356 Days Wild: Week 25

And so comes the end of another ’30 Days Wild’. Crazy to think my first introduction to ‘daily acts of wildness’ was officially over a whole year ago!

I’m also just about halfway through my wild challenge for 2021. For anyone who missed the very first post about my wild undertakings, I managed to decide to do this just after the start of 2021 so that’s why it’s ‘356 days’ and not ‘365 days’ – soooo many people must think it’s a typo. Or that I don’t know how many days there are in a year…!

Back to the post. My highlights for Week 25 include:
🐮 Watching some hungry cows in the morning sunshine
🌳 Taking in all the shades of green on a soggy walk
💛 Painting a new yellow bird
🐯 Identifying a scarlet tiger moth

Full story below! Thank you for reading 😊

Monday 28th June 2021

Pea crop

Things feel like they’re piling up again. The flexibility of working from home (yup, I’m still working from home!) really does get tested when pinch points loom on the horizon. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but, for those who don’t know, I work at a university here in the UK and my main job is to support school children to consider higher education as an option in the future. My colleagues and I will be running a summer school online for the second year in a row in August – this is the pinch point!

Anyway, I was lucky today because I had some company. A friend worked from my house which really made a much-needed change. And, after a lovely day, I went for a short walk once my friend had gone home. I wander past the same crops all the time on this walk and it’s only very recently that I realised what this particular crop was: peas! I never knew peas had such beautiful flowers.

Tuesday 29th June 2021

  • Black garlic
  • Common pear
  • English lavender

I’ve been missing grandad a lot recently. I’m not exactly sure why. I guess it could be what they say about grief – it comes in waves.

I’m definitely feeling a lot of emotion building up and I’m struggling to get it to present itself. But I know it’ll come out soon. So, in the meantime, I’m still trying to find comfort in the small things and today I wanted to share some plants from a beautiful small patch of garden on our estate. I’m not sure who actually owns this patch, but they’ve done such a lovely job with it. Earlier in the year, there were loads and loads of tulips and, now, the bees are having a wonderful time on the lavender and there’s even a small pear tree!

Wednesday 30th June 2021

My partner asked me an interesting question over the weekend that I just couldn’t answer: are there any birds whose numbers are actually increasing in the UK?

It’s definitely a sad picture when it comes to British birdlife and we should never lose sight of how many species are declining (it really is shocking), but I thought it was an interesting question. The only one we agreed must, definitely, be increasing is the red kite. And that’s still pretty localised.

So I had a look online and I realised that some of the ‘winners’ actually make a lot of sense. Compared with numbers in 1970, these are some of the common birds that have seen significant increases:

  • Buzzard (+509%)
  • Collared dove (+266%)
  • Mute swan (+219%)
  • Goldfinch (+197%)
  • Woodpigeon (+121%)
  • Chiffchaff (+104%)

These ones ‘made sense’ to me because I tend to see or hear them quite a bit. The chiffchaff being one of my absolute faves! But there were some others that I didn’t really expect, like the great spotted woodpecker (+351%), blackcap (+335%) and nuthatch (+289%).

Thursday 1st July 2021

It was lovely and sunny this morning so I went for a different walk to my usual routes. This one took me through the fields and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the cows munching on the grass!

One of the meadows I walked through also had a gizzilion meadow brown butterflies. As a moved through the long grass, they kept fluttering away.

Friday 2nd July 2021

Yellowhammer – pencil crayon on watercolour

I’ve been working on a piece of artwork almost every evening this week and I finally finished it this afternoon. It’s a watercolour and pencil crayon yellowhammer. I might have to write a whole blog post about this fella – he was hard work!

As with most of my bird drawings and paintings, I was inspired to create the yellowhammer after a chance sighting of the real thing last weekend.

Saturday 3rd July 2021

Another humid day, another humid walk. This one took us along some very overgrown footpaths and bridleways. Avoiding nettles and prickly things while also trying not to get drenched by water droplets was quite a challenge!

And the thing I noticed the most about this walk? The green. It’s just so green everywhere. And, much as I pray for some more dry weather, you can’t deny that the rainfall and humidity has really helped lots of trees, plants and flowers. A bit of woodland almost looked tropical it was that green. The insects were clearly enjoying the humidity too – there were loads of ringlet butterflies, snails and other bug life!

Sunday 4th July 2021

A scarlet tiger moth

My partner and I have been members of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust for nearly a whole year now and we’ve never been to a nature reserve out of hours. Members are given a code so they can go to larger reserves when visitor centres are shut. So we decided to head over to Brandon Marsh to try out our members access early doors.

For anyone who knows me, you’ll be aware that I have a bit of an anxious disposition and, for the whole journey, I was sure that the code we were given wouldn’t work on the gate. To my relief, it worked. However. Could we find the members way into the blummin nature reserve!? No we could not. We even walked through (trespassed across) the concrete plant next door. We were about to plonk ourselves down in the car and wait for the visitor centre to open when we spotted the members gate. What wallies!

