Notes from the country with Vicky Turrell

  I know it’s an old joke, in this pandemic, but it really is difficult for some of us. The days are all the same when it’s misty and murky, as it often is in December. Sometimes it is all over, and I am drawing the curtains again, when I have hardly registered that the day has begun. How do you know what day it is? By what’s on TV? By the dustbin lorry driving down the lane? By when the milk is delivered?   I have just been talking to a friend on the phone – she sent me a card and have not sent her one. I have not sent any cards. That was our promise this year, we would give to charity instead. For every card we get, £1 goes to charity. I rang my friend, who lives in Yorkshire, to thank her, she is shielding like me, and she said, “My son rings every weekday morning at 9am before he goes to work. But one day last week he didn’t ring.” She was so worried that she waited half an hour and then, in trepidation, rang him. “Are you alright?” “Yes why?” His voice sounded sle...

It is official, it can help with your health and wellbeing! Connecting with nature has made it easier for many of us to cope with the pandemic. We have noticed new wildlife that we have never been aware of before. We have seen and heard more birds and have caught sight of more butterflies and bees. We have used and appreciated open spaces more than ever. And now the RSPB is doing a survey to find out how much nature has helped us. Watching wildlife, in my prolonged isolation, has certainly given me a focus. The smaller songbirds are quieter now and some have finished nesting, while others will go for a second brood. Our larger birds, though, are still making their presence felt. The big pink breasted woodpigeons are still constantly cooing, while the magpies have been cackling loudly. Most of all, I have heard the mistle thrush. The mistle thrush’s Latin name is Turdus viscivorus , which doesn’t sound very nice and Its behaviour seems to match. It is bigger and more aggressive th...

We have a corvid (note the ‘r’) nesting in the woodland. It is one of the crow family and not normally welcome here. But I must admit that being in isolation, with more time to look, has made me pay more attention to this big carrion crow and his identical mate. I have been sitting out with my binoculars looking at the remote nest. The birds are not rooks who nest together in rookeries. Also, I can see that they have no bare patch on their faces and no ‘baggy breeches’ which rooks have. They are plain crows. The nest is high up in the scots pine tree, at a fork in the branches. I can see the female brooding her eggs from her tree-top view. She is on the summit of the world and at the top of her food chain. There is no danger for her, but she and her mate are a danger to others. They time their nesting carefully. I saw them both building, using the remains of an old magpie’s nest. I watched as they broke twigs off the silver birch trees to build up a safe platform. She will ...