Week 16 and what did I get up to? Well, I:
🌼 Put on some peat-free ‘green fingers’ for National Gardening Week
🐦 Said hello to the house martins on their return
🌿 Enjoyed some new (and old!) walks
🐣 Waited with baited breath for some peregrine chicks to hatch
Read on to find out more! 😊
Monday 26th April 2021
It’s National Gardening Week this week. I’m still very much a garden novice and I’ve been struggling to source peat-free pot plants. That said, I did manage to find a nice collection of peat-free pollinator pot plants (that’s a tongue twister!) yesterday from Caves Folly Nurseries.
I also have two big bags of peat-free compost, so, once I finished work, I took myself outside (despite the showers!) I still have a few summer seeds that I didn’t plant last year so I thought I might as well add them to some compost and put the whole lot into some hanging pots. Hopefully they’ll sprout (is that the right saying?)
Tuesday 27th April 2021
The house martins are backkkkkkk!!!! I may have been a bit too excited about this earlier today! Due to a change in our working arrangements, I now use the spare bedroom/study for work and my partner travels to the office. Last year, he had the study and I had the kitchen table so he had the delight of seeing – and hearing – the house martins nesting outside the study window. My turn this time!
Wednesday 28th April 2021
My ‘act of wildness’ was such a simple, little thing today. And yet. It feels like it hasn’t happened in such a long time: hearing the rain against the window. I woke up to the sound and, though I crave dry weather when I’m out walking, it was a welcome noise. It’s been such a dry April in the UK – I think I heard last week that we’ve had only 5% of our usual rainfall for the month…!
Thursday 29th April 2021
I went onto campus for the first time in months this afternoon. I work at Warwick University on the outskirts of Coventry and my colleagues and I have all been working from home for over a year now. I had something to pick up from the uni – as did a couple of colleagues – so we decided to have a bit of a walk while we were there.
Well, I had absolutely no idea that there’s a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve within Warwick’s campus – Tocil Wood. We walked around some of the wood and beside some of the ponds. The bluebells in the wood were just beautiful and I heard some of the usual favourites, like chiffchaffs and great tits. I also spotted a couple of jays and a buzzard. The cuteness reading was off the scale when we walked past the ponds, though – two Canada Geese were escorting their fluffy yellow goslings to the water: Too. Adorable.
Friday 30th April 2021
I kicked off the morning with a walk through the meadow. I feel I’ve been neglecting this walk recently. And it’s such a lovely little stroll.
The first thing I noticed is that you could tell it had rained. The ground is still very dry (and believe me, this route gets mud-dyyyy after persistent rainfall!), but there was a bit of an earthy smell to it. Everything looked a little bit greener too. I took a few photos while I was out. I tried to take some from angles I wouldn’t normally capture.
A couple of swallows kept me company for a fleeting moment, as they sped off to catch some insects on the wing. It was such a peaceful walk.
Saturday 1st May 2021
You might remember that I mentioned a few weeks ago in my blog that I’d had a look at the Leamington Peregrine webcam? Well, I’ve been checking them out again intermittently this week as the peregrine eggs are due to hatch any minute. When I woke up this morning, it was the first thing I did. I wanted to see if the first egg had hatched.
Now, I didn’t realise I had such an inaccurate concept of what happens when a bird hatches. I’d kind of assumed that as soon as there’s movement or the egg cracks, the chick will appear in quick succession. I was totally wrong. There are some real birders watching this webcam and 6 hours before the first egg actually hatched, they were talking about some breakage in the shell. Meanwhile, mummy peregrine and daddy peregrine have taken it in turns to sit on the eggs for hours at a time. I’m in awe at their patience.
Side note – I actually did get to see the first chick in real time. Must’ve been lucky!
Sunday 2nd May 2021
I enjoyed a big roast dinner in a pub garden alongside a beautiful robin and a cheeky blackbird today. We were lucky with the weather – it was quite sunny! – and we had a lovely day in Stratford-upon-Avon. Before this heroic indulgence, we’d enjoyed a nice walk along the river and had a wander around the town too. Sharing the pub garden with these characterful critters was such a lovely end to the day!
And just in case you wanted a better look at the Leamington peregrine chicks…
*For anyone new to my blog, let me explain a bit more about what these posts are about. Every week I share a summary of my daily ‘acts of wildness’. This wildlife challenge was inspired by ’30 Days Wild’ and ’12 Days Wild’ from The Wildlife Trusts. The ‘356’ isn’t a typo – typically, I only thought about doing this after 2021 had already started so I won’t be able to do a full year this time. Next year will be different though! Thank you and I hope you’ve enjoyed the post!
Ramblings of a (very!) amateur artist 