Getting contact with nature inspires awe and wonder. Its great for our mental health

A few years ago I was working in central London and I hated it. I was living in a hotel in the week and only going home to my wife at the weekend. The job was terrible and it was right in the heart of the concrete jungle of central London. Not surprisingly I was pretty miserable and anxious too.

Then one day I went out to get a sandwich for lunch and was stood in the street eating it. Something made me look up and I saw a peregrine falcon diving at 250mph to catch a pigeon on the wing about 100 feet above my head.

Its one of the most spectacular sights in the natural world. Normally it would be played out around cliffs and crags in the mountains but peregrines and pigeons have both taken well to city life. Ledges on tower blocks make great nesting sites.

From that day on I would walk down to the Thames embankment to watch the peregrines hunting at lunch. There would be a small group of like minded people there most days. Binoculars would be passed around as we watched and chatted. Seeing a two or three second dive from a peregrine made the whole day worth while.

We all missed the white tailed sea eagle which has a 8 or 9 foot wingspan that flew over the city at only a 1000 feet according to a GPS tracker attached to its leg though. Only found out about it on the news, everyone had missed it.