time, watching the bats circling the house, listening to the tawny owls and foxes that I’m lucky enough to have in and around the garden, and looking up at the moon and stars.

Full moon in Aquarius 29.07.26

Hummingbird hawk-moth

There is something about the night time in nature that brings me a huge sense of comfort. Lots of people I know are scared of the dark, but myself and my children revel in it. I have a lot of fond memories of being out in the wild at night with my dad, watching badgers, camping by fishing lakes, or maybe just walking back from the pub! And my own children love to go out for walks at night, even in the winter.

Our resident garden hedgehog

Over the last few very hot summer days, I’ve been outside at night a lot, and I’ve managed to encounter all sorts of creatures. My most favourite of all is definitely our resident garden hedgehog, who wanders around seemingly unbothered by my presence or my smartphone camera.

This hedgehog has been in my garden for a good few months and is doing an excellent job of keeping the slugs from eating my vegetables. It likes to wander between my garden and my neighbours’ garden, snuffling through the plants, looking for food, and it has been known to wander right up to my feet.

I know that I am extremely lucky to have such a special creature sharing my space and I try to do as much as I can to keep it happy and safe. I have a hedgehog house in the garden that my dad built, but so far it has remained empty apart from the hay that I have filled it with. I need to find a good location for it, and hopefully it will be put to good use in the winter.

I don’t really know much about hedgehogs, so if anyone out there would like to give me any advice, please feel free to do that. We have hedges running the full length of our garden, both sides, and access to water in a pond with shallow, sloping sides. The garden is full of slugs and insects and plenty of hiding places. If there is anything else I could do to keep this hedgehog happy, please do let me know.

There’s not much else to report at the moment, we are all recovering from a busy end to the academic year, and also my sons are playing so many gigs, we are a bit run off our feet. Thankfully the garden always provides us with space to relax and unwind day and night.

So for now I will leave you with the news that this blog has now had over 2 million hits. 2140240 to be precise. That’s over half a million since dad’s final post on Christmas Eve last year.
Benno and I are so proud of all his hard work on this blog, and we are aware of the huge responsibility that writing this blog puts on us. I hope we can do him justice; we will certainly do our best.

 Sarah

The Nature of Grief

I’ve been writing these blog posts, so far, from as neutral and factual a standpoint as I possibly can. I have immersed myself and my children in nature, looking at the world in awe, always remembering the infamous words of my dad about, “no miserable shit!”

Those words have brought me a surprising amount of comfort, but as painful as it is to admit, I am still a daughter who is grieving the very recent loss of her father, and sometimes I can't help but to feel the deep sadness that comes with losing a parent.

Benno and I are extremely lucky that our dad instilled in both of us a great love of, and comfort in, the natural world. From the moment we could toddle, dad would take us walking through ancient woodlands to take plaster of Paris casts of the footprints we found, we would travel this country and beyond to watch rare birds, and we spent incredible holidays off grid in France at a fishing lake, completely surrounded by nature for weeks, and so much more. And I know that all of this has helped us both now immensely, because even on the darkest of days, we have both spent time connecting with nature in our own way.  

Holidays in France were the best!

The resident chef

Whenever I am watching the birds or walking through the woods, I always feel like my dad is with me, and I know that he would derive great pleasure from watching Evelyn empty the moth trap, whilst her little brother watched from a “safe” distance! (He’s not so keen on the moths… yet!)

But aside from all the things that I feel, I also know the actual physical and emotional benefits of being in nature for humans, especially at times when we are experiencing grief and loss. This is because, perhaps unsurprisingly as the daughter of Dylan, I am a qualified eco-therapist, which means that I facilitate people spending time in nature in order to heal, and if you would indulge me for a few minutes, I will explain why we find the natural world so healing and what “nature connectedness” is.

Nature connectedness is more than just time spent outside; it’s about how you spend that time outside developing your relationship with nature. A person who lives in a city and spends 20 minutes a day outside feeding the wildlife and observing the plants growing through the cracks of a wall is more connected to nature than a person who lives in the countryside and goes on long country walks whilst taking business calls on their phone.

Nature connectedness is a measurable, psychological construct, studied by Professor Miles Richardson and his team at the University of Derby. It can vastly improve happiness and wellbeing in humans in a short space of time, and this has knock-on positive effects for nature.

Professor Richardson and his team created five simple pathways to nature connectedness, which are extremely easy to incorporate into everyday life.

The five pathways to nature connectedness are:

Senses: Taking time to tune into nature through the senses

Emotion: How does nature make you feel?

Beauty: Noticing natures beauty

Meaning: Nature brings meaning to our lives

Compassion: Caring for and taking action for nature

The more I studied the art of nature connectedness, the more fascinated I became by this deep, instinctive connection that we have with the natural world around us.

