Urban Nature Every Day: Discover the natural world on your doorstep

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this book is to encourage people to discover nature in urban areas. Not everyone wants, or has the time, to don wellies and waterproofs and head off across fields in search of a ‘lesser-spotted something’. This book will show you that you don’t need to. Nature watching (or listening) requires no specialist kit and no physical abilities and you can often visit the natural world without even stepping off the pavement. It is a common misconception that wildlife only exists in the countryside. In many areas, years of intensive farming have pushed animals, birds and wild plants out of their natural habitats and into towns and cities. Thanks to their adaptability and determination to survive, many are now thriving.

There is sometimes uncertainty as to whether a piece of land is considered urban or rural. Between the two there are wastelands of abandoned building sites, road and railway verges and roundabouts. Nature exists happily here and also deep in cities and towns: parks, communal gardens, quiet footpaths and waterways. You can visit an urban farm or spot birds from a trendy rooftop restaurant. You can watch the weather from the office window or admire miniature natural worlds in window boxes and garden containers. There are so many opportunities and what you see will depend on your chosen site. No one would expect to see a snow leopard walking down a busy road, so tailor your expectations accordingly. Best of all, go out with an open mind, ready to notice and appreciate anything you find.

This is not a field guide, but more of a starting point to awaken your curiosity and alert you to the possibilities on your doorstep. It is for beginners and experts alike. The natural world encompasses so much that it is impossible to know everything about all its myriad parts. Between us two authors, we know lots about the natural world but there is still much more to learn. We constantly surprise each other with snippets of information. Neither of us has any formal training, but we simply love the natural world and want to discover more about it. We think a pretty pink flower is pretty, whether or not you know its name. For some people, knowledge makes nature watching more fulfilling; for others, just being there is enough. Neither way is better – it’s all about what you enjoy.

We have attempted to include something for every taste: large and small, good and bad, truly wild and partly cultivated. The natural world is mostly beautiful but also includes things which can lead to screams of ‘Yuck! What is that?’ You may be surprised at how interesting some things are beneath their ‘revolting’ exterior and indeed how those very beastly things can help make our world better.

As Brits, we are fascinated by the weather. In urban environments, the weather may often simply be an inconvenience or an excuse to change your clothes: too hot, too cold, too wet, too windy. We hope to encourage you to really look at the individual elements of the weather and marvel at them. You may then come to realize the reason for the obsession.

Connecting with nature is a great excuse for seasonal festivals and fairs: wassailing in January, cherry festivals in April and Christmas displays in a local botanical garden. At any time of year, the natural world is essential for our own well-being. The colour green is associated with feelings of tranquillity, refreshment, rest and security, and innumerable surveys have proved that we all benefit mentally from time spent with nature. There are lessons in taking joy in the moment and inspiration from nature’s resilience. Never mind observing the ‘lily in the field’, have a look at that buddleia forcing its way through a crack high up on the wall and flowering in glorious exuberant purple profusion, attracting a bee and butterfly party.

Just as we benefit from an interest in nature so nature benefits from our increased awareness. Unfortunately, much of nature is at risk from humans in one way or another. If we are aware of plants and animals, we are more likely to want to protect them and their habitats. We hope this book will inspire you. Easy activities such as building a bug hotel or participating in a river clean-up day all help.

We both work in bookshops and talk to people all day. A customer once said, ‘What I really like in cities are the trees. When they are beside the concrete, they just seem so much more wonderful. You appreciate them more than in the countryside, particularly when you think about the effort they have made to survive.’ We hope this book will awaken you to the nature around you and how hard it has worked to be there.

Let’s celebrate nature in our day to day,

At home, at work, in how we talk, how we think.

It starts with recognising we’re part of it all.

Nature’s reaching out. Let’s answer the call.

From ‘The Natural World’ by George the Poet

Latin Names

We have deliberately not given most creatures and plants in this book their full Latin names. When watching the goings-on of the natural world, it often doesn’t matter not knowing them. The bird soaring acrobatically in the sky is beautiful regardless of whether you can identify it. If you want to take your knowledge further, we have listed useful books, websites and apps in the Further Resources section on page 248.

