Five books on my nature writing reading list!

 

Losing Eden by Lucy Jones; one of the books on my reading list (photo from personal collection)

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During these colder months, with the sun setting in the early evening/late afternoon, I do enjoy settling in with a good book. And so, I thought I might share some of the nature and wildlife writing on my reading list. With Christmas on the way, maybe you'll find a stocking filler below, or maybe you'll spot a familiar favourite. Let me know in the comments!

1. The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes

I sit here, unsure as to whether I should be including this book on a list of books on nature and wildlife writing. But, as someone who mostly explores nature and wildlife on the public footpaths, rambling and stumbling along in all sorts of weather, I do feel it is appropriate.

This book takes a look at that land that is unknown to the vast majority of us because we are banned from setting foot upon it; the blurb tells us that "by law of trespass, we are excluded from 92 per cent of the land and 97 per cent of its waterways." 

I include this book here for those, like me, whose love of nature and wildlife is nurtured and explored in walking the land of our country (the UK).

You can purchase The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes here.

2. Losing Eden : Why Our Minds Need The Wild by Lucy Jones

I absolutely loved Lucy Jones' Foxes Unearthed, and wanted this book as soon as I heard of its release.

If this book is anything like the one she wrote on the UK's red fox, I imagine that I will be left inspired to get out there, into nature, with an even greater desire for, and a greater understanding of, our nature and wildlife.

This book provides evidence of how nature benefits us as individuals - how it makes us happier, healthier, and calmer. Lucy Jones is a writer I would whole-heartedly and enthusiastically recommend to anyone interested in nature and wildlife writing!

You can purchase Losing Eden by Lucy Jones here.

3. What Nature Does For Britain by Tony Juniper

If the last entry on the list takes the view that nature benefits us as individuals because of its affect on our physical health, our mental health, and our general wellbeing, then this book takes a look at how nature benefits us as a whole because of how it saves us money and effort.

We find that the work nature does is estimated to be worth about £1.5 trillion each year, and yet we still do damage to the natural systems that provide us with food and water.

In this book, Juniper provides evidence of how nature and wildlife support us, and the work that is being done to repair damage that has been done to those vital natural systems. 

You can purchase What Nature Does For Britain by Tony Juniper here.

4. Village Christmas and Other Notes on the English Year by Laurie Lee

In this collection of writings from Laurie Lee, the author of Cider With Rosie, is a portrait of England throughout the year and seasons. Though this book is more a collection of writings on the sights, sounds, and landscapes of England that the author experienced and loved, rather than purely nature writing, there are found within writings on subjects that lovers of nature and rural life will recognise. With titles such as My Country Childhood; The Lake District; and, A Cold Christmas Walk in the Country, there are a number of beautifully written little portraits of the English rural and natural landscape here that the nature and wildlife lover can enjoy.

You can purchase Village Christmas and Other Notes on the English Year by Laurie Lee here.

5. The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane

I end this list as I started it - leaning quite heavily into my love of walking to justify this book choice. Still, as I say, my love of walking and nature are intertwined.

And this book is perfect for those with an appreciation for a solitary path, for those that stop still when they hear a call or spot some sign of life.

I think this might be essential reading for the enthusiastic follower of footpaths and lover of nature.

You can purchase The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane here.

Thank you for reading. You can support my writing with a coffee on ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me reading and writing.

Do you know the way in John Bunyan Country?

 

The River Great Ouse, Bedford. (Photo from personal collection)

Sitting on a bench beside the river, I eat a wrap that I bought from the Tesco store not too far behind me, and I munch quite contentedly on the imitation hoisin "meat", made from pea protein, and spring onion. Before me, the river is quiet, a couple of coots (Fulica atra) passing by. I think that they consider coming over - maybe I have something they might like - but they don't. There's a fisherman on the other side of the river and I wonder if he'll take care to remove any rubbish he has with him. I hope so. I am going to - finishing my food, I put the cardboard and film container into my backpack. Before standing and continuing on my way, I look around me. The path behind me is as quiet as the river; tree lined, yellow leaves litter the muddy footpath, and sounds from above promise the presence of squirrels and something corvid up there. I do quite like a quiet path.

