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Natured Secrets

@natured_secrets

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🌿 Nurturing nature back into our landscape
Restoring wildlife & habitats
🌱 Merging the garden into the land
Boosting biodiversity
🙏 Journey of hope

POSTS STORIES REELS

As summer fades, the garden begins to tell a different story.

The colour and scent of summer are now little more than a memory. There is a temptation to tidy everything away, but we prefer to resist that urge, at least for a while.

There is still a place for the remnants of summer. A few standing seed heads, fading perennials and skeletal stems provide valuable habitat for local wildlife. We like to let the garden settle, allowing nature to take its course before clearing only what is necessary.

With the clocks having gone back and the days drawing in, our attention turns towards preparing the garden for winter. Summer annuals are cleared, beds are weeded and preparations begin for the next season’s planting.

There is something quietly restorative about this time of year. A gentle cleansing of the garden; sweeping away the remnants of the summer party and allowing the land its long winter rest, ready to recover before the energy of a new year returns.

Along the walkway, the heather banks will be clipped and tidied, while the birch and Amelanchier gradually shed their leaves, revealing their delicate branching structures. The stiff, buff stems of Molinia ‘Edith Dudszus’ punctuate the length of the planting, while the dry-stone walls slowly emerge from beneath the abundance of summer growth.

As the colour recedes, other qualities come forward. Form, texture, structure and the subtle beauty of a garden in repose.

These are the seasonal shifts we witness year after year. Watching the trees and grasses change their moods gives us time to adjust, too; to accept the approach of winter and the natural slowing of the seasons.

A gentle descent in energy. A time to pause, to breathe and to let the garden rest.

And perhaps, to remember that a garden need not be at its most colourful to be at its most beautiful.

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#gardendesign #autumngarden #naturalisticplanting #gardenstructure #wildlifegardening

Music by Megan Wofford - With the Dawn via www.epidemicsound.com by @natured_secrets

Why were these Curlews continually taking to the sky?

Calling and circling. The adult Curlews seemed constantly alert keeping watch.

I watched them circle overhead, call out and mob birds they perceived as a threat.
At times, one appeared to remain in the field while another took to the air.

I couldn’t know exactly what was happening on every flight, but the intensity of their behaviour was extraordinary.

Somewhere in the grasses of the meadow, their youngster was hidden.

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#curlew #eurasiancurlew #britishwildlife #wildlifephotography #curlewconservation

Music by Jay Taylor - A Handful of Garnets via www.epidemicsound.com by @natured_secrets

In early June, I spotted one of the adult Curlews foraging for food in the hay meadow—species-rich; it is the perfect place for them to feed after nesting up on the top moor. I always make sure to keep a safe distance from these ground-nesting birds.

What I didn’t expect when walking the site and conducting surveys with @naturalengland about funding and restoration work was seeing something almost invisible among the wildflowers. 🌿 It was so well camouflaged and hidden that I often struggled to find it, even with binoculars. Can you spot the chick?

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#curlew #eurasiancurlew #britishwildlife #wildlifephotography #curlewconservation by @natured_secrets

An Evening With a Brown Hare

The Hare scratched.
The Hare groomed.
The Hare paused.
The Hare looked around.

And for a few precious moments, this hare seemed completely unaware that I was there… simply watching.

The low evening sun washed over the field, catching the long black-tipped ears, soft fur and those extraordinary amber eyes.

Eventually, the Hare moved higher into the field and disappeared into the longer long grass drawing this quiet encounter to an end.

One hare.
One evening.
And a memory I’ll treasure.

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#BrownHare #HarePhotography #UKWildlife #BritishWildlife #WildlifePhotography UKWildlifePhotography WildlifeReels NaturePhotography BritishNature WildlifeLovers NatureLovers WildlifeEncounter WildlifeObservation britishcountryside

Music by Ruiqi Zhao - Getaway via www.epidemicsound.com by @natured_secrets

Nearly a year on, and what a difference a year can make.

This once very different-looking corner of the field is now settling into its new role as a wetland. The water is finding its way through the landscape, vegetation is responding, and we’re starting to see the first signs of a new ecosystem taking shape.

Over the coming months, it will be fascinating to watch as the wetland matures — and, in particular, to see how visiting and migratory wading birds discover and begin to use this new habitat.

A journey of Hope — to be continued.

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#wetlandrestoration #ecosystemrecovery #biodiversity #wadingbirds #journeyofhope by @natured_secrets

💙 A flash of blue above the quarry pond…

Darting across the water was a Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum), with this male seemingly busy patrolling his territory—and perhaps keeping an eye out for a mate.

♂️ The males are unmistakable once you know what to look for: their brilliant sky-blue colouring and dark banding make them one of our most recognisable damselflies. They also have a distinctive black mushroom-, button- or tree-shaped marking on the second abdominal segment (S2).
♀️ Females can be blue or a duller greenish colour, with distinctive black “torpedo” markings. Their S2 marking is typically more thistle-shaped than the male’s.

