One of the nice things of working here is to walk around the gardens, first thing in the morning, just as nature seems to be waking up, to listen to the birds singing, jabbering away to each other. Sometimes a woodpecker is hammering away in the woods. And just to quietly observe.

Occasionally, you’ll see something particularly interesting or unusual.

We have owls here. Mostly, they are tawny owls, I think.  But one morning, for example, I heard this noise behind us, like a flapper wings as something was taking off. And I spun around to see a barn owl flying just over me head.

[A hand drawn owl flies across the screen and fades away]

A few years back we had a family of young stoats in the arboreum too. And if you knew where to look [Three more stoats appear on the screen] you’d often see them playing together, rolling and tumbling around like little puppies or kittens.

But whatever is going on, it’s just nice to stop what you are doing and be an observer. And remember how we share this place with so much wildlife, with so many other animals, common ones and others.