After ten minutes or so of walking, the path thankfully not too muddy and churned up, I arrive at Cardington Lock Bridge, and I am on my way towards leaving Bedford's Priory Country Park. There is an information board about the engineer and the building of the lock on my right as I leave the park, but I don't stop to read - I have before but the information hasn't really penetrated. I am not particularly interested in engineering. I am more interested in the waterfowl - Canadian geese, swans, Egyptian geese, moorhen, coots, etc.

I was once in a relationship with a young woman who could not understand why I enjoyed walking so much. She didn't see the point in walking muddy footpaths to nowhere. Because, she was right, there never really is a destination. It's just about the walking, the journey. When I left the flat earlier, I knew where I was going and I knew the route I was going to walk, I have walked it before, but I wasn't heading out to get somewhere. It's about what you might see. Perhaps that's hard to understand for anyone that has to have a destination to their journey, but I think the nature and wildlife lovers will understand - the keen photographers that will sit for ages, camera poised, waiting for that perfect shot; the birdwatcher in their hide, binoculars round their neck, a notebook and pencil in front of them, watching quietly; the gardener that is constantly maintaining their garden and watching for the visitors to come. It's not about the destination, it's about the experience, about being in the moment. As I walk, I watch the nature - river, sky, trees, birds, etc. - about me, and in my mind I consider that relationship I had with that young woman, amongst others. I wonder where she is now, if she's okay, the conversation we might have now if were walking together . . .

Leaving the park, I am heading in to a short stretch through a modern business park. There's a few cars in the car parks and some that pass by on the roads that connect the various buildings, but it's otherwise quiet. Amongst some trees I hear some rustling in the leaf litter and imagine that it is probably a grey squirrel. Stopping and looking for it between the trees, I think I spot it but, as I concentrate on the shape in the leaves, being very still, I realise it is actually just some piece of rubbish. I can't tell what it is exactly, but I am not particularly surprised that there is rubbish there. I have mused sadly on the fact, along a number of footpaths, that rather than flowers adding colour to the green grass and hedgerows, it is the lurid plastic wrappers and drinks cans. I pick up what I can, when I can do so hygienically and safely, but I don't blame those people that just walk by - you'd be stuck all day in some spots and barely make a difference if you stopped to pick up everything you saw.

The business park and some roadside walking behind me, I am making my way towards Cardington, an attractive village with a church, a pub, and some old cottages grouped around a village green. If I had a companion, I might suggest walking into the village proper and see about having a drink at the pub, but I am walking alone today, so I turn right along Harrowden Lane, and away from Cardington village. The fields on my left are made a little more significant than other fields might be by the famous Cardington hangars that sit on the landscape. Their history of great significance to the village of Cardington but, I'm afraid, the thing that sits forefront in my mind with regards to these sheds is their featuring in the opening of Christopher Nolan's 2012 Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises - sorry, I'm a greater film nerd than I am a history nerd.

The hangars are pretty familiar to me and I don't really pay them much attention. Instead my eyes are drawn by two birds in one of the fields I am passing - Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca). They are, in my opinion, quite pretty birds. They are pale brown and grey in colouring, with a distinctive brown patch around their eyes. Their feet and bills are pinkish in colour. According to the RSPB website, they were introduced as an ornamental wildfowl species but escaped and now breed in a feral state. I only began to notice their presence in Bedfordshire about four or five years ago, along the river. My view of the pair in the field I am passing is broken by hedgerow and eventually I lose sight of them.

Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca), beside the river in Bedford. (Photo from personal collection)

Road side walking takes me by fields and farms. There is some significance for me here, along this stretch of road; this is where, only a few years back, that I saw and heard a lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) for the first time. It's peewit, call that I had heard overhead, had been new to my ears and I was very excited by this new experience. What a joy to discover that you can still feel joy and excitement for something so simple! 

