My jays have been busy burying acorns in our garden.
It's said that jays remember the location of evey nut they bury. They're smart, but not normally thought of as tame birds. If you wander through St James's Park of a morning you'll often see a man waiting for someone to spot him. Once he knows he's got an audience, he whistles and along come a couple of jays to sit on his hand to be fed. Is it learned behaviour or driven by need? All I can say is that they've trained that man well.
So, back to our garden. It's knee deep in leaves. Do rake your fallen leaves into a pile in a quiet corner where they won't get blown around. That mound will become a sanctuary for bugs, toads and slimy things, keen to find somewhere cosy to spend winter. Eventually that pile of leaves will become a fantastic mulch, helping create moist, yummy soil.
I've been so busy of late that I hadn't noticed my string of solar-powered fairy lights weren't working. Further investigation this weekend revealed the cable had been chewed in half. It wasn't me. My children swear blind they didn't do it. So that leaves my band of resident grey squirrels. I've given up trying to get rid of them and now just enjoy their antics, with the occassional swear word directed their way when they excavate newly planted pots.
Every creature has its role and place in the natural web and fulfils those roles with gusto, whether it's a predator snatching a tasty treat (including, sadly on occassions, threatened species) or a nest-building wasp chewing layers off my garden shed. The natural world is an anarchaic riot of sound, movement and colour, creating its own splendid balance when left to its own devices. All too often our lifestyles disrupt that balance.
Just when you think you've got it sussed, along comes something that slaps you in the face. Last year a couple of serins turned up at our Rainham Marsh nature reserve on the banks of the Thames at Purfleet. Wow, we all went. This year we shrieked like ten year olds in a sweet shop hearing that another couple of serin have returned to the same spot! Serin are yellowy-green European birds; finches. They don't normally come here, especially in winter, but we've been predicting that with climate change, they'll extend their range across the English Channel. Last winter they stayed at Rainham to see in the New Year, so you've probably got time to go and see them. Our visitor centre has a shop too, so you can do some Christmas shopping away from high street crowds.
If this isn't convincing you of the power, majesty and brilliance of wildlife, come and join our Speed Dating with Nature event. It starts Friday and runs through to Sunday 29 November in Richmond's Bushy Park. We'll be looking at the UK's biggest mammals, red deer; as well as fallow deer, sika deer and maybe even some muntjac deer. Red deer are big, more than three times the weight of your average (male) Londoner, with antlers that can do serious damage. There'll be lots of other resident critters to view and we'll be doing our best to point them all out. Just don't expect fairy light illumination.