Nature Table
~ A periodic commentary on aspects of wildlife and gardening in and around Cattistock. ~
A diary entry from December:
Early December and Mildly Confusing!
Up until the last two mornings when we awoke to the second whitest of white frosts, I’ve been picking bunches of roses – a couple of bearded iris, three primroses, hardy geraniums and today, Anemone ‘Fokker’ deep purple on tall stems. Crazy.
The only shrub that is flowering as it should are the two gigantic mahonias, blessedly covered with flowers, sustaining the bees – the busy humming is magically deafening and cheerful.
What an incredible autumn for apples – even better, pears, and we had the heaviest crop of walnuts ever and then squirrels gathering, running along the telephone wires in the orchard field from tree to tree carrying a walnut in their mouth and burying them in the long border.
Now they are trying their luck on the various bird feeders but I’m now one step ahead! I’m hanging the feeders on long wires, no-go zone for the likes of them.
Scilly Flowers have begun deliveries from the islands – a wonderful scent permeates the house, it is good to have a fore-runner of Spring even if there is still Christmas to look forward to.
Pictures shown are from previous years.
THE WILDLIFE OF CATTISTOCK, OVERVIEW:
Most Dorset villages offer diverse habitats for native flora and fauna, but Cattistock offers more than most. Almost every dwelling has a garden, and many of them are managed for the benefit of birds and insects as well as us humans.
The contingent farmland is mainly pasture, dotted with copses and criss-crossed with footpaths – plenty of scope for the now-rare farmland birds, and the opportunity to spot them. Our valley, Lankham Bottom, is a noted butterfly reserve, with glow-worms on its chalk escarpments too.
At the heart of the village is the church and churchyard, a central green space seething with wildlife if you know where to look. On summer evenings at least five species of bat whirl above your head, while the swifts which nest in the church buildings speed shrieking around the rooftops as dusk falls. Some of the churchyard’s most famous visitors are the hawfinches which flock in winter to the magnificent row of hornbeams which border its south side, and following them the flocks of bird-watchers from all over the county. Dog-walkers sometimes encounter the now rare hedgehog foraging among the graves at night. In spring and summer the graveyard is a carpet of wild flowers, and the church’s programme of grass cutting is managed to ensure that they continue to proliferate.
The Friends of Cattistock church aim to implement a scheme to increase habitats for wildlife of all kinds around the church, perhaps in time to acquire a gold medal for conservation from the Eco Church Foundation.
NATURE TABLE ARCHIVES
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Previous years Nature Table articles can be viewed below:
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Last Updated on 24th January 2026