Country diary | The Guardian (original) (raw)

Daily despatches on the countryside and nature from the oldest newspaper column in the world

Country diary: Charmed once again by the unscrupulous cuckoo

Murlough Nature Reserve, Dundrum, County Down: Its arrival signals the start of summer, and another cycle of its extraordinary breeding method

Country diary: This weary traveller has escaped the hunter’s gun

Maxey Cut, Cambridgeshire: There’s so much precious wildlife around this old flood-relief channel, including sea trout and eels. But I’ve come to hear the purr of the turtle dove

Country diary: Taking the tough route to a hilltop view

Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire: Bouldering on volcanic rock is hard on the hands, and I have no established path to work with, but it’ll be worth it

Country diary: No Mow May is back on track – and the results are wonderful

Hunt’s Cross, Liverpool: A survey of the roadside verge turns up 21 species including cuckoo flower and yarrow. But not everyone likes it

Country diary 1906: The wild plants are overflowing with health

Country diary: Nesting mallard, owl and woodcock in our garden – this is the ‘human shield’ effect

Country diary: A terrible time for a tractor breakdown

Brigg, Lincolnshire: We work these vehicles hard and they will have problems, but today was really not the day for a steaming bonnet

Country diary: A lesson in camouflage from a cucumber spider

Staunton Country Park, Havant: Against my black fleece, this arachnid is startlingly vivid. In the fresh green of the beech canopy, it disappears

Country diary: Remembering a woman who gave so much to this village

Inkpen, Berkshire: There is far less birdsong now than in Lillian Watts’s day, but it is down to her that there is any at all

Country diary: A butterfly haven of orange tips and holly blues

Powerstock Common, Dorset: I’m hopeful that the mixed habitats here and bright weather will bring them out in their droves – and I’m not disappointed

Country diary: Newts in the pond, commotion in the house

Buxton, Derbyshire: A glimpse of gloop in the water, a hasty net purchase, and it was confirmed – palmate newts have moved in. But how long had they been there?

Country diary 1951: Into the woods on the capital’s edge

Country diary: It’s hard to top a calling curlew

Country diary: The farm is mourning Moss, 14 years old and alert to the end

Tebay, Cumbria: While new life begins up on our hills, down at the farmstead I say goodbye to a dear companion

Country diary: Welcome to the hill where anything, it seems, can happen

Hood Hill, North Yorkshire: From Satanic slip-ups to postwar plane crashes, stories have accumulated on this summit, just one part of an already rich landscape

Country diary: As spring bursts into life, all eyes on the Cairngorms barbecue ban

Country diary: The simple pleasure of watching beetles doing a barn dance

Country diary: Urban peregrines are not fussy eaters

Stevenage, Hertfordshire: Thanks to Andy, who scrabbles around on the pavement, we know that pigeons are just for starters

Country diary 1951: All on the farm is a dreadful rush

Country diary: The skies here are busy with satellites and fieldfares

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