Country diary: I’m virtually living in the woods now. Wildlife is everywhere | Kate Bradbury

Lewes, East Sussex: Owls, bats, badgers and countless birds are my new neighbours, but I’ve been particularly taken by a mystery tree , and its resident treecreeper I have made the woods my home, moving from Brighton to the outskirts of Lewes, where the garden backs on to the remains of an old oak wood. Here there’s a riot of wildlife: a badger that makes snuffle holes in the lawn, a family of tawny owls in the trees and a cauldron of bats in the chimney. I have plans to let the wood expand into the garden, but in the meantime there’s a mystery tree whose branches almost reach my bedroom window. It’s nearly dead, stressed from too many droughts, perhaps, or co