Research shows that time in nature offers significant wellbeing and psychological benefits. For those without access to forests or the sea, opening up to the benefits of nature is as simple as tapping into our five senses. The month of June has the longest days that usually coincide with warm weather leading us to open up a window and let some air into the room. The smell of the fresh morning air is supplemented by what should be an enjoyable dawn chorus that for most will occur before the urban sounds of the grind of daily life have started in earnest. This wonderment of nature should be a relaxing experience that slowly lifts you from slumber. This is unless you happen to have a pair of herring gulls who have identified that the best place to defend their territory first thing in the morning is on the roof above your bedroom window! The embattled cry of blackbirds defending their piece of garden and the irritable cackling of squabbling starlings also drowns out the sweetness of the gentle chirping of the house sparrows, dunnocks and tits that would normally serenade your awakening. In this increasingly media driven, information overload world, the natural sounds like birdsong provide us the subliminal information that helps us understand our environment and assures us that we're safe, even if it is somewhat gregarious and boisterous and results in having to place your head under the pillow!

June is one of the best months of the year to observe wildlife both large and small. For those with gardens, or with access to a local green space, just standing or sitting in one spot and watching what is happening around you can be very rewarding. Birds are busy feeding youngsters, with bird feeders being ravaged by large family groups of starlings with tits and sparrows trying to muscle in between their eruptive squabbles.

More and more insects are now on the wing feeding on summer flowers, and damsel and dragonflies are visiting garden ponds.

Looking upwards can also result in an unexpected encounter. Whilst sat quietly watching the ongoing starling squabbles my attention was drawn to a flock of birds flying west over the garden that turned out to be a flock of 12 glossy ibis!

When in 1981 Duran Duran sang,"Look now, look all around, there's no sign of life" they clearly weren't doing so sat in my garden during June! 

It is often not the most expensive of habitat projects that have the greatest success. Take the swift nesting box erected on the side of the house with the hope of enticing some of the local, declining swift population to move in. Within a few days of the last screw being tightened a pair of starlings promptly moved in and have been in residence ever since, successfully rearing a brood of two young. Meanwhile, the starling nest boxes put up to entice the local starlings into residence were promptly taken over by the house sparrows who partially deserted their specially built terraced nest boxes to do so! 

On the less extravagant side a small pile of cut elderflower branches has provided residence to yet more house sparrows, as well as dunnocks, wood mice and a pair of blackbirds who have become so used to being given a handful of suet they have followed me indoors to demand some when I've had the nerve not to see them! Continuing with the cheap options an old, but clean, paint roller tray filled with water has been a great success, providing shallow bathing at one end and slightly deeper at the other and attracting mice, hedgehogs, sparrows, blackbirds, starlings and wood pigeons to bathe and drink from it. 

The gold-fringed and red mason bees have also chosen to ignore their plush bee hotels and have taken up the option of using the small holes in the pointing instead! Indeed the best things in life are free now that I've discovered the home of the red mason bee. 

Disconnecting to reconnect with nature is not a new phenomenon. Children of the 1980's will remember being told to turn off the television set and going out to do something less boring instead, and no one had mobile technology then! For many being totally away and disconnected from mobile technology is not an option so why not utilise a nature based mobile app to connect with nature and learn something new. The entirely free (and advert free) Merlin app (supported by Cornell University Department of Ornithology) is a brilliant example of how you can connect with nature whilst having half a foot still dipped into the sea of technology. Learning birdsong can be intimidating and frustrating for many. Merlin will show in real time what is calling and singing, allowing discovery and enjoyment through learning bird calls and identifying what you may not have been aware was around you. From sitting under a tree in a park, walking around a nature reserve or gardening at home, (whilst making the conscious effort not to check social media and email!) using a simple piece of technology to reconnect and learn about what may be in the surrounds is something that those with the slightest interest in nature should be excited about. Those that have been encouraged to use it have enthusiastically shared copies of their recordings totally unaware and surprised by what birdlife was lurking in the trees and bushes around them!