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Insect flies with grass stalks it uses to conceal its nest, which is made of disused snail shells

A WILDLIFE filmmaker and author has said he is ‘indebted’ to his old teachers at the Castle School in Thornbury. Ben Macdonald, has travelled all over the world making documentaries, and says the school played a big role in fostering his ambitions. The 32-year-old has worked on the likes of Springwatch, and the Sir David Attenborough-narrated shows The Hunt and Our Planet. His interest in nature began when collecting butterflies as a pupil at St Michael’s Primary School in Winterbourne, and regular trips to Slimbridge Wetland Centre soon followed. “My parents were always ver...

Share ORCHARD: A Year In England’s Eden by Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates (Collins £20, 256pp) Orchards truly are England’s little Edens: astonishing havens for wildlife, as well as sources of our world-famous apples and pears. We have lost far too many in recent decades, neglected or grubbed out as ‘inefficient’. Yet protecting their unmatched biodiversity is about the most long-sighted and eco-efficient thing we can do. They teem not only with blossoms and fruit, but also bees and woodpeckers, hoverflies and fungi, beetles and mistletoe. Oh, and jays don’t ‘lose’ the a...