Kate Bradbury's Lewes garden: treecreeper on dying tree — SkimNews
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- Kate Bradbury moved from Brighton to the outskirts of Lewes, where her garden backs onto the remains of an old oak wood now hosting a badger making snuffle holes in the lawn, a family of tawny owls in the trees and a cauldron of bats in the chimney.
- A mystery tree, possibly a willow or an unfamiliar cultivated species, stands nearly dead and drought-stressed beside her bedroom window; its bare branches have exposed tits, robins, blackbirds, thrushes, woodpeckers and nuthatches that she would not otherwise see.
- A treecreeper, Bradbury's favourite morning visitor, scales the mystery tree hunting insects and spiders using a long bill, curved toes and stiff tail feathers; she spots its white bib first, then admires its bark-camouflaging brown-and-gold plumage.
- Treecreepers are resident in Britain year-round but leave their breeding territories in autumn for winter roosts in nearby woodland or parks, sometimes joining roving groups of tits; Bradbury hopes hers returns in spring to build a nest of spider webs, grass, moss and feathers.
- Standing dead wood is, per Bradbury, a rare garden habitat; she is watering the mystery tree's roots in the hope that fresh canopy growth will help her identify the species and sustain its birds, including the treecreeper.
Why it matters: Britain's treecreeper — a year-round resident whose winter survival depends on bark crevices and standing dead wood for insect foraging — is among the species thriving in Bradbury's Lewes garden, where she has chosen to retain a drought-stressed oak whose root-watering keeps the habitat intact.
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