December 2025

Last month, we shared a number of videos from the owl box, showing the ownership tussle between a pair of Tawney Owls and a pair of Grey Squirrels. Some nights the box was occupied by the Squirrels, and some nights by the Owls.

During December, the woodland housing crisis continued, and we captured 102 videos showing the ever-changing ownership. I won’t share all 102 videos here, just these three.

This video was captured at 530pm on 19^th December, just as night was falling. There is one squirrel inside the box, already nestled in for the night, and its partner is trying to join them but is clearly spooked by the owl that has just landed on the perch. The owl can both hear the squirrel inside the box and see the second squirrel in the tree. It launches to attack the squirrel but cannot find a place to land. The squirrel escapes.

·        This next video is taken 3 hours later. The owl was joined by its partner, and they were gazing down on the squirrel nestling, I assume terrified, at the bottom of the nest (its partner never made it back into the box). Turn up the sound, and you can hear them cooing and trilling.

Since Christmas, however, the owl box appears to have been occupied exclusively by squirrels. Here is one of the squirrels at 530pm on Christmas Day declaring loudly its ownership rights before tucking up for the night.

There has been lots of activity at the badger sett, with this rather beautiful creature posing for the camera just outside the burrow (also taken on Christmas day).

Here is the same badger the night before digging away at the entrance to the Sett.

And here it is again, weighing up crossing the stream. I think it decided against crossing, not because of the water but due to the faint red light coming from the camera.

The local fox (which is looking astonishingly fat and healthy for a winter-time fox) is much more confident and has no qualms about the camera light. It leaps across the stream in a rather impressive single bound.

We had incredibly heavy rains during the early part of December, resulting in the stream rising to over 0.5m deep in a 24 hour period.

Here you can see a Brown Rat trying to cross the stream to his burrow. The flow of water is too strong, and he gets washed back downstream

·        This is 18 hours later, and, just in case you were worried about the rat, it confirms that it did indeed make it to the right side of the stream eventually. Note how much the level has dropped in just 18 hours.

Rat footprints in the sediment by the stream

In June, I shared a story about a 1 day old deer that had apparently been abandoned by its mother. I was able to get some spectacular close-up photographs.

The baby deer was reunited with its mother later that day, but within a few days she had abandoned him again. The young deer was trapped inside Aspect Nature Reserve, as, unlike its mother, it was not big enough to leap the sheep-fencing. I tried to rescue it, but it would bound off every time I approached it.

Gradually, as the weeks passed, the baby deer got stronger and bigger, and it was a delight watching it grow. It never became tame, but it did get to the stage where I knew precisely where it would hide/sleep, and when I approached it would gently trot away rather than bound off in a panic. 

In October, we captured this video of ‘our’ deer drinking by the stream. You can see the start of his antlers beginning to form.

In December, it was finally big enough to leap over the 4-foot-high sheep-fencing and make it out of the fields and into the woodland area.

·        You can see here that he is now a lot bigger, a lot fatter, his antlers have grown a bit more and – best of all – he has a friend! A little Christmas miracle.

Following their 2-day visit to Aspect in October (where 60 pupils camped for a night), the Gatwick School presented me with a special book they had created, entitled ‘A Night Under the Stars’. The book has some wonderful messages and photographs, as shown in the next few photos. And there is a LinkedIn post on The Gatwick School account with some photos of the presentation. (35) Post | Feed | LinkedIn

Another school that visited Aspect in December was Banstead Prep, based in Surrey. 24 year two students (ie 7 year olds) plus four Y6 students, planted 40 trees in the ‘Hazel roundel’. Unfortunately, there was constant, unrelenting rain (it started just before they arrived and continued until literally 15 minutes after they left).

Despite this, there wasn’t a single complaint or negative comment. This is a testament to the astonishing levels of positive energy and can-do attitude that the teachers injected into the day. They led by example, and a brilliant time was had by all.

Banstead Prep pupils sheltering under a tarpaulin having their lunch. Shortly after this this they were busy building dens, an activity you do come rain or shine!’

I recently commissioned WH Creations, a local specialist carpenter (website WHCreations | Bespoke Furniture Surrey | Reigate, Surrey, UK) to create two magnificent wooden pieces. The first was a sculpture made from a 1m diameter ring of ash, the middle having been hollowed out by the ash die-back fungus (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus).

In a moment of inspired genius, WH Creations proposed ‘floating’ the ash-ring above an oak base which was carved to look like roots and covered in rose-gold leaf. It is a spectacular piece of art.

They also turned a huge piece of veteran cherry and turned it into this massive fruit bowl.

December has also been the month for drinking the sloe-gin that was made back in September. If you ever visit the site you will be leaving with a small bottle of this gloriously sweet nectar.

And if you are so minded, it’s still not too late to make your own sloe-gin. There are still berries on the bushes. Sugar + Gin + Sloes, mix and leave for 3 months. Simple and tasty!

My beekeeping friend, Brian, informed me that my message in last month's update was wrong. I had wrongly stated we had not harvested any honey from our hives this year. We now have enough honey to ensure every child who visits Aspect will get to taste real locally-produced honey!

We finish with this photo – currently my favourite. It was taken on a cold, frosty morning, from the northern edge of the reserve looking south. To the left, you can see the fencing around the 7-specie hedgerow that was planted back in April (which, hopefully, in 5 years' time will be a thick hedge filled with nesting birds). To the right is the 66-tree orchard, planted in January.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2026!

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