Following my route, I am taken along more roadside, I see more fields, and more farm.

Eventually, I am walking through a small meadow and then along a tree lined path. Like the path I walked earlier, beside the river, this one is littered with leaves. However, it is also littered with rubbish here and there - in the trees I see rubbish of all sorts discarded. It's saddening. It's frustrating. It's angering. I've heard it said before that if our buildings and works of art were treated with such disrespect, great efforts would be made to restore them and to see that such injustice could never be done again. When it comes to our nature and wildlife however, we seem quite happy to leave it be and let the merest slap of the wrist be enough as a deterrent to would be ruiners of our natural spaces.

Rubbish spotted by the stream and park on the way in to Elstow - in this blogger's opinion, a shameful sight. (Photo from personal collection)

Elstow, with its old timber-framed cottages lining the main street, is picturesque. On warmer days than this one, I would head to the green and rest a while perhaps. But today is cold, and grey, so I carry on. Walking through Elstow, passing the pub, the post office across the road, and people's homes, I come into Bedford. And, from here, the walk does feel a lot more town than village, a lot more urban than rural. There are less trees and more concrete. The path I am walking is lined with shops, petrol stations, takeaways, etc. Useful and fun, but nowhere near as beautiful as the river and the trees and the sky. At least in my opinion. 

There are still things to see. A dog - I love dogs! - gets my attention when it comes to the gate outside it's home. It's a brown Labrador and seems friendly enough. I put my hand to the gate, not sticking my fingers through but just letting my fist rest against the metal bars of the gate. The dog licks me sheepishly, I look up from the dog, over the waist-high gate, but see no people there. They ought to be careful, I think, dog thieves aren't as gentle or careful as I am, and all I want is to say hello. 

Back in town, I head towards home, stopping at shops to pick up something for dinner. It's odd to go from the quiet rural footpaths to the much more densely populated town, sort of jarring. And I don't know if it's sad or not that more people don't make use of the muddy paths. After all, the quiet and solitude on those paths is part of the appeal to me and, as some of the rubbish and littering indicates, the paths might already be getting more than enough of the wrong sort of attention anyway. 

There's joy and sadness on those footpaths. I wish for more of the first and less of the latter as I head home.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this read, you can support me with a coffee on ko-fi.com - the caffeine fuels my walks, before I return to my keyboard to tell you all about them! Thank you!

Discover how to create spaces for wildlife in your garden with FREE materials!

 

European garden spider (Araneus diadematus), drinking from a raindrop on the underside of some garden furniture. (Photo from personal collection)

Here, on this little nature blog, we've looked at ways in which one can create spaces in their garden for nature before. It isn't a new topic, and it is one I may return to again. Garden space in the UK covers more land than all of our nature reserves combined, so if each of us set aside just a portion of our gardens for the benefit of nature and wildlife it would make a real difference.

In this post, we will be looking specifically at some of the ways in which one can acquire the materials for creating spaces in their gardens for free!

1. Facebook, Freegle, Freecycle . . .

I know that Facebook is a tad problematic for some, and with good reason, but it is the social media platform on which, in my experience, it is easiest to reach local people. And I have discovered a number of pages on the platform dedicated to either selling items cheaply or items that people are prepared to give away for free. In a world where people are trying to be more conscious of the impact they have, people are quite happy to give away items they have no use for themselves, rather than throwing them away.

Freecycle is a nonprofit organisation whose purpose is to divert reusable items from landfills by encouraging people to pass on or "gift" items that are still useable to others. You should also see Freegle, which works in a very similar way. If you sign up to the site, you can then leave a post to either state that you are looking for something or that you have something you are willing to give away. If you need a bird box, put a post up and wait. You never know, somebody might have one that has just been sitting in their shed for a while. If you want to create a space for insects, a "bug hotel", you may need materials such as logs, pots, or bricks; items that some people have sitting around, materials surplus to jobs they've had done, and would be more than happy for someone to come and take away for them!

