Away from Chat Moss visiting family therefore away from my “patch”, but the story must go on and wildlife can be found, if a lot more difficult than in my younger years.

Awake and sitting in my son’s conservatory and in song right on cue for Christmas was a robin - Day One completed. Well not quite…

My main aim of sitting in the conservatory was to check for overflying red kite which are now in reasonable number in this area. None noted, distraction came with an article in the autumn edition of the RSPB magazine which led me straight back to the Moss.

Unfortunately, for such a day it made quite depressing reading and as no red kite came into view to lift the mood induced by the article. I needed a positive, causing me to switch my thoughts to Little Woolden Moss LWT Nature Reserve for I knew this still developing reserve would do it.

The articles author stated that in the 1990s his wanderings in his patch down south were a “Blur of Willow Warbler Song” yet he encountered but ONE this summer. Now to grab me from my depressing thoughts on the wildlife loss I too have experienced in my lifetime, I had to be lifted as if a soft toy in one of those arcade cases by the crane, and dropped onto the south track of the Little Woolden Moss (still being restored by the LWT in recent years after destructive peat extraction).

For here my 2023 spring/early summer wanderings were a “Blur of Willow Warbler Song” and all because the LWT held up its hand and said STOP (to nature’s decline) and created habitat for willow warbler, and much more, to thrive.

Thus, I had managed to rescue my brief Bah Humbug mood to Christmas Joy thanks to the power of LWT to make a positive change for nature on Chat Moss.

If you want to make a positive difference for nature in the North West, you can support LWT's Step Up for Wildlife Appeal here.