Anyway, when we eventually got into the reserve, we spotted a range of different things, including:

  • Common terns
  • Mallard ducks
  • Cormorants
  • Reed warblers
  • Coots
  • Moorhens
  • Mute swans
  • Common gulls
  • Lapwings
  • Oystercatchers
  • Canada geese
  • Potentially a reed bunting
  • Great tits
  • Coal tits
  • Green woodpeckers
  • Gatekeeper butterflies
  • Ringlet butterflies
  • Small tortoiseshell butterflies
  • Scarlet tiger moth
  • Common spotted orchids
  • Baby common frogs

My favourite was definitely the scarlet tiger moth. I’ve never seen this moth before and I was really worried it was going to get trampled on but we think it flew off unscathed. Just look at those colours (might have to paint this one!)

*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!

356 Days Wild: Week 24

And so ends the last full week of this year’s ’30 Days Wild’! It’s been so nice to take part in this challenge again and, I have to say, it’s also very reassuring to know that my wild challenge won’t come to an end on July 1st! I’m gonna keep on goin’!

Let’s get straight to the highlights! This week, I:
🐦 Said hello to the local guard goose
🐝 Rescued a sleepy bumblebee
🦋 Spotted a new butterfly
🏳️‍🌈 Made a ‘wild rainbow’

‘Tara for now’ – and enjoy! 😊

Monday 21st June 2021

The heroic guard goose

We stormed our way back to Shipston this morning. It was another shocker of a day in London – oh the rain! – so we headed back to the West Midlands a little earlier than planned and prayed for nicer weather at home.

And it turns out our wishes were granted! The rain stopped at Oxford and it was dry enough for us to have a walk in the afternoon. We just did a little local one. And, though I’ve done this walk many times, I don’t think I’ve ever shared one of the absolute highlights I pass almost every time: the guard goose!

Yes, there’s a guard goose in the garden of a house on the walk. We haven’t seen her for a little while and I think I worked out why today. The grass in the garden she lives in has gone absolutely wild. It’s so tall! And, this afternoon, there she was, tucked away in the tall grass, having a good nibble on the blades she could reach.

Tuesday 22nd June 2021

Artwork – still a work-in-progress!

I had a cheeky bonus day off today and I was craving artwork. Procrastination is such an interesting thing. This is the usual way it goes with my artwork:

1. I decide I’d like to do some artwork, knowing it’ll make me feel better
2. I spend hours doing anything but artwork
3. I create a list of life admin and visit the cats in their room repeatedly saying ‘I’ll start some artwork in the next hour’
4. Eventually, I sit down to do some artwork (if it isn’t too late in the afternoon!)
5. I feel much better

It’s a bad habit! And I really wanted to avoid falling into a procrastination spiral today so I whacked out the pencils and watercolours early and settled down to work on some different pieces. The landscape is inspired by my Yorkshire Dales adventure in May. I also made a little watercolour birthday postcard for a friend. The next challenge is to finish them!

Wednesday 23rd June 2021

A craved something else this morning. A walk to Honington!

Honington is a little village just down the road from town and I walked there almost every day in February when I was doing a step challenge. Because of my ankle, I haven’t walked this way for weeks and I’ve really missed it.

One of the reasons I love this walk is that the flowers change all the time. It’s where I spotted my first snowdrops of the year. The snowdrops then made way for the daffodils, who then moved over for pansies and tulips. And now it’s the roses that have the limelight. I think this walk in particular made me appreciate some of the benefits of a slower pace of life last year.

Thursday 24th June 2021

The poor buff-tailed bumblebee!

Have you ever wondered what to do when you have an exhausted bee on your window? Well, this was my predicament today.

It felt quite muggy first thing, but that quickly changed to pretty darn cold. I realised mid-morning that the living room window was still open and was surprised to see a huge bumblebee sitting towards the bottom. Initially, I naively thought that it might just fly out of the window so I decided not to disturb the bee and left the window open.

An hour or so later, it hadn’t moved. And I got my thinking-cap on. I’m a little worried at how long it took me to realise it had probably lost all its energy, but eventually the lightbulb came on! I sprung into action, realising I needed to help this poor creature. And what did I do? I did what all millennials these days do – I grabbed my phone and googled the problem (‘how to help tired bees’). And the answer was to mix 2 spoons of sugar with 1 spoon of water and leave the liquid within reach of the bee.

I think it was a buff-tailed bumblebee but I’m not 100% sure. What I do know is that the poor thing really didn’t like it when I accidentally placed the sugary liquid too close to its legs. It started making a buzzing noise but couldn’t move its wings yet. So I left it alone near the spoon for a while, hoping it would calm down and take some of the artificial nectar. When I came back in, I could see it’s long tongue licking up the sugar and breathed a sigh of relief. It headed out the window not long afterwards.

Friday 25th June 2021

Geraniummmmmmmm

Am I the only person who, when you hear the word ‘geranium’, sings ‘GERANIUMMMM’ to the tune of Robbie Williams’ Millennium? I’m concerned the answer might be yes!

For today’s act of wildness, I sat and admired a beautiful pink geranium that my partner’s mum bought me a few weeks ago. The photo doesn’t do this flower justice – the colours are so vibrant. How does mother nature do it?!