Link to Freegle - https://www.ilovefreegle.org/browse

Link to Freecycle - https://www.freecycle.org/

2. Flytippers and litterbugs!

I love to go out walking but I hate, hate, hate the litter and piles of rubbish I find along some of the routes I take!

However, perhaps there is something in those piles of rubbish that might be useful to the gardener wanting to create a space for nature . . . Hmm . . .

Okay, so sifting through another persons rubbish might not sound appealing but, as mentioned above, sometimes, when you want to create a space for nature, all you need is materials such as brick, wood, or pots. Now, unfortunately, some people, rather than disposing of items properly, or signing up to sites like Freecycle, will dump their surplus materials on the side of a road or country lane. I hate it, as I said, but before reporting it to the local council, are there materials there that might be useful to you, and can you transport them safely?

I wouldn't encourage you to just grab hold of anything you have found if there's any doubt in your mind about hygiene and safety (certainly don't go digging into piles of rubbish with your bare hands!), but if you stumble across some planks of wood or something similar and it would make an ideal addition to your bug hotel, for example, why not?

You'll be taking care of two problems at once essentially - removing rubbish and creating space for nature in your garden!

3. Leaving things be

One of the easiest ways to create space for free is to do nothing, or a little less of something.

For example, leaving the lawn mower in the shed or mowing less of your lawn, letting grass and flowers grow instead. After all, nothing knows how to create space for nature better than nature itself - it did just fine before we came along, and I imagine it'll do much better once we're gone!

If you've fruit bearing trees, let the windfall stay where it is - moths, butterflies, birds, squirrels, foxes . . . plenty of wildlife will enjoy the meal. Allow things to be a little untidy. 

Of course, to enjoy our gardens, there will be a need to create some tidy areas (for playing sports, space to just sit and enjoy the garden, etc.), but people are starting to ask the questions, "Is there really much beauty in the dead monoculture that is a perfectly manicured lawn? Or, can at least some of that space be given to our wildlife that is in need? Isn't a garden full of life better for everyone?"

Doing nothing, or a little less, is sometimes the best thing that you can do. And, it's free!

4. Jars, candle holders, pots, pans, broken barrows . . .

Okay, so this one isn't technically one hundred per cent free, since you probably paid for these items when you desired or needed them for their original purpose, unless they were a gift. But, once the jars have been emptied of jam, or the kitchen pans have been replaced, why not reuse those items? Give them a new life and help nature out?

You don't need a garden to help nature, and if you have a balcony, why not take some of those emptied jars or candle holders, clean them out, and use them to grow some wildflowers? Fill the jars with some peat-free multi-purpose compost, pop in a couple of seeds (depending on the size of your container), and you've created a home for flowers and a space for nature. 

This practice of recycling can be very useful for the gardener that is conscious of nature and wildlife. A broken wheelbarrow can make a pretty good trough for a mini meadow, or maybe even a miniature pond (just remember to allow for the fact that little creatures will need a means of getting in and out of water).

Before you throw away some of the items that have outworn their original uses, get creative and ask yourself if those shelves, the empty jars, or that broken wheelbarrow can be repurposed.

If you have any ideas yourself, or if you have put into practice any of the above suggestions, I would love to hear about them in the comments. You could spark someone's imagination!

Thank you for reading - if you enjoyed this piece, you can buy me a coffee on ko-fi.com. The caffeine keeps me searching for materials and pottering around in the garden, before coming back here to write al about it! Thank you!

Want to help nature in your garden?

 

Cuttings can provide a space for wildlife in those nooks and crannies

Do you want to do something for the nature in your garden? Maybe even attract some wildlife that you haven't seen before?

If you had tried to get me interested in gardening when I was younger, I might have unenthusiastically plodded along, but I would have found it a dull and uninteresting chore. I was much more interested in animal life than I was in plant life. 

Animal life is dynamic, exciting, and even violent; all the dramas and thrills a growing boy finds captivating!

