MY WILD LIFE
Mary Edmunds, former secretary of Wight Nature Fund, at Alverstone Mead.
Mary Edmunds
Before retiring in November 2021, Mary was the long-serving secretary of Wight Nature Fund, an independent charity on the Isle of Wight, which recently passed on the management of several of their nature reserves to the Trust. She tells us why wildlife on the Island is so special to her and why everyone should care about protecting its future. I am now in my seventies. I was born on the Isle of Wight and have lived here most of my life – apart from a year I spent hitchhiking through Europe and the Middle East and two years at college in Chelsea training to be a nursery nurse. The Island is incredibly special to me. I have travelled to around 30 countries across the world in my lifetime, mostly on walking holidays, but I still don’t think you can beat the downlands across the Island for views. 30
I have been a member of the Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society since I was at school (I was among the first girls allowed on the annual Newtown Wildlife Surveys in 1958!) and my interest in nature was sparked by a wonderful teacher, Mr Oliver Frazer, who could get you interested in a blade of grass. I have had numerous memorable encounters with wildlife on the Island. Several that spring to mind include playing
hide-and-seek as a child and running behind a bush to almost step on a nest of adders. More recently, I spotted something that looked like a huge snake in the road, but which turned out to be a weasel with seven young, all holding each other’s tails, with mum leading them across the road and up a grassy bank. Then, just last August, we had a young sparrowhawk fly straight through an open window into our lounge! Thankfully, it was unhurt, so after taking a quick photo we let it go.
Wild Life | Spring 2022
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