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JUST 30 minutes into the Manchester Festival of Nature and I knew it was going to be a success – because our nature is pretty special.
Poetry about the mysterious Worsley Man, by Ralph Hoyte, started the event before we were into rare butterflies returning and tree identification workshops.
Plants and gardening worked shoulder-to-shoulder with health and well-being, then came the Mancunian Birder’s Perfect 10 Greater Manchester birds.
Moths were identified and old stories of plants were told.
We heard the case for badger inoculation from bovine TB; there really is no need for a cull. And there was much more and lots of questions and answers after each session.
All this happened, not in Heaton
Park as originally planned, but from people’s homes as the festival went virtual.
And while many of use weren’t out in the wild to experience wildlife, we all wished we were, because Manchester has so much to offer.
During the lockdown we haven’t been allowed to forget the birds who have been louder with their dawn choruses with no traffic to drown them out. Butterflies and bees seem to be everywhere, even in our gardens. My favourites at the moment are hoverflies, hanging around in the air, staring at us with their big eyes.
While we all know there are marmalade hoverflies in our gardens, I found out this weekend that there is all a footballer hoverfly.
Look that up on Google, it’s true and it’s stripy.
We have woodlands alive with foxes, deer and woodpeckers, rich meadows of orchids and nesting birds, moors where birds of prey hunt for food under a soundtrack of twittering from skylark.
Even in our cities, peregrines nest on tall rooftops, cormorants patrol our rivers and canals and swallows and swifts swoop in looking for tiny insects.
Manchester has politicians who care about the environment – with green summits and visits to wild areas. We must follow their lead and support them.
And the Manchester Festival of Nature is just a pure and joyful celebration of all that is wild in Manchester. It is organised by all the major conservation organisations, along with universities, museums and the city council.
Our meetings are passionate with lots of ideas on how we can tell people about the rich wildlife around them.
This year’s virtual festival has gone down a storm if our partners’ reactions are anything to go by. And while I want us to get our into Heaton Park in 2021, it will be good to have virtual elements.
Whatever happens in 2021, the Manchester Nature Consortium, the team behind #MFoN will never let you forget about the good and natural things that you have in and around your Manchester homes.
● If you missed the festival you can experience it at @Mancnature on Twitter. To support the work of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, text WILD09 with the amount you want to donate to 70070.