However, I got older and ever so slightly wiser, and I came to understand that the spaces outside our homes are important to the wildlife we share our spaces with. Gardens in the UK cover an area greater than all of our National Nature Reserves combined; those spaces just outside our doors are of huge importance!

Bird food, feeders, and water

A bird's life demands a lot of energy all year round, and the bird feeders in our gardens are a great source of food for many species. 

In spring, as birds are mating and raising young, there is an obvious need for food. However, during the colder months of autumn and winter, as nature's abundance wanes, birdfeeders will keep our winged garden visitors well fed.

In spring, consider putting out some soaked mealworms for the nesting birds; baby birds get all the water they need to survive from their food.

If you sit for a while, watching the visitors that come to your feeders, and do a little research, you can adjust the food you provide depending on the birds in your area and the time of year. But do remember that, whatever you put in your feeders, the best feeders are clean feeders - unclean feeders are hotspots for spreading diseases and parasites.

Leaf mould/cuttings cage

Here in the UK, as the fifth of November approaches and people are preparing for Bonfire Night, the reminders from conservationists and wildlife groups goes out - remember to check your bonfires before you light them!

Why?

Because small animals like hedgehogs and toads love to tuck themselves away into spaces like that provided by the leaf litter and cuttings from which people typically build their bonfires. As the colder months draw in, these small animals are looking for a snug and safe space for hibernation. They are unaware, of course, that human beings build up these safe spaces only to burn them up!

A leaf mould cage or a space in the garden where you can pile your cuttings will provide the perfect space for these small animals and insects to tuck themselves away.

You can find plans for building a leaf mould cage here, on the RSPB website.

Fallen fruit

If you have an apple tree in your garden, the windfall that lays upon the ground is going to be a real treat for a number of garden visitors!

As well as insects and birds, fallen fruit might just attract the attention of foxes, mice, and squirrels.

The ripe and browning fruits are a sugary treat for many. And, if you don't have a tree in your garden, you can always cut up a couple of store bought apples and pears, and scatter them on your lawn.

A pond

A pond doesn't have to be large, and it doesn't even have to be dug into the ground. You can create a pond out of containers of varying sizes, right from the size of an old washing up bowl up to larger storage boxes.

If you are able to dig a pond, plot a size in the ground to accommodate your container and, after the hole is dug, lower your container in, making sure it is snug in the ground. However, if you have a container, you can simply create your pond without digging at all.

With the container, you will need some washed sand, pebbles, rocks, and aquatic oxygenating plants. Not only will pebbles make the bottom of your pond look pleasing to the eye, they also provide a space for helpful bacteria to grow that help to keep the water clean. Larger rocks provide cover and shelter for any creatures that come to inhabit your pond. And oxygenating plants make it habitable.

Also, remember that a sloped side, created with pebbles and rocks, will provide a means of exit for any animals that fall into the water.

If you do nothing else for nature in your garden, a pond is going to provide plenty for so many different forms of life that you can rest easy knowing full well you have done something great for nature and wildlife in your area!

Nest boxes

One of the problems with human beings is that we just cannot leave things alone!

If something starts falling down or has some holes in it, we want to take it down or fill it in; we love our spaces to be neat and tidy. However, birds like swallows appreciate very much the little holes in our barns and sheds. 

Unfortunately, the ways in which we have been building our infrastructure and managing land has been to the detriment of nesting animals. Spaces have been fragmented or lost entirely. 

However, with some builds implementing such materials as living walls and nest bricks into planning and construction, hopefully we are beginning to understand that building with nature in mind is going to have to be the way forward.

If you have space in your garden, putting up a nest box, providing the space for nesting animals, can be a real help. Different species will require that the box be of a different shape and placed in different spots, depending on their particular style of flight, anatomy, and behaviour. If you do a little research into the animal you want to provide a nest box for before you make a purchase and put up your box, you are less likely to be disappointed.

And, don't forget bats - they will appreciate a nest box as much the birds!

The RSPB website provides more information on providing nesting spaces here.

