egg gives time for that rather magical transformation from icy winter to Arctic summer.
The tops of these towering cliffs above our remote camp is where they nest, safe from the Arctic foxes, but when the chicks have to jump from their nests and survive the hundred foot fall, truth becomes stranger than fiction. It's a long way down!
I was lucky to be filming beside their nests in the 80's, having enjoyed their winter company in the Hebrides ever since I left school. A taste for Islay malt came later!
So since childhood, the wildest places have drawn me north with friends to marvel at the spectacle of seasonal change.
These inspiring pink-footed goose flights were shared with my wife Sue and Michael and Penny in Norfolk. Their happy yapping [my friends too] as they leave their roosts at dawn is as wonderful as the skeins, pencilled across the colourful skies.
However, there’s a tinge of sadness in the air when summer leaves us, our swallows and ospreys too as they set off for those exotic far off lands, swallows to South Africa and ospreys to West Africa.
As they leave behind our Dorset skies, sadness turns to joy, for our woodland gardens glow with glorious colours, as if reflecting the warmth of the summer sun.
And having embraced the changing seasons, our little patch becomes even more colourful than Springtime.
I'm writing this in November as the rains are falling almost every day, but the occasional frosty dawn hints that winter is coming and as the sun has come out, it seems like a good time to share the delights of a walk around
our two acre wildlife patch with a little camera and celebrate our good fortune in calling
this home.
During our forty four years here, we've concentrated on providing as much welcoming and varied wildlife habitat as possible, particularly for wetland species.
So since childhood, the wildest places have drawn me north with friends to marvel at the spectacle of seasonal change.
And by digging six ponds and a marsh, we are sequestering carbon, trying to do our bit for the planet's climate crisis. It's our attempt at creating a little nature reserve and by adding plants, we attract some special creatures while enjoying shovel fulls of health and happiness.
... and grass snakes adorn the ponds while hunting our frogs and small fish.
Buzzards nest just behind the cottage and hunt the frogs too, and with all this water, our trees grow at an alarming rate and give the impression our little home is sinking!
We've planted lots of acers so we can enjoy their seasonal changes, and their rapid growth is the sort that our government treasury can only dream of.
In its shade grow several clerodenrums, covered in a canopy of white flowers beloved by hummingbird hawk-moths in late summer ...
... and when the flower petals fell off, these 'Christmas decoration' seed-heads have glowed since early November. They look good enough to eat but I failed to find out if they're edible, for us or the birds.
However, judging from this mild weather recently, it's allowed many of our most colourful, insect friendly plants to keep flowering until mid November, including salvia amistad, our gaura 'whirling butterflies', [and it was], and that bee magnet, verbena bonariensis.
With the nights drawing in and misty dawns being a regular feature, our spiders efforts to catch a meal are clearly visible ...
... and we've left a lot of the teasel heads so our goldfinches can enjoy the seeds.
and amazingly, we've seen an adult white-tailed eagle circling over our garden, once in April and again just three weeks ago. They have even nested and raised young in Dorset this year, and that's the first time since birds learnt to fly - well almost! They're BIG aren't they.
Further north, the geese have finished fleeing the Arctic ice and every day, they're filling our skies with their wild music.
Notable highlights were sharing our garden with a family of robins, [I spent many enjoyable months winning their trust], and even more enjoyable was sharing with lots of loving friends who came to enjoy a meal, cooked by our ace chef Sue. We have enjoyed a rewarding year and are very lucky, so thank you all for your company and for sharing my ramble around our lovely little patch of rural England. 
We might even 'enjoy' a proper winter and that will certainly be a chance to welcome our seasonal changes, safe in the knowledge that all is well with the world when it's still turning.
And we've enjoyed a really good year with friends and wildlife.
And while celebrating the changing seasons, keep faith that these dark days will grow longer soon and the summer sun will return ...
Happy days ... and thank you all!
Happy days ... and thank you all!
