I’m 73 years old, and I’ve decided I want to learn something new every day. Today, walking through the Trust’s Faughan Valley, they told me about swifts. Oh my god. These birds fly 6,000 miles to South Africa in one go – and check this out: they fly while they are asleep. I was blown away. In fact I’m gonna write a song, saying I wish I had the power of a swift. All inspired by the Faughan Valley.

Last time I was out with the Woodland Trust we visited the Bowthorpe Oak, on a farm in Lincolnshire. It’s over 1,000 years old. I’ve lived half my life in California, so I’ve driven through the redwoods there – but to see an oak so old and strong, a lone survivor... wow. I’m sitting there reading poetry under this majestic tree, and I feel like a character in a story. Excuse me Cinderella, is that your shoe? Is that a Nike? Ha! It made me feel more like an artist, which is weird. What does something outside of me have to do with the thing inside that makes me create? I don’t know, but it was a magical feeling.

I’ve read that early morning sunlight is healthy, so every day I look at the sunrise for just a few minutes and soak it in. And wherever I am, I gaze at the horizon and say: ‘I’m going to walk there.’ And it’s different every day. When I’m in London, my hotel is across from Hyde Park, and I can tell you the best place to see foxes is there. I heard there are around 40 per square mile in London, and pretty reliably I’m gonna see them on my early morning walks: the food source is now better than in the countryside. It’s the same with seagulls: many prefer towns to the seashore. It reminds me of what I found out in school about learned heredity – the way animals can pass on new knowledge to their next generation, then the next.

Where I live in Connecticut, we have a lagoon that leads directly into the Atlantic – next stop Ireland. We had a pod of dolphins in there last year, and when it’s frozen I’ve seen the coywolf, a crazy cross between a wolf and a coyote. All my places are on the water, and when I used to race boats, I liked that I could get wherever I wanted using celestial navigation. In the Faughan Valley, we saw a tree that had fallen in the river, and it’s important to retain that because soon the fish will build a little colony there. When I was a yachtsman and a boat would sink, we’d say: ‘In a few months that’s a new artificial reef, loaded with fish.’ These are natural events; humans just have to get out of the way.

So in the Faughan Valley, I planted a spindle and a rowan. I was into it: the experience of the whole day was fantastic. I met the Trust’s young volunteers and we all took selfies – it was a blast. And I learned so much. I saw the entire expanse, including where future tree planting will take place. I was feeling very romantic about the Woodland Trust, thinking: ‘What if we wind up being an example for other countries, and people realise the ecological benefits and start saying: “Wow, they did it. Why can’t we?”’

» Founded by Nile and his partner Nancy Hunt, We Are Family Foundation UK supports the Trust’s work in the Faughan. Tune in to our podcast with Nile.