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4. Woodland

Brett Westwood looks at how wildlife in the woodland in his local area has changed over the past 40 years. From 2015.

When Brett Westwood began a wildlife diary aged 15, little did he think that he'd still be writing notes, nearly 40 years later about the same local patch in North Worcestershire.

In this series Brett returns, diaries in hand, to five different habitats in his local patch and compares notes from the past with the landscape and wildlife of today.

There are genuine shocks and revelations.

Fairy Glen is a small natural woodland in Brett's patch carpeted with bluebells in spring.

What was once oak has become a sycamore wood. However, it's now a great place to spot warblers; chaffinches and bramblings feeding on aphids in spring, and during his visit Brett watches a pair of Nuthatches bringing back food for their young to their nest hole in the trunk of a tree.

But for Brett, the attraction is the buzzards soaring over the canopy, which have returned and bred in the area since the 1990s.

There are ravens too – another bird which Brett would never have dreamed of seeing when he was a teenager on his local patch.

Wildlife Sound Recordist: Chris Watson

Producer: Sarah Blunt

First broadcast on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4 in January 2015.

1 day left to listen

15 minutes

Last on

Thu 21 Aug 2025 09:30

Broadcasts

  • Thu 15 Jan 2015 13:45
  • Thu 21 Aug 2025 09:30