And here’s something you might not know…
When Common Blue Damselflies first emerge from their aquatic nymph stage, they aren’t yet wearing those dazzling colours. In this teneral stage, they are still developing their adult appearance, and it can be a rather subdued pinkish-brown before gradually developing their characteristic blue colouring over the following days.

Nature’s transformation in miniature. 💙

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#commonbluedamselfly #pondlife #invertebratesofbritain #lovewildlife #britishwildlife by @natured_secrets

Someone looks a little… scruffy. 👀🦌
But there’s no cause for concern.

These young roe deer are moulting their thick, grey-brown winter coats and revealing the shorter, finer rust-red coats of summer.

For a short while, the change can leave them looking distinctly patchy and bedraggled — but there’s nothing wrong with them. It’s simply one of the seasonal transformations that comes with life in the wild.

Captured basking in the early evening sunshine among the softer slopes of the quarry.

Have you ever mistaken a moulting deer for an unhealthy one?

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#roedeer #britishwildlife #naturephotography #wildlifereels #deerofinstagram

Music by Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen - Ducere via www.epidemicsound.com by @natured_secrets

🦋 A Painted Lady summer in our hay meadow 🦋🌿

This beautiful Painted Lady was a regular visitor to our traditional hay meadow this summer, taking full advantage of the wildflowers in bloom.

The Painted Lady is one of the UK’s great butterfly migrants, arriving here from much further south. This year’s remarkable influx has even led to talk of a “Painted Lady summer”, with hot, sunny conditions helping fuel a successful migration.

But there’s a fascinating—and important—side to the story.

Despite the abundance we’ve seen, 2026 was the second-best year in the 16-year history of the Big Butterfly Count, rather than the best. Unlike many of our resident butterflies, the Painted Lady cannot survive a UK winter at any life stage. Its annual appearance here depends on migration and the conditions along its journey.

So, while this year’s Painted Ladies have been a wonderful sight, they also remind us how closely our wildlife is connected to weather, climate, and the wider landscape.

Have you spotted a Painted Lady this summer? Where did you see yours? 🦋

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#paintedlady #wildflowermeadow #wildlifephotography #bigbutterflycount #savebutterflies by @natured_secrets

A ghostly face at the owl barn… 👻🦉
It’s been a while since we’ve seen any real drama unfolding here.
But caught in colour, is this our familiar resident returning to the window, or someone new?
Something we may have to explore within the collected trail camera footage raising questions of who how many owls might be involved, and what has been happening when we’re not watching!

Follow to see what happens — this story be continued…

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#barnowl #tytoalba #ukwildlife #trailcamera #wildlifemonitoring by @natured_secrets

As the sun slips lower, the garden changes.

For a few fleeting moments, the doorway becomes a silhouette, the leaves are picked out against the fading light, and the familiar suddenly feels quite different.

There is something about that meeting of light and shadow that never seems quite the same twice.

Perhaps Wordsworth captured the feeling best:
“It is a beauteous evening, calm and free.”

A moment to pause, look up — and simply take it in.

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#sunsetphotography #gardenphotography #lightandshadow #englishgarden #ukphotography by @natured_secrets

THE ALPINE WALL - Slowing the pace…

What if good garden design isn’t always about adding more?

More plants. More colour. More intervention.

Sometimes it’s about creating something that can quietly settle into its surroundings — and then, just once in a while, allowing one plant to steal the show.

This alpine wall was designed to do just that.

The planting echoes the colours and forms of the surrounding moorland, while the repeated planting of a small number of alpines keeps the composition calm rather than chaotic.

And then there is Saxifraga ‘Whitehill’.

For much of the year, the wall quietly sits within the landscape. But as the heather bank begins to change from its characteristic purple to its greening summer colour, the silvery rosettes of Saxifraga ‘Whitehill’ come alive, sending delicate sprays of white flowers upwards.

Suddenly, the supporting cast becomes the backdrop.

The Saxifraga becomes the star.

It is joined by Erodium ‘Natasha’, Saxifraga ‘Strawberry Melba’, Globularia and Daphne cneorum ‘Eximia’ — all in soft whites and pastel tones, chosen to complement rather than compete.

There’s something quite satisfying about a planting scheme that doesn’t demand constant attention.

Right plant. Right place. Less intervention. More time to simply enjoy the garden.

Perhaps that is one of the principles of slow design.

And perhaps the best gardens aren’t necessarily the ones that are constantly changing — but the ones that know when to hold back, and when to put on a show.

This remains one of my favourite scenes in the garden.

What do you think — can planting be part of the slow-living movement? Or is “slow gardening” simply good garden design?

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#SlowGardening #GardenDesign #alpineplants #PlantingDesign #UKGardens by @natured_secrets

There is something about a summer evening when the day finally begins to breathe out.

The last warmth lingers in the sky, the quarry falls quiet, and the water holds the fading light.

For a little while, everything slows.

I step into that quiet gravity of calm — listening as the wild rhythms of nature begin to change with the turning season.

What does late summer feel like to you?

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#landscapephotography #goldenhour #summerlight #pond #scenicbritain by @natured_secrets