They also provide plans for building a bat box here, or you can purchase one from their online shop.

Meat

As well as seeds and fruits, you can provide some meat in a dish on the ground of your garden for those visitors more inclined to a carnivorous diet.

If you are lucky enough to have foxes and/or badgers visiting your garden, both of these animals will appreciate a bit of cooked chicken. And the smaller, but equally as charming, hedgehogs will love a bit of dog food or a can of tuna fish.

If you especially want to attract hedgehogs, consider placing the food underneath a covering or makeshift "hedgehog hotel", so that cats and other larger animals cannot get at the food and hassle the prickly and snuffling creatures. 

And, finally . . .

Clean water will be appreciated by any visitor to your garden.

And please consider that, if you leave food out in the hope of attracting a certain visitor to your garden, you may end up attracting less welcome creatures. Be observant and consider your options if you want to deter cats and rats (options such as the hedgehog hotel mentioned earlier).

Maintaining cleanliness, and clearing away old food, will go some way towards keeping any unwelcome visitors to a minimum. Cleaning feeding stations also minimises the risk of spreading disease and parasites amongst wild animal populations. 

Finally, please consider that, though you may be enamoured of the local wildlife that visits your garden, others might not look on wild animals quite so kindly. I understand the desire to have a connection with nature and wildlife, but try to maintain distance between yourselves and wild animals as much as possible. Once an animal's inhibitions around humans are lost, they may not be able to tell the difference between friendly people and those that are not welcoming of the attention. And if an animal that has been taught human space is a source of food becomes seen as a pest by others, because we have invited it in to our spaces, it may end up coming to harm through our intended kindness.

I hope you enjoyed this read. If you found anything entertaining or informative therein, you can support my writing with a coffee on ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me pottering around in the garden, before I return to the keyboard to write all about it! Thank you!

What I'd do with £5,000 . . .

 

A stretch of footpath along the Ouse Valley Way in Bedfordshire

A few days ago, the eleventh of November, to be precise, it was my birthday. And, you know, I spent the day completely alone. Nobody called. Nobody dropped by. And, apart from a minute or two of conversation in the evening, just because I happened to cross paths with someone, I didn't speak with anyone.

And so, for a few days, I have been in a funk and feeling really shitty . . .

The Ouse Valley Way

This long distance walking route stretches from Northamptonshire all the way to Kings Lynn, on the coast. And, perhaps I have mentioned this before, I have a bit of a desire to walk the whole thing. It wouldn't be the greatest hiking achievement of all time, but it would be mine.

One thing that keeps me from taking off  on this walking adventure is a lack of funds; a long distance journey like this is going to mean needing a place to lay my head at the end of each day, and stopping for food and water. And, seeing as I have just had to endure a lonely and miserable birthday, I am inclined towards thinking that, rather than practising generosity, I would spend a little extra money on that little adventure!

Walking and dreaming

I grew up in the countryside and, being an awkward and introverted type, I found joy in wandering the footpaths there. They were a place where all the expectations and wants could fall away. They were a place where I could find a little peace and joy.

From that love, and from my being a dreamer, came the fantasy of taking off and drifting footpaths for a long time. Weeks or maybe even months. But I never did it, partly because of the lack of funds and partly because I was afraid. And there's always something sensible and joyless to do instead.

The route

I might just start from where I am, Bedfordshire, and make my way along the route as far as I could go towards the coast.

I'm not sure exactly how far I could get on £5,000, but I imagine I would get quite far. Maybe even do the whole thing, and a bit more, if there are some cheap and not quite so reputable establishments that'd take my money for a bit of food and a bed.

I've walked quite a bit of the Ouse Valley Way in my own county. The route has taken me through villages, fields, woods . . . And I have seen foxes, birds, amphibians . . . My love for walking is a love for nature; the two are the same thing for me.

One of the things I have noticed about nature lovers is the variety of ways in which their love finds expression. Some are activists, some are walkers, some are watchers, some are painters, some are writers . . . Of course, many are a combination of at least two or three of all of the above.