A Warning about Foraging

There is great joy in foraging for your supper, but do be careful. Sometimes this can be dangerous, or even fatal. Don’t forage from private land or eat anything unless you know exactly what it is. Think carefully about your location and what might have been there before. Railway sidings are routinely sprayed with herbicides (making berries less appetizing) and if your foraging trail is a popular dog walk, you may want to pick above the level of a cocked leg!

JANUARY

On the first day of the year, make a simple aim: to engage your senses more and notice nature wherever you are. The trees are bare, the weather uninviting and the nights long; once the jollity of New Year is over, January can seem like a grim month, but there are catkins and snowdrops to see, the hoot of an owl to hear and the fleeting beauty of frost to admire on the coldest of days. And rediscover wassailing, an ancient and splendid festival, which awakens the apple trees and their spirits.

___________

Little acrobat of the terraces,

we’m winged when we gaze at you

Jimmucking the breeze, somersaulting through

the white-breathed prayer of January

From ‘Birmingham Roller’ by Liz Berry

1 JANUARY

NATURE BY YOUR BACK DOOR

It is a myth that you need to ‘go to the country’ to find nature. Often, there will be amazing things right by your back door, even if you live in a seemingly barren urban landscape. A patch of rough grass by the roadside will be home to a wide variety of plants, insects and tiny creatures that will amaze you if you take the trouble to look at them properly. Admittedly, you may not spot a tiger or even anything particularly memorable, but it will show you a world both different and wondrous, which exists alongside the one you inhabit.

2 JANUARY

FROST

Frost forms overnight when temperatures fall and the moisture in the air freezes. By morning everything is coated with a thin layer of ice crystals. The air in these crystals makes the frost appear white. If the weather is very cold, fern frost patterns form on windows, creating beautiful and delicate swirls. Frost rarely lasts long, particularly in urban areas, as it is only a very thin layer and will easily melt. If you want to see your local park transformed into a genuine winter wonderland, you will need to get up early but – trust us – it is well worth the effort.

3 JANUARY

WATCH THE YEAR

All naturalists have ‘their patch’. It probably won’t be exclusive to them, but it will be somewhere that they know well, well enough to notice subtle changes as the seasons progress. It needn’t be anywhere spectacular, just a place that has things that interest you. Visit your patch as often as you can: every day is obviously ideal but, for many people, this may be totally impractical. Once a month is fine, once a week is better. The rate at which things grow will adapt to the light, water and warmth; the activities of the birds will alter as they mate, raise a family and possibly prepare to migrate; and the animal and insect visitors will vary. Don’t be put off by the weather, some of our best sightings have been while huddled beneath a brolly.

4 JANUARY

ALDER CATKINS

Alder trees need light and prefer wet ‘feet’, so they can be most often found along rivers and canals. Each tree bears male and female catkins: males are drooping and purple, gradually turning to yellow in spring; and the females are like tiny fir cones at the tips of the branches, turning from bright green to dark brown as they ripen. You won’t be able to see the most important thing about alders; they use the carbohydrates they produce during photosynthesis in an incredibly clever way that improves the quality of both the air and soil around them. The other unusual feature is that the wood does not rot as long as it is kept wet – which is why alder posts are, almost single-branchedly, holding up Venice.

5 JANUARY

BUG HOTELS

Bug hotels may look like stylish garden art, but they are actually a practical way to help bees and other insects. There are many species of bee who live alone and do not produce honey. These solitary bees build and provision their own nests, rather than living in a community hive. For them, and insects such as woodlice or lacewings, cities are often hard, inhospitable spaces where they can struggle to find winter shelter. If you have a city flat with a tiny balcony, think about putting in a bug hotel. As with all hotels, location is key and a sunny spot away from frosts is essential. Use a hanging basket, recycled pallet or a drainpipe and fill with a mix of found objects: drilled logs, canes, pinecones, straw. Make it an attractive pattern to please yourself, but make sure there are plenty of nooks and crannies to please the insects.

