‘Silver white winters’ or ‘Raindrops on roses’? Do you ever find yourself humming ‘My Favourite Things’ from ‘The Sound of Music’? The time between Christmas and New Year, or ‘Betwixtmas’ as my friend Alex rather delightfully calls it, can offer a time for reflection on the past year and for gathering hopes and dreams for the one to come. In this spirit of nostalgia, I share here some of ‘My Favourite [wildlife-related] Things’ from 2025 with you.

‘Solitary sunrises, seasonal ‘hellos’ and wild surprises’ are first on my list. As winter ebbs and dawn relinquishes its lazy lie-ins, I find the urge to get up and out grows ever stronger. Quiet lanes, starlit skies and the first pale primroses are rich reward for abandoning the warmth of home. As the seasons move forward, it is pure joy to greet each new flowering plant, unfurling fern and migrant birds, arriving for the breeding season, having flown miles and miles to reach our shores and beyond. All are miracles of nature with unseen and often unfathomable clocks directing their actions. I never fail to be in awe of these mysteries. Rising early can bring surprise encounters too, like the time my presence alerted two roe deer and instead of running away, they ran towards me. Finding their way blocked by a fence, they chose to escape by plunging into the river and swimming across. I had an amazing view of their getaway.

Second on my list is ‘The Glow-worm’. Any organism which can produce its own light has to be pretty cool! I am very used to encountering glow-worm larvae on my early village walks, usually from May onwards, but up until this year I have never seen any of the adult insects bio-luminescing (mainly as I can’t stay awake late enough in the long days of summer). However, this June my eldest son, Jasper, popped up to see me one evening, urging me to follow him with all haste. We headed into the garden and he stopped me beside one of the Devon boundary banks, and there it was; an unmistakeable green glow, like a bright LED had been carelessly dropped into the grass. Having examined it gently, I carried my pent-up excitement back into the house whereupon it was released into a most undignified jig of delight for a middle-aged lady. We named our garden guest Gladys.

Third is ‘Time Away with a Good Book’. In June, my husband, Rob, and I headed to Brittany for a week’s camping. Whilst on route to the campsite facilities one day, I spotted a large black stag beetle in prime position to be stepped on. Without thinking, I scooped it up and took it back to show Rob. “She’s a cutie”, he pronounced, telling me how much larger the mandibles would be if I’d found a male. By this stage, I was thinking I’d been a bit rash picking it up so transferred it to a sandwich box until I found somewhere safe to

release it. Also on this holiday, I began reading ‘The Natural History of Selbourne’ by Gilbert White, a classic of natural history. I have long known of this book but never read it. It was truly absorbing, providing a series of acutely observed snapshots at the dawn of our understanding of Natural History, although, reading that so much of our knowledge was gained through shooting, trapping and dissecting specimens was rather disturbing to say the least.

Finally, on my list is ‘Sharing Nature with Others’, although in many respects, it should be top of my list as this always multiplies the pleasure of a wildlife experience. My happiest ‘sharing’ moments have included: the moth trap reveal at Wild About Loddiswell’s ‘Moths, Bugs and Beasties Family Day’; pond dipping at Soar with children from our church youth group; and tracking down green hairstreak butterflies on a narrow strip of coastal grassland with my son, Oliver. In the autumn, I was invited to Kingsbridge Care Hub where I enjoyed two delightfully interactive sessions sharing stories from my Nature Diaries. Perhaps the most satisfying of my shared experiences has been working as part of the volunteer team at Andrew’s Wood, culminating in a festive meal of fire-baked potatoes at our December session.

Looking to 2026, one of the first things I am planning is ‘The New Year Plant Hunt 2026’, run by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI). This takes place from January 1st - 4th and is a brilliant Citizen Science activity for anyone who needs some exercise after the Christmas excesses and wants to help contribute data on wild plant flowering at the start of the year. I have a long list of other wildlife aspirations but maybe I will share those with you in future Nature Diaries!