Country diary: Little miracles at my fingertips | Sean Wood

Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway: Turning the garden native a few years ago has transformed it - but just as astonishing is how I can now document its progressFifty years ago my first countryside article was published, A Kestrel Kills in Liverpool. The little falcon, nesting on the Anglican cathedral in 1976, until recently was replaced by a peregrine. Back in the day any self-respecting wildlife writer used a heavyweight Imperial typewriter, an SLR film camera, snail mail, a landline and an extensive library of reference books. It took a week to get something filed.How times have changed. Today, with the flush of springtime attracting all manner of wee beasties, I photographed bees and beetles with my mobile phone in the Fairy Hill garden. It's been useful to track the many changes here - two years ago, I eradicated all alien species including rhododendron, leylandii and laurel. The non-natives were replaced with hornbeam, rowan and hazel, and further planting projects have paid off in spades: native pears and foxgloves, flag iris in the pond, delicate sorrel in the shade of a stone wall, and the more robust dock. Continue reading...