6 JANUARY

FOX

When April comes around there will be cute fox cubs at play. At this time of year, the fox world is also with us, but is much less appealing. How often have you been woken in the night by blood-curdling screams reminiscent of the soundtrack of the more lurid crime dramas or horror films? The chances are, unless you are unlucky enough to live in a particularly bad part of town, this will be foxes. Foxes scream and bark to communicate with each other, and at mating time in January this is at its peak. Males scream to warn off other foxes and protect their territory, while females scream to attract a mate. This activity tends to occur at night and neither tod nor vixen care that you have an early meeting.

7 JANUARY

RECORDING NATURE

Keep a nature diary – start one, today. This will be an easy resolution to keep as the more you write the more addictive it will become. It doesn’t need to be a fancy diary and you don’t even need to write it every day, although the habit helps, but simply jot down anything interesting you see. Over the years you will see bluebells arriving earlier or later, migration patterns changing and heatwaves repeating themselves. Photos can record the moment but writing in a diary makes you think more than the mere click of a button. You will soon find unexpected and fascinating connections across the natural world, in your own back garden, park or far beyond.

8 JANUARY

GREAT TIT

A really pretty great tit is a regular visitor to our bird feeder. It’s great in tit terms, but these are small birds. Tits (great, blue, coal and all the tits in between) are always welcome. About the size of a robin and with a similar personality, tits are comfortable with being watched and flit about catching insects on the wing. Great tits have yellow breasts with a black stripe down the centre, greenish backs and black heads with very white cheeks. Blue tits are the ones with the little blue caps, which they can raise as a crest if they are in the mood, while coal tits look similar but have greyish chests. All of them are pretty vocal and like to chat among themselves.

9 JANUARY

IT’S NOT THAT EASY

Nature programmes, podcasts and videos are great, but they can give a false impression of how easy it is to find wildlife. The camera operator may have been sitting in a particular spot for hours, but we only see the three minutes of perfectly edited film. Equally, none of the experts are ever seen peering at something saying, ‘I’m not sure. It could be …’ None of this helps when you go to a carefully researched site, certain of a glimpse of a particular creature, only to find it refuses to appear. Don’t lose heart. Watching nature does not come with a guarantee that you will always find what you are looking for. Look around, notice everything else and simply appreciate being outside in the wild.

10 JANUARY

SITTING STILL

For much of your time spent nature watching you will need to learn to sit still. Very still. Many of the creatures that would normally run away may notice you, but as long as you are not moving, you do not pose a threat. Others, which would run away anyway, may not notice you or, at the very least, sitting still will earn you some time before they do spot you. Find somewhere comfortable, settle down and watch the world around you. Try to look and notice rather than allowing your mind to wander or even close down; this is not a mindfulness or meditation session. Don’t set a time, just watch the natural world.

A tip we learned from Simon Barnes: always take a plastic bag to sit on, it’s hard to be still with a wet bottom.

11 JANUARY

SNOWDROP

Strictly speaking, most snowdrops you see in urban areas will be garden flowers rather than truly wild, but they are the earliest of the spring bulbs, so we are not going to let a technicality stop us from including them. The pretty white flowers hang like tiny lanterns from thin, green stems and are one of the markers that winter is beginning to lose its grip. Measuring 7–15 centimetres (2¾–6 inches) high, each plant has three to four grey-green, grass-like leaves. The three inner tepals (where petals and sepals are indistinguishable) have green tips, the outer three are white. Single flowers, looking like miniature shrouds, can represent death, and according to ancient lore should not be brought indoors, but bunches are a sign of purity and virginity.

Larger, later to bloom and with six green spots are snowflakes, also garden flowers and equally pretty.

12 JANUARY

FEED THE BIRDS

Channelling your inner Mary Poppins supports birdlife and encourages them to visit. While feeding in winter is obvious, food shortages can occur year-round, so provide a regular supply.

Bird