Saturday 26th June 2021

A speckled wood chilling on the road

I remember writing about a brown butterfly last year. Well, it’s not really brown. It’s orange. But it has this seemingly ‘boring’ colour in its name: meadow brown.

Well, today, I didn’t just spot my first meadow brown of 2021 but I also got a fabulous view of a beautiful, brown speckled wood butterfly. I absolutely love the spots on a speckled brown and seeing this little critter gave me an excuse to swot up. Here’s what I learnt:
🦋 It likes woodland (makes sense), hedgerows and gardens
🦋 It can be seen fluttering around between March and October
🦋 The best way to identify it is through the spots on its wings (3 on each hindwing and 1 on the forewing)
🦋 In south west Europe, the speckled wood is brown and orange instead of brown and cream

Sunday 27th June 2021

‘Race for a Rainbow’

Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has been amazing throughout ’30 Days Wild’ and they’ve shared loads of suggestions of things people can do to bring wildlife into their daily lives. I decided today was the day to take the Trust up on one of its suggestions: ‘Race for a Rainbow’.

June is also Pride Month, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ rights is a cause very close to my heart so I scrambled around the garden to create my very own photo rainbow using anything wild I could find. I only cheated on the blue – the blue sky was from a few days ago!

For the other colours, we have: scarlet firethorn berries, an unripe cherry, some dandelions, European dewberry leaves and Serbian bellflowers.

*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!

356 Days Wild: Week 23

I’m a little late with this round-up but last week was just as wild as ever! The sunshine was lovely while it lasted and, despite the rain, I enjoyed a mini-urban-wild-adventure in the ‘Big Smoke’ towards the end of the week.

A few highlights from Week 23:
🐦 Reading up on rare UK birds
🌸 Enjoying some new garden flowers
🦋 Butterfly hunting by the river
🌱 Ticking off some of London’s green spaces

Many more details below – thank you for reading! 😊

Monday 14th June 2021

Next door’s roses

I spent a couple of work breaks sitting in the garden throughout the day today. Each time I sat down on my little wooden chair, I tried to switch off and listen to the sounds around me. And when I heard something new, I jotted it down in my notebook.

The first bird I heard was a croaky wood pigeon. It sounded like it was perched in a neighbour’s garden. I then heard the house martins. Their little high-pitched screeches filled the air above me and the even-higher-pitched-chirping from the rooftops behind told me that they had some hungry chicks in their nests. I also heard a local jackdaw cawing away, the soft cooing of a collared dove and the endearing twitterings of a small group of goldfinches.

During my moments of mindfulness, I also paid attention to what I could actually see. Some yellow and pink roses shooting off into the air along a branch from next door’s garden immediately caught my eye. Such an invasion of our green space and yet so beautiful. They match the enormous pink peonies that have just opened as well.

Tuesday 15th June 2021

Did you hear about the Egyptian vulture this week?! It was spotted on the Isles of Scilly and it’s apparently the first time in at least 150 years that this bird has appeared in the UK.

Well, as it happens, there’s a whole Twitter feed dedicated to these sorts of sightings that I was totally unaware of until today: RareBirdAlertUK. I’m not a twitcher, but that doesn’t mean you can’t aspire to be one, so I had a good read through the latest round up of rare bird sightings in the UK, including:

  • A sulphur-bellied warbler (which should apparently be in north-western Afghanistan right about now)
  • A pacific swift
  • Glossy ibises
  • Purple herons
  • Red-rumped swallows
  • Rose-coloured starlings

If you’re sat there thinking ‘I’ve literally never heard of these birds before’ then do. not. worry. Neither had I! And that’s all part of the fun! A purple heron though – who knew they existed?!

Wednesday 16th June 2021

Even though it was another scorcher of a day, I made a bold decision at lunchtime to head over to the meadow for a muggy walk. In weighing up the pros and cons, I came to the conclusion that having a stroll in the midday heat would give me the best opportunity to see some butterflies – and other insects – down by the river and I wasn’t wrong!

As soon as I got through the gate, I was mesmerised by some sort of damsel/dragonfly. It turned out to be a banded demoiselle, probably a male one as my Collins gem: Insects book says that the male has a ‘brilliant metallic blue body and a dark blue patch on the outer corner of each wing’.

My next treat was a kaleidoscope (yes, that’s the official name) of small tortoiseshell butterflies. They were absolutely loving life on the wild mustard by the river while some small white butterflies fluttered past them to enjoy some of the farmer’s crops.

There were loads of other dragonfly-type-insects around too – I just couldn’t get any pictures of them and I don’t know enough of these by heart. I think bees, butterflies, moths and dragon/damselflies are next on my list to learn!

Thursday 17th June 2021

A lone poppy in all its splendour

A flower sprouted up out of nowhere in my hanging basket this week. The poor basket has seen better days and it originally started its journey a couple of years ago with some beautiful pansies. Unfortunately, these pansies never saw the light of day in 2021, though they did reappear last year. Riddle me that!

As I’ve clearly neglected the hanging basket this spring, and the pansies had paid for this dearly, my expectations for it were low. However, I spied that something had sprung from its soil this week and, to my delight, a magnificent common poppy decided to make an appearance this morning.

Friday 18th June 2021

My partner and I headed to London today for a long weekend. The BBC’s weather prediction was very changeable all week and, as soon as we arrived into Paddington station, it was clear that the heavens had opened. We got soaked.

After drying off in a pub in Fitzrovia, we continued the trek towards our hotel near Kings Cross. The rain had mercifully ceased and we wound our way through the streets and community gardens at a leisurely pace. I always forget that London is dotted with green spaces and the flowers and trees bring so much colour to the urban landscape.

One of the parks we went through was called St George’s Gardens in the borough of Camden. It started its life as one of the first burial grounds located away from a church. In 1713, the plot lay in the open fields on the outskirts of the city. Walking through in 2021, it’s difficult to imagine what that must’ve been like – the open fields are now a very long way away.

Saturday 19th June 2021

There are also some nature reserves in London and we had a look at one today called Woodberry Wetlands. The wetlands are near Stoke Newington and Manor House to the north of central London. In a previous life, the wetlands functioned as reservoirs and the water was treated with chlorine and sodium phosphate gas. Needless to say, there wasn’t a whole lot of wildlife in the water back then.

More recently, a range of birds, plants and mammals have come back to the area and the reservoirs are now bustling wildlife reserves. On our visit today, there were lots of coots and coot-chicks, reed warblers and tufted ducks. A common tern also enjoyed itself, swooping up and down above the water, presumably catching some tasty insects. It was such a contrast to the tower blocks overlooking the water.

And just as a side note, I think another ‘act of wildness’ deserves a mention today and it may be one that you experienced as well. During the Germany-Portugal football match in the afternoon, a pigeon stole the limelight when it photobombed the pitch looking for some food. It flew off after a few seconds but it hadn’t gone very far – it just went a bit further up the pitch looking for more. What a heroic pigeon!

Sunday 20th June 2021

Two Egyptian Geese enjoying the Regent’s Canal

Our penultimate day in London and we decided to learn a bit more about the Regent’s Canal. We started at the London Canal Museum which is an excellent little place near King’s Cross. After indulging in a bit of history, we then strolled along the canal up to Camden Town. En route, we saw loads of coots (they’re everywhere!), a cormorant drying off its wings and two Egyptian Geese. Not really sure what they were doing here but they were certainly having a good chill by the water!

*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!

356 Days Wild: Week 22

Well, it’s been a scorcher here in the UK for the past week. Makes a change! 😎

It was also the second week of ’30 Days Wild’. I took part in this challenge for the very first time last year and it inspired my own ‘wild year’ this year. Some of my highlights are different to the Wildlife Trusts’ ones but I’d definitely recommend getting some inspiration by checking out their Twitter feed if you fancy taking part.

So, during the last week, I particularly enjoyed:
🐝 Spotting a white-tailed bumblebee on some long-headed poppies
🌳 Having a couple of walks through the fields
🌅 Watching the (wild) world go by on the train
🔍 Identifying a Mother Shipton Moth!

Read on to find out more. Thank you 😊

Monday 7th June 2021

History Today (June 2021)

The duck-billed platypus. Arguably one of the most bizarre creatures on our planet. I read a nice little article about this mammal/not-mammal today. This time in a history magazine. The piece focused on 19th century views of the platypus. It isn’t too difficult to believe that many naturalists at the time were sceptical when a preserved skin, accompanied by a sketch, made its way from John Hunter (Governor of New South Wales) to Europe.

I’ve only ever seen a duck-billed platypus once and it was in captivity – at Australia Zoo. I remember seeing it swimming around in its tank and thought it looked so happy. Potentially a very misleading consequence of its duck-bill; in hindsight, I doubt very much that it was happy in that tank. And I can’t imagine what it must be like to see one of these critters in the wild. Even though we know they’re definitely real, they definitely lay eggs and they definitely have poisonous spines, I can sympathise with the sceptical 19th century naturalists!

Tuesday 8th June 2021

The long-headed poppies and the white-tailed bumblebee

The garden is absolutely thriving in the summer sunshine at the moment. The pot plants, less so. In a desperate attempt to keep them alive, I water them every morning – they dry out so quickly in the heat!

Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more about the pot plants once they flower (if they flower!) but, today, I’d like to draw your attention instead to a plant that really hasn’t had the airtime it deserves. And it hasn’t needed much attention or TLC at all. I’m pretty sure I never planted it, it just appears each spring out of nowhere. It’s the long-headed poppy. Beautifully orange in colour, it’s apparently a ‘weed of arable fields and waste places’ but I don’t think that description does it justice!

And the bees are absolutely loving life on the poppies – later in the week, I spied on an enormous white-tailed bumblebee which was hopping from one flower to the other. I say ‘spied’ but, actually, it couldn’t have done more to draw my attention to it. It was HUGE, had an extremely loud buzz-buzz-buzz and was wriggling around ridiculously as it enjoyed the nectar!

Wednesday 9th June 2021

Dark clouds on the horizon

After a lovely warm day, my partner and I headed out for a very short walk around the meadow this evening. It isn’t very far – probably about a 30 minute walk in total – and we took it quite slowly. Although the sun shone for most of the day, the clouds had swarmed in by the time we went out and it threatened rain/thunder for the whole of the walk.

We were spared a drenching and enjoyed our quiet stroll. We only really had to share the meadow with a handful of swifts flying above and a couple of herons who landed in a nearby field. The swifts always intrigue me. I love their shapes as they fly through the sky – their pointy tails and wings create a much sharper outline than the swallows and house martins – and I often wonder what sort of tropical places they’ve come from. And why on earth they decide to come to this particular spot every year.

Thursday 10th June 2021

Whilst I’ve been doing this challenge, I’ve noticed that I’m spotting wildlife in everyday life more. Not as in physically seeing wildlife more (though that’s probably true too) but as in noticing wildlife in things like TV dramas, films and novels.

I recently read Jane Eyre and I really noticed it in this. In the book, Charlotte Bronte’s characters regularly walk through the fields to travel to the next village. It’s so easy to forget that this was often the only practical way to get from place to place – within a reasonable distance – back in the ‘olden days’. One bit did absolutely terrify me though: when Jane Eyre is ‘dropped off’ at a road junction that appears to be 10 miles away from the nearest place and she has to sleep on a moor overnight. Can you imagine?!

Friday 11th June 2021

My first solo morning walk in nearly 3 weeks! I decided today was the day to try and go out on my own around the meadow to start building up some more strength in my ankle. I love morning walks and, over the course of the year, I’d managed to get to a point where they were a core part of my daily routine so it felt like the right time to try and get back into the swing of things.

As I walked around, a few things really stood out to me. It’s so interesting how you can walk the same route and still notice different things. Even if you’ve walked it a million times! Today, I was drawn to an old ash tree wedged into the bank of the Stour, all of the cow parsley hugging the sides of the river and the reed warblers chattering away in the foliage, totally hidden from view and yet, from their calls, so obviously there. I also had a good look at some dog roses – so beautiful and pink in the morning light.

Saturday 12th June 2021

Dusk from the train

I had a trip into London today. It was my friend’s birthday and it’s the first time in absolutely ages that I’ve seen him, my other friends, and London itself! This may sound a bit odd but my wildlife highlight was actually the train journey there and back. I just love staring out of the window, taking in the views.

I think one of the reasons why I like this so much is that the train line gives you a totally different view. It shows you secret ponds, hidden burrows and treelines that you would never be able to see from a road or a footpath. I travelled back while dusk set in – I think a summer dusk is starting to become my favourite time of the day. As the sun was setting, I saw some swans and a heron enjoying a secluded pond, a buzzard chilling on an overhanging branch (right near the train) and a deer nibbling about in a field.

Sunday 13th June 2021

A bit blurry, but this is the Mother Shipton moth!

I spotted a Mother Shipton moth today! Not gonna lie, I’d never heard of this moth before. We were out on a short walk through the fields and this rather distinctive moth appeared in the long grass near the river. When I say ‘long’ grass, I mean very very long grass – our legs were covered in grass seeds by the time we’d weaved our way through!

Anyway, back to the moth. I’d say it was probably about medium-sized, but I honestly don’t know my moths very well at all. I always find it fascinating when I’m reminded that only 20,000 of the 160,000 species of moths and butterflies are actually butterflies. So, basically, there are a hell of a lot of moths out there!

The Mother Shipton moth belongs to the Erebidae family and, according to Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, it is so named because the shapes on its wings resemble a witch’s face. Like old Mother Shipton.

I grew up knowing a bit about Mother Shipton because she apparently lived in Knaresborough (Yorkshire) and my dad used to work near there. There’s even a visitor centre at the cave where Mother Shipton was said to have been born in 1488 (during a thunderstorm, no less) and the website has this rather unflattering description of ‘England’s most famous prophetess’: Her nose was large and crooked, her back bent and her legs twisted. Just like a witch. 

I also have a few pieces of art to share with you – some birthday cards and birthday gifts! The ‘Claude & Jolene’ cards are inspired by my cats and the watercolour pieces are inspired by some little postcards I painted in May:

Claude & Jolene cards
Materials:
✉️ docrafts Anita’s square quality white cards & envelopes (135 x 135mm)
✏️ Faber-Castell polychromos pencils

Watercolour flowers and trees
Materials:
📜 Daler Rowney ‘The Langton’ A5 watercolour paper (300 gsm)
🎨 Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolour pocket box (12 pans)
✒️ Uni PIN fine line pens

*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!

356 Days Wild: Week 21

A bit of a tricky one this week, as all I’ve wanted to do is go outside for long walks in the sunshine which just isn’t possible at the moment!

That said, it was the start of ’30 Days Wild’ this week and I have quite a few wild highlights, which I’m very grateful for, including:
☕️ Having a ‘big wild breakfast’ in the sunshine
🐦 Learning about gulls and their complex taxonomy
🐣 Checking-in on my favourite webcam chicks
🌺 Painting all of the colours of spring

For the full story, please read below. Enjoy! 😊

Monday 31st May 2021

Red hot poker flowers

Another bank holiday! It was a bit of a shame that a long walk was off the cards, but I managed a short walk around town which is progress! The weather was so lovely and I really enjoyed taking in the vibrant colours of the plants and flowers that we walked past, along with the sounds of the blackbirds, sparrows and collared doves.

I haven’t been able to walk this far over for a little while so I was intrigued by some tall reed-looking plants near a local church that I’d never seen before. They must have appeared in the last couple of weeks. A bit of research suggests that this was a ‘red hot poker’. Very pretty!

Tuesday 1st June 2021

It was the first day of ’30 Days Wild’ today. To kick it off, the Wildlife Trusts held a nationwide ‘Big Wild Breakfast’. So I grabbed a cup of coffee and propped myself on a chair outside in the garden. I listened to the starlings, blackbirds and sparrows and enjoyed basking in the morning sunshine. The cats seemed to enjoy themselves too!

Wednesday 2nd June 2021

It’s getting harder and harder to force myself to rest my ankle. All I want to do is go out for as many walks as I can around working hours. I’ve never been particularly good at ‘resting’. When I finish work, I usually let the cats come upstairs, or cook, or garden. Or go for a walk. All of these things usually mean I’m up on my feet or running around after something – an ingredient I forgot to buy, a cat trying to absolutely destroy the sofa, and so on…

To make sure I actually did rest my ankle today, I turned on The Stubborn Light of Things podcast and put my phone down. I wanted to listen to this episode properly. And I’m really glad I did. Melissa Harrison was at the beach in this one and she talked a bit about gulls. I’m always guilty of saying ‘oh look a seagull’ when I see a gull of some kind flying around. Thing is, there’s no such thing as a ‘seagull’!

In fact, there are so many types of gulls and, confession, I really haven’t put the effort into learning the any of them. As well as being very intelligent birds, it turns out gulls are actually really difficult to identify as their plumage changes a lot compared to other birds, but I reckon I should still try a bit harder. They get a pretty bad rep and that’s only because they often outsmart us!

Thursday 3rd June 2021

BBC Wildlife Magazine (June 2021)

I love this picture of a little owl in my magazine and I feel so lucky to have seen one in Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago. Something I didn’t know about little owls – and learnt this from the article – is that they can pursue prey on foot. I feel like that could be quite entertaining to see!

Friday 4th June 2021

Screenshots of my favourite 2021 webcam chicks!

Today felt like a good day to see how various webcam chicks are doing. I’ve followed a few this year, including: the Leamington peregrines, Somerset barn owls and the Rutland ospreys. The barn owls still look very small and fluffy. But the ospreys are pretty mature now and I can’t believe how quickly the peregrines have grown too! I have a particular soft spot for these three and, geek that I am, I decided to put forward three names for them in a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust competition – I’ll tell you what they were if I win!

As a side note, my favourite webcam-chick-related story this year has got to be this tweet from the Hawk and Owl Trust back in May:

The tawny owl chick was already enormous by this point!!! 😂

Saturday 5th June 2021

Spring has influenced quite a few birthday art pieces recently and, after a nice couple of hours in the garden, I worked on two of these today. I can’t share them in full just yet, but here are a couple of snippets! I love picking out the colours – it’s a careful and considered process, yet I often find I end up getting drawn to purples/blues, reds/oranges and yellows.

Sunday 6th June 2021

To end the week, I had my first walk to the meadow since my ankle incident. As I’ve said many times in my blog posts, the various lockdowns have definitely made me appreciate the local area and, having been denied the opportunity to even go out for local walks in the past 12 days, I honestly couldn’t appreciate this meadow more now!

Although it’d only been a week and a half since I was last here, everything has grown so much since then. The white cow parsley mixed in with the bright yellow buttercups lining the road was particularly impressive and I was so excited to hear a few of the regulars: wrens, song thrushes, chiffchaffs and chaffinches.

I’ve missed the meadow so much and, though I don’t think I’m ready to do this walk every day just yet, I’m really looking forward to wandering through there again soon.

*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!

356 Days Wild: Week 20

Week 20 woooooooooooooooop!!!! A whole 140 days of wildness already!!!

That’s all I can congratulate myself on this week. Without sounding too sorry for myself, I made a bit of a silly mistake that has tested me. After walking for miles and miles during weeks 18 and 19, I found myself restricted to the house for most of the week, unable to get my usual steps in (to read the whole story, skip to Tuesday!)

Despite some mobility issues, I’m pleased to say I still tried to cram in as much wildlife as I could into the week. There might not be any grand, long walks in this post, but I’ve learnt a lot since the first lockdown and I feel I now really know how to ‘stay local’…!

Some of my top highlights include:
🌿 Enjoying the garden and all its colours
🎵 Learning a new bird song
🎨 Looking through some amazing wildlife art
🐦 Painting a beautiful lapwing

Enjoy! Oh, and, remember – you could do your own wildlife challenge in June if you want to. You can sign up for ’30 Days Wild’ here. It isn’t too late!

Monday 24th May 2021

Our acer tree

We spent this morning travelling back from our jollies. It’s always a sad moment when a holiday comes to an end and I tend to get a little bit anxious about what we’re going to come home to – will we have forgotten to take something out of the fridge that will stink the house out, for example. Funnily enough, I don’t think these fears have ever come true. Yet.

When we got home, despite the doom and gloom of work on the horizon, there was a little silver lining. When I looked out onto the garden, everything was so green. The plants had suddenly sprung into action and our acer tree and creeper are now completely covered in leaves. When we left the house only 10 days ago, there was barely a bud!

Tuesday 25th May 2021

The beautiful blue tit – today’s bird song lesson

My act of wildness today was a Lucy Lapwing bird song lesson, but, before I delve into that, I think it’s worth stopping for a funny (and then not-so-funny) side-story.

You see, this morning I decided to sit on my left foot on the sofa. I do this regularly and often this foot falls asleep. It isn’t an advisable way to sit but my posture is also shocking so it’s fair to say I never learn. While sitting there, I realised that it had just gone 9 o’clock and I still wasn’t at my work desk. Not advisable on the first day back after a holiday either.

You must understand, I didn’t realise my left foot had gone to sleep. If I had, I wouldn’t have bolted up and fast-walked across the sitting room to go to my desk. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I sadly only realised my foot was numb when I fell over on my ankle, straight onto the floor. There was a moment of panic, followed by a moment of calm, followed by a ‘what-the-f-do-I-do’, followed by relief when I realised I could still stand on it.

Nevertheless, it swelled, it bruised, and I’ve been advised not to walk on it until the swelling has gone down. I’ve also been told it’ll take at least 6 weeks for me to get back to the kinds of walking I was used to doing. Not ideal but I was lucky overall.

Oh, and one final thing, the reason why I was running late and wasn’t yet sat at my desk was that I was finishing off my last blog post about the Yorkshire Dales – that’s meta 😂

Anyway, back to Lucy Lapwing. Her most recent bird song lesson is the blue tit. I see blue tits everywhere when I go for walks but I always find it hard to identify their songs. I think this one will need some more practice, but I’m hoping, once I can get back out and about again, that I’ll be able to pick it up quickly.

Wednesday 26th May 2021

Common sow thistle

One of the plants that stood out to me when we got home on Monday was what looked like a cluster of dandelions on top of an absolutely enormous green stem. I do not remember seeing this plant at all before I went on holiday and I had absolutely no idea what it was. I had another look at it today and used a lil identifier app; apparently it’s a common sow thistle. As with most flowers in my garden, it’s usually considered to be a weed. All I can say is that I saw a bee on one of the yellow flowers so that’s good enough for me!

Thursday 27th May 2021

Click on the tweet to see the full thread

So, let’s just say I’ve been forced to say local since Tuesday (i.e. confined to my house, mainly the sofa) and my friend, though he didn’t realise it at the time, kindly donated an ‘act of wildness’ for the day. He sent me this tweet about inosculation. I’d never heard of this before and the picture says it all really – mind blowing.

Then I read an article called ‘The Social Life of Forests’ that was posted underneath the tweet. This was about mycorrhizas – the underground partnerships between trees and fungi. If you have 20 mins or so, I’d really encourage you to have a read. The article highlights that, when you walk through a wood or a forest, you only really scratch the surface. Underground, there’s all sorts of information, nutrients and resources passing from plant to plant via symbiotic fungi and I had absolutely no idea!

Friday 28th May 2021

As someone who likes to draw and paint wildlife, I thought it would be rude not to have a look through the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year winners this afternoon.

The winning pieces are just outstanding. I’m truly in awe of the artists featured in the article. I always like to take my time when I look at art – I’m just desperate to understand how professional artists achieve what they do. But I honestly don’t know how some of the artists managed to create these!

The overall winning piece is undoubtedly breathtaking. I just can’t fathom how acrylic paints could create that. My personal favourites, however, are:

🐳 When the Whale Sang (Human Impact Category winner)
🐢 Trapped (Elizabeth Hosking Prize For Watercolour winner)
🦈 Whale Sharks in the Mauritius Oil Spill (highly commended)
🐠 Plastic Taste (highly commended)

Saturday 29th May 2021

The flowers are brightening up the kitchen!

My partner’s mum kindly brought over some beautiful pot plants which are now on full display in the kitchen. It’s so lovely to add some more colour into the house, especially when I’m still on strict orders to minimise walking. She bought us a geranium along with the two flowers above – the lilac one is an African daisy (osteospermum) and the yellow flower is possibly a Singapore daisy.

Sunday 30th May 2021

Lapwing (watercolour painting)

I managed to get out for a short walk around the block today and sat in the garden for a while to enjoy the sunshine and watch the house martins whizzing around. A blue tit also made an appearance on the clematis at the back of the garden.

To get a bit more of a wildlife hit, I whacked out the watercolours this afternoon too. I saw a lapwing up close while we were on holiday in Yorkshire and I knew, as soon as I saw its magnificent summer plumage, it needed to be painted. So that’s what I did – I just loved painting the colours!

*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!

A Yorkshire Dales Adventure (weeks 18 & 19 of my wild challenge!)

