I'm lucky enough to live 2.5 miles from my workplace, and I can walk there along National Cycle Route 66 – the Aire Valley Towpath. The first half mile is built up, and there's a noisy, smelly road to endure, but then I step away from the traffic onto the canal towpath and into nature. It matters to me that I do what I can to keep my carbon footprint low to protect the nature that I love. The RSPB is doing its…

Nature has always inspired creativity for me. From my first school poetry attempts describing seasonal changes, to university studies into natural plant dyes. I have always returned to wildlife for guidance and influence.
In my growing connectivity to the RSPB and a beloved interest in the animals they protect, I have rekindled a joy for observational drawing and painting. Looking for details in different species to create…

The sun shone for my visit to St Aidan’s this week. The place just sparkled!

I started my walk with a stroll along the Hillside. Great tits, blue tits and long tailed tits accompanied me as I crunched through the icy puddles, warming their voices ready for spring. The great tits are already practising their ‘teacher, teacher’ calls. Emerging from the still-bare trees I found a flock of greylag gees…

The days have dropped cold and misty again in winter’s last icy breath. The atmosphere around Fairburn Ings is serene but charged like the calm before a storm. The storm in this case being the hustle and bustle of upcoming spring.

A visit to the reserve in this weather opens the opportunity for quiet reflection over the end of winter and new beginnings. As drizzly as it was, I had the chance for a personal tour…

Well Poppy’s first Big garden Birdwatch was a fun weekend, my little amateur bird watcher had a flurry of visitors. Although like most wildlife she sees now they were greeted with excitable woofs.

Too ensure we got the most out of our weekend, we stepped up our offerings for the local birds. Normally we simply share our scraps on the bird table and the grass for ground feeders such as thrushes. But this weekend…