Nadia Shaikh seeks good company for a search-and-gorge to get her through the ruthless darkness of the winter months

Jolly frock-coated robins, majestic geese and arboreal partridges make for both literal and symbolic centrepieces at Christmas, says Matthew Dennison, as he revels in the cultural history of the season’s feathered fowl and game

Winter may well be the most overlooked season of them all when it comes to appreciating nature’s joys. While it’s easy to take pleasure in the budding blooms of spring, summer’s resplendent blossoms a

The beautiful, soft-voiced turtle dove may be synonymous with Christmas, but as a symbol of courtship and love this endearing bird resonates all year round and must be saved, urges Mark Cocker

Plundering a local byway for a spot of festive foraging, John Lewis-Stempel finds all life proliferating in the multitudinous micro-habitat of the winter hedgerow

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through-lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel