What a lovely ‘summer part 2’ we’ve been having! So many crisp, sunny days despite the days getting shorter.
Towards the end of Week 37 of my wildlife challenge, I had the opportunity to experience a few ‘acts of wildness’ with my sister. Definitely the main highlight! And there were other highlights too, including:
☀️ A lovely mid-week walk at work
🌽 New life (peas!) in a nearby field
🌳 Exploring some Cotswold woodland
🦦 Spotting an otter!!!
Ok, the otter was the main highlight but I saw that with my sister! First time I’ve seen an otter in the UK! Read on to find out more 😊
Monday 20th September 2021
My partner was working from home today so I had a bit of company on my early walk. It was another beautiful morning. I just love the way the mist from the river distorts the sunlight. I know I’ve shared quite a few sunrise photos (apologies!) but every single one is different in its own way. I also loved these cobwebs!
Tuesday 21st September 2021
All the way back in May, I wrote about my Yorkshire Dales holiday and how my partner had been praying to see a ring ouzel and somehow, against all the odds, we did indeed see a ring ouzel (well, three actually!)
This time around, he’s hoping to see a raven when we go to Wales in November. Now. I have to be honest. I had absolutely no idea until I looked the raven up in my amazing ‘Collins Life-Size Birds’ book just how enormous they are. They stand head-and-shoulders above a carrion crow and are bigger than buzzards. In the words of a close friend ‘I was shook‘.
Wednesday 22nd September 2021
I headed into the office today. I’m trying to get into the habit of going once a week even though, as it turns out, it’s currently a lot harder to work in the office than at home (“where did all the office equipment go” – a question asked about 18 months too late) and I’m not particularly productive there.
Despite the workspace complications, coming onto campus does pose a nice opportunity to explore its green spaces, which is exactly what I did over lunchtime today. I went for a walk to the outskirts of campus, past a number of ponds. There were swans and cygnets, canada geese (loads of them!) and coots and moorhens. To my surprise, there was also a little grebe on one of the ponds, diving down into the water at every opportunity. I decided to sit by this pond to have my lunch and a couple of mating common darters landed right next to me…!
I then wandered through some of the adjacent woodland. Some of this is pretty overgrown at the moment and I may have got stung by quite a few nettles! There were a few more secret ponds here and I added a heron to the list, along with countless grey squirrels crashing through the trees.
Thursday 23rd September 2021
I’ve done the Tidmington walk about a million times since living in Shipston and I just have one thing to say. I have never seen this little barn before. And yet. It must’ve always been there. Isn’t it odd how that happens?! I was obviously drawn to it this morning because of the beautiful creeper covering it. From some basic research, I think it’s a type of fleeceflower.
Friday 24th September 2021
I wrote last week about the pea field and how all of the peas had withered and died earlier in summer. I said I hoped it’d turn green again. Now, my agricultural knowledge is pretty much zero. So I had faith that seeing an entire crop die was all part of a bigger plan. I can’t conclusively say this is the case, but new, lush green peas have started to grow in the field!
Saturday 25th September 2021
My sister visited for the weekend and we had a lovely time at Brandon Marsh today. It’s such a special place and I thought it would be the perfect day out for her.
And it was even more special today because it was our first ever sighting of an otter in the UK! We went to the Steetley hide as soon as we got to the reserve and spotted a kingfisher on the way. That was already a very special treat. There was no one else in the hide so we just chilled in there for a while. This is always a good spot to see kingfishers so I thought it was worth waiting. As we looked out onto the small pool, there were some large ripples in the water. My first thought was that it was a large fish of some kind but then we saw a head pop up and it was unmistakably an otter. It swam around leisurely and then went out of view into the reeds. It was such an amazing experience.
As someone who still needs to get a proper camera, it was just impossible to get a good photo of the encounter with a phone so the photos are from the rest of the reserve. The otter was undoubtedly the highlight, but we were also lucky enough to see: a snipe, teals, lapwings, shovellers, goldeneyes, two more kingfishers, cormorants, swans, a little egret, a jay and a comma butterfly.
Sunday 26th September 2021
Another beautiful day, another lovely walk. This time through the Cotswolds near a village called Chipping Campden. The walk took us to Dover’s Hill first, where we had a beautiful view towards Evesham. It then took us downhill across the rolling fields and through beautiful woodland near Weston Park. The woods were absolutely amazing – still so lush and green.
And before I finish…
…I just wanted to share a couple of artwork pieces I completed this week. Here we have another watercolour and ink flower postcard (right). I painted this as a get well card for a colleague at work. On the left is a marsh tit watercolour. I had a play around with this one and took some inspiration from one of my favourite bird artists on Instagram – Painted Wing.
*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 