Did you know that listening to birdsong can improve your mood and lessen anxiety, placing your hands on trees lowers cortisol levels in the body, and forest bathing has a positive effect on blood pressure, heart rate and your immune system? These are just a few examples of the huge impact connecting with the natural world has on us.

One of my previous work spaces

Obviously, my dad would have rolled his eyes at this and would have simply said, “we call that going outside, Fanny Anne,” I can hear his voice as I type those words, but I think, whether he believed in the science of nature connectedness or not, he absolutely immersed himself in the natural world, particularly when he was going through hard times, and he certainly felt the benefits of being in nature. It was a place where his soul felt completely at home, and I’m so grateful that he shared his passion for nature with me, because it enables me to feel like I am always connected with him.

Specifically relating to grief, the power of nature is undeniable. Wilshire Wildlife Trust has a page on their website all about nature connectedness and grief and they write:

“For those who are grieving, connectedness in nature can offer many benefits and aid healing:

It can remind us of the continuum of life and that we and our loved one are still part of something greater than ourselves that goes on existing without us.

It provides a place and space to attend to our grief without intrusion from the ongoing demands of work, family and everyday responsibilities.

It can promote mindfulness, allowing the grieving person to anchor themselves in a moment by physically touching, smelling and listening to nature.

It allows us to disconnect from technology and find quiet, solitude and comfort in life rhythms that are natural, soothing and restorative.

It reminds us of the beauty that can be found all around us - even in our grief, it can be comforting to realise that beauty still exists.

The sights and sounds of nature can offer distraction from a cycle of difficult thoughts.”

The healing benefits of nature for people experiencing grief | Wiltshire Wildlife Trust

For me, personally, being in nature reminds me that life goes on; the sun will rise and set, the moon and stars will remain in the sky, the seasons will change, and somehow, in amongst it all, I get to experience the wonder of being alive.

I am grateful that I get to wake up every day and spend time with my children, that I can pick and eat food that we have grown, that I can listen to the dawn chorus each day, and that I got to spend 45 years and 317 days with my dad, even if we didn’t spend as much time together as maybe we could have. He was and is always with me.

I know that I am not the only one who turns to the natural world when I want to feel close to my dad, I’ve had so many messages and photos from people saying that they have just seen a certain bird or walked around a certain nature reserve and seen something that reminded them of my dad. I’m so happy that so many people remember him that way.

If you are grieving the loss of a loved one, I really hope that this blog has helped you a little bit. Even if you can’t go on a wild adventure, simply feeding the birds, looking at plants and animals, or sitting outside for 20 minutes will help you connect with nature, and hopefully help you to feel a little bit better.

Thank you for indulging me, normal blog service will resume shortly, I just thought I would share this in case it helps somebody.

Sarah. X 

 

 

 

A nice surprise at Gazen Salts

 

Yesterday marked a momentous day for myself and my family, as it was my youngest son’s last day at Primary School. As you can imagine, it was emotional, but there is also now a sense of relief that we have made it to the end of one of the busiest terms of the year! We are definitely all ready for a break.

To keep myself and my other children occupied as we awaited the end of term school service, we went for a little wander around a local nature reserve in Sandwich, called Gazen Salts. We stopped off at the Co-op to buy some duck food and made our way along The Butts and towards “Gallows Field” (yes it does have as grizzly a history as its name suggests), and along the path into the nature reserve.

 As I think we have now established, I don’t have the same depth of knowledge of the natural world that my dad had, I’m sure he would have seen and heard more than me, but I do my best when I am out to connect with the natural world as much as possible, and this day was no exception.

 

Hungry ducks at Gazen Salts

We wandered down to the wildlife pond to feed the ducks who live there and spent some time watching the hungry birds and a friendly brown rat that kept appearing from the undergrowth! He didn’t seem that bothered by our presence, and he posed nicely for some photos.

 

Fearless!

Evelyn led the way around the nature reserve, and we stopped to listen to the birds and look at the insects that surrounded us in this beautiful environment. We did look for the resident beavers, but we couldn’t find any, however we did hear and/or see all these birds:

 

·        Green Woodpecker

·        Mistle thrush

·        Chiffchaff

·        Blackbird

·        Great tit

·        Long tailed tit

·        Bullfinch

·        Jackdaw

·        Collared- Dove

·        Wood pigeon

·        Magpie

·        Robin

·        Blackcap

As this was only a fleeting visit, we were only there for around 45 minutes, but on the way out, Evelyn took us into a wildflower meadow at the reserve, and as we walked around, we found a mat that had been put down for reptiles to hide under.

Being braver than me, Evelyn lifted the mat whilst I held the camera, only to find two large slow worms laying beneath it. That was a nice surprise and it made our day! I took a couple of photos on my phone and then we carefully replaced the mat and left them in peace, before heading home for some lunch. It was a good end to our spontaneous visit.

Slow worms at Gazen Salts