Young country diary: How much wildlife could I see from a

The M11 motorway: I started my experiment hoping to see farm animals, maybe pheasants – but all I could see was litter

We were going to take a flight from Stansted airport, and as we whizzed out of London I decided to conduct a kind of city boy’s experiment: what wildlife could I observe on the way? While we were still in London, buildings dominated the scenery and nature was nowhere to be found. I looked forward to the motorway, in the hope of spotting something on the green strips by the road.

What did I see? An almost endless stream of litter. Plastic bags, cups, countless unidentifiable pieces of rubbish, even old tyres.