Millbrook
Millbrook is the game’s home town, made up but typical of an English market town: back gardens with feeders, a park with a pond, a canal, a churchyard and farmland at the edge of town. It’s where most people meet most of their wildlife.
Five places
Where to see British wildlife: five places, five worlds
A town and its gardens, the New Forest, the Norfolk Broads, the Pembrokeshire coast and Skomer, and the Cairngorms. What lives in each, and when to look.
The New Forest
Ancient oak and beech woods, open heath and grazed lawns in Hampshire. Badgers dig their setts on the well-drained banks, fallow deer move through the woods, and on summer evenings nightjars churr over the heath.
The Norfolk Broads
Reedbeds, windpumps and grazing marsh around Hickling and Horsey. Bitterns boom in spring, marsh harriers quarter the reeds, swallowtails fly in early summer and grey seals pup on Horsey beach in winter.
The Pembrokeshire coast
Sea cliffs at Marloes, seal coves at Martin’s Haven and the boat to Skomer. Puffins are on the island from spring until late July, Manx shearwaters come ashore only after dark, and grey seal pups are born in the coves from late summer.
The Cairngorms
Caledonian pinewood at Abernethy, lochs and the high plateau of Cairn Gorm. Red squirrels and crested tits in the pines, ospreys from April, capercaillie at the dawn lek and mountain hares turning white for winter.