The primary way in which I immerse myself in nature is just through taking a walk. I push my body up hills and down muddy paths, embarrassed for myself because of my aching legs and lungs (I am fairly certain I should be a lot fitter than this!), and I am rewarded by birdsong. Yellowhammer have caught my ear as I've walked along hedgerows at the edges of fields. I catch sight of a fox on the path before it turns and disappears into brambles, its brush tail the last thing I see. Yes, these are the rewards for taking to the footpaths . . .

If I had an extra £5,000 in my account, yes, I think I would take to the footpaths. And I would make plans to stay there for a while. I'd sleep when I was tired, I would stop for food when I was hungry, and I'd turn around and make my way back when the money was running out. It'd be self-indulgent, but the fantasy is making me forget my miserable birthday for a while.

Thank you for reading. If you would like to support my writing, you can buy me a coffee on ko-fi.com - caffeine gets me walking too! Thank you!

SAVE this post for later, to help you find these great accounts on social media!

 

Hello there, and welcome to this little corner of the internet!

In today's post, I am going to share with you some of the accounts I follow across social media, the ones that satisfy my interest in nature and wildlife, and why I follow them.

So, without further ado . . .

Facebook

Bird Watching is the UK's best-selling birding magazine.

There are plenty of holes in my knowledge about birds, and following the Facebook page for this magazine affords me the opportunity to have conversations and exchanges with like-minded people, and improve my birding knowledge.

You can find the Bird Watching page here.

The Wildlife Blogger Crowd is a wildlife and nature blog community where those who maintain nature blogs can support each other. 

As a blogger myself, I follow this page because of that community spirit, but even if you don't write a blog yourself you may find something of interest here. If you love nature and wildlife writing, take a look - there is much to be found!

You can find The Wildlife Blogger Crowd here.

Springwatch Fans is a Facebook page for fans of the BBC's Springwatch programmes. It's there for exactly what it says it is there for. However, the discussions that take place on the page are not limited to the contents of the television shows and followers often discuss other nature and wildlife topics.

I follow this page because I am a fan of the Springwatch programmes and because I love nature and wildlife - simple!

You can find Springwatch Fans here.

Instagram

Greenpeace UK is the Instagram page for this charity and their work in the UK. I follow these pages because I am interested in conservation and the discussions around climate change, and the actions that are being taken by charities and non-profit organisations.

You can find Greenpeace UK here.

savebutterflies is the page for Butterfly Conservation, a British charity devoted to saving butterflies, moths and their habitats throughout the UK. Taking part in the Big Butterfly Count and other monitoring schemes is great fun, and the data goes towards saving these beautiful insects.

You can find SaveTheButterflies here.

bbcearth, as the page's bio says, "brings you face to face with nature, science and space". This is a BBC page, and I follow for the fascinating footage, photography, and facts.

You can find the BBC Earth page here.

Twitter

Keep the Ban, as you can imagine, is a page devoted to keeping the ban on hunting and fighting animal cruelty. Before taking a look at this page, I should like to warn you that sometimes they do share footage that has been taken by activists in an attempt to gather information against lawbreakers. Their aim is to tackle cruelty and gather information against criminals, but I'm aware that the footage can be upsetting for some.

You can find their page here.

Lucy Jones is a nature and wildlife writer that I have enthused about before (monstawild.blogspot.com), since I read Foxes Unearthed. It's my birthday soon and, as a little present to myself, I bought Losing Eden, which I've a feeling I am going to adore!

She writes with intelligence, care, and consideration; she writes how I wish I could write.

You can follow Lucy Jones on Twitter here.

Chris Packham describes himself simply as a "wildlife TV presenter & conservationist" in his Twitter bio. And, that is pretty much all it takes to pique my interest. However, Chris Packham also proves himself to be thoughtful, intelligent, knowledgeable, and considerate in his speaking and writing; I have a lot of time for this TV presenter and conservationist.

You can follow Chris Packham here.

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