Love song of a loyal traveller

We are now into the second half of the year. It may not seem it, but these summer days are getting slightly shorter. Baby birds have reached, or are getting, to full size, and some Arctic breeding birds will already be flying south. Here are five July classics to enjoy...

I awoke to an unearthly din, like a rubber foot pump with hiccups. It was so loud that I could feel it resonating in my guts. In the glass of water by my bed, I swear I saw concentric ripples à la tha

Spring is the time to see the muscular and noble goshawk, usually as elusive as a ghost circling and swooping through the sky

Reenie’s unwanted night-time visitor had her spitting feathers

With returning swifts screaming across the rooftop and golden buttercup pollen gilding his Wellingtons as he strides across the cow meadow, John Lewis-Stempel marvels at the many pleasures of May

Lines get blurred when it comes to non-native species, so whose rules do you follow, asks Matt Merritt