Even in winter, when long dark nights can amplify feelings of loneliness, spending time with nature may elicit awe and wonder that brings important wellness benefits. While the winter chill can make stepping outside feel like a struggle, it’s worth it.
Connecting with nature makes us happier, less likely to suffer anxiety, and more likely to care for the natural world around us. So here are some tips for engaging with nature this winter, and enjoying some spectacular sights not far from home.
Awakening butterflies
Slanting winter sunlight can be surprisingly warm on your upturned face, so try to schedule your outdoors time to coincide with winter sun. The best time to get out is mid-morning, when the light is brightest.
On unusually warm days in Britain and other temperate areas, you might see red admiral butterflies temporarily awakening from their overwintering dormancy – even in early January. On cold days, they are often nestled in tree cavities and caves, or tucked away in garden sheds.
Lakes alive with wildlife
Rivers, ponds and streams tend to have less human visitors in the cold of wintertime, meaning less disruption to wildlife. Early morning is a good time to catch swans on icy lakes, gliding silently out of the mist. Many other water birds, such as mallard ducks and great-crested grebes, as well as fish including perch, roach and grayling, are also active throughout the year.
Dave Knibbs/Shutterstock
The joy of clear, frosty mornings
There’s almost nothing more clarifying for the mind than the satisfying crunch of ice crystals under foot, and landscapes transformed into astonishing whiteness. The geometrical patterns of ice crystals on frozen puddles, ponds and even car windscreens are a spectacle to behold.
Try gently using the tip of your finger to topple miniature towers of hoar frost that decorate the surfaces of plants. It’s another quiet joy.
Bountiful berries
Bright red hawthorn berries are particularly bountiful this year, providing food for voles, dormice and birds. And look out for the glistening white berries of mistletoe, a plant whose roots penetrate the high-up branches of broad-leaved trees.
Beautiful birds
In an open field, stand still, look up, and you might see murmurations of starlings wheeling in the sky. Meanwhile, the tiny hardy birds – goldfinches, goldcrests, bluetits and chaffinches – that stay at home all winter provide a rejuvenating soundscape in the hedgerows.
Cavan-Images/Shutterstock
Satisfy all your senses
In humans, visual perception dominates – but with practice, we can make better use of all our senses for a richer experience. Note the acrid smell telling where a fox has marked its territory, and the sharp scent of woodsmoke from cottages – their homely lights winking on as dusk settles.
Or listen carefully to the chirrup of a watchful robin, or the busy chatter of sparrows in hedgerows. Notice the satisfying clatter that a woodpigeon’s wings make as it takes flight, and the raucous cawing of crows socialising high up in the trees.
To best experience nature, we need to learn how to cultivate an intense attention to our surroundings. One approach is to focus on just a small part of a winter scene, savouring the textures and colours. Then, gradually, expand the lens of your perception to a wider area. Take some deep breaths absorbing the sounds and smells.
Take time to reconnect (in the right clothes)
We humans are part of nature, after all, which is why it feels so restorative to drop our busyness for a while and reconnect.
Taking sufficient time outdoors each day to engage with nature – it need not be long, just a few moments in a day – also helps us carry back that joy to our friends and family.
One final tip: wear the right clothes. With a warm coat and good boots, you can revel in flooded fields and muddy paths, and laugh while getting damp from raindrops in woodlands – before returning to enjoy the cosy indoors even more.
Tom Oliver has received research funding from BBSRC, NERC, Natural England and VKRF for biodiversity and climate change research and for investigating ‘nature-centric’ governance approaches. He was affiliated with Defra as a senior scientific fellow on their Systems Research Programme, with the Government Office for Science working on long-term risks to the UK, and spent four years with the European Environment Agency on their scientific committee. He currently sits on the Food Standards Agency science council and Office for Environmental Protection expert college. He is author of two relevant books: “The Self Delusion: The Surprising Science of Our Connection To Each Other and the Natural World”, published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson, and the forthcoming book “The Nature Delusion: Why We Can’t Fix The World Without Fixing Ourselves”, published by Bristol University Press.
