The new Covid-19 government instruction to stay at home until further notice is a serious one and by supporting each other we can get through this challenging time. This is a period where we can spend more time in our gardens and so to help we will be posting blogs about enjoying nature from your own gardens and about the wildlife that calls your garden their home. There will be a mixture of funny and factual and hope you will enjoy following us over the coming weeks…

The first one is from Stefan with a light-hearted account of nature watching from home.

The ultimate guide to nature watching from home

(Not to be taken too seriously…)

The new order to stay at home over the coming weeks opens up entirely new possibilities for watching nature from home (although it is not without any irony that these measures have come into place now that for the first time in living memory the sun is shining, and it is actually nice outside).

If you happen to have a garden, then you are one of the lucky ones. In that case, just take a chair, make yourself comfortable – not without putting sun protection on to protect yourself from the UV rays – and just let the nature come to you. Easy peasy!

What if you are not in the group of lucky ones and all that you can call your garden is a small asphalt patch to which no bird would ever come even if you opened a Michelin starred bird restaurant there? Well, don’t despair, there are still ways of watching nature!

Step one:

Look out of the window and don’t look down onto the asphalt, but up into the sky and you might still get a glimpse of a bird or an insect trying to pass your asphalt patch as quickly as possible.

Step two:

Look at neighbour’s roof (if you do it with the help of binoculars, a scope or a camera, make sure that you are not being watched whilst watching in order not to get yourself into any unnecessary trouble). Gulls, pigeons and jackdaws love neighbour’s roof!

Step three:

Open the windows and invite nature in – in other words: give nature a home. Moths, flies and other creepy crawlies like spiders might well take up your offer and keep you company. Admittedly, spiders are not everyone’s cup of tea, but you should have thought about that before opening the window…

No matter how you do your nature watching from home – with or without garden –, you might not see the biggest variety of animals but take the chance to have a closer look at those that do turn up and you can be sure that you will be rewarded with some fantastic wildlife moments. Marvel at the all the colours that you can suddenly find in a black-and-white magpie, take a closer look at the wing patterns of a moth and a fly, take the time to look a woodpigeon into the eyes and some whole new horizons might open up. Enjoy!

Photo credit: Jackdaws enjoying the view from the antenna on top of neighbour's roof by Stefan Zitzmann