I’d intended to stick to my usual routine of my wildlife challenge posts. As Week 18 came to a close and I nestled down in a small cottage in the Yorkshire Dales to write down my acts of wildness, I realised it would be quite a difficult task to do this with no mobile reception and no wifi though. The only form of communication in the little village was the still-functioning pay phone and that wasn’t going to be much use!

So this is a longer post covering the last two weeks, with my Yorkshire Dales adventure being the absolute star of the show. It’s difficult to pick out a cluster of highlights, but I can confirm that there was a lot of walking (about 90 miles in total!) and a lot of wildlife!

Bear with me as I wind back a couple of weeks… It feels like a long time ago…

Week 18

Monday 10th May 2021

It was grandad’s birthday today. He would’ve been 83. I went on two walks around Shipston and thought of him on each of them. An early walk and an evening walk. It’s been so windy today and, on each one, I thought I might get caught out in the rain. The wind just kept blowing the blue sky, sunshine and showers through. I smiled at the dark clouds as they passed, knowing that, back in the day, my grandad would probably have gone out whether it was raining or not.

Tuesday 11th May 2021

Estimated tiger populations across Asia (BBC Wildlife Magazine, May 2021)

I read an article about tigers this afternoon. About 12 years ago, 13 countries across Asia pledged to double the number of tigers in their territory by 2022 (the next Chinese year of the tiger). It was an interesting read and, though it was a bit depressing to find out that tigers are now functionally extinct in places like Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, it was also reassuring to know that progress has been made in other areas. Like Bhutan, India and Russia.

Wednesday 12th May 2021

One of the features included in this month’s BBC Wildlife is about animals reclaiming lost territory. The most mind-blowing example, in my opinion, is the Bikini Atoll (also written about here in 2017). I just can’t believe that wildlife has managed to recover after nuclear weapons tests flash-boiled the sea to over 55,000C. Though not quite as dramatic, it did remind me of the UK’s Lockdown 1.0 (as it’s now known) when wildlife reclaimed lots of spaces previously dominated by people. I even drew a cartoon about it – it definitely feels like a long time ago!

Thursday 13th May 2021

The robin and the wood pigeon chilling in the rain

It was time to take the kitties to the cattery this afternoon. We’re heading up to Yorkshire tomorrow and it’s the first time they’ve had to go to the cattery. I’m always strategic when I need to put the cats in the carrier, which meant that I locked the cat flap around lunchtime to stop a wild chase around the garden.

Now, I love my cats, but, after a bit of rain on the lawn, all of these birds suddenly appeared and gobbled up the worms – this just never happens when the cats are allowed to roam. Hardly surprising and yet I was surprised to see a robin having a whale of a time, along with a pigeon chilling in the rain on the fence. It was lovely.

Friday 14th May 2021

A bit blurry, but you can just see the white head of the blackbird on the step

We headed up to the Yorkshire Dales today for a much-needed holiday. En route, we stopped off to see my parents, great aunt and grandma. They all live in a little town called Barnoldswick on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border. We were only able to see Auntie Joan through the window and could only have a brief chat, but it was lovely to visit her – I haven’t seen her since February 2020.

Before having an outdoor pub lunch with my mum, dad and grandma, we had a little walk around the town. We spotted a strange bird while we were walking – it looked like a blackbird but had a white head. My dad told us that they’d seen a similar female blackbird in their garden, which they’d nicknamed ‘Snowflake’. After a bit of research, it looks like these types of leucistic blackbirds aren’t that uncommon and, given they were spotted in a similar area and leucism is hereditary, it’s likely they’re related. So the male we saw may well be the son of Snowflake!

Saturday 15th May 2021

We started the day off in a place called West Witton and ended it in Langthwaite near Reeth, Yorkshire. The Air B&B in West Witton helped to break up our journey and it also gave us an opportunity to do a beautiful morning walk around this part of the ‘Dales. The walk took us along the River Ure and past the very impressive Redmire Force (waterfall). I was amazed at how many different birds we saw on this walk: curlews, lapwings, oystercatchers, willow warblers, bullfinches, a heron, a family of dippers, a mandarin duck, some goosanders, redstarts, sandpipers and partridges. It was an absolutely amazing walk!

After a brief trip to Richmond, we checked into our cottage in Langthwaite and then walked along Arkle Beck to Reeth. It was a pretty tiring walk in the end and we clocked up some serious steppage by the end of the return journey (over 34,000 steps for the day!), but, again, we were treated to some new birds – spotted flycatchers. And we also heard a couple of cuckoos all the way back to the cottage from Reeth.

Sunday 16th May 2021

My wildlife highlight for today was just hilarious. This holiday is all about walking for us but we do also enjoy a pint of ale/cider so we sat outside the Red Lion in Langthwaite this afternoon. As soon as we open the door to leave our cottage, the courtyard of the pub is in front of us. I don’t think we’ve ever stayed somewhere as close to a pub!

While we were enjoying our drinks, a sheep and a lamb suddenly trotted down the hill, along the road past the pub and over the bridge. I managed to record it – they must’ve come down from the surrounding hills and fancied a trek into ‘town’. After about half an hour the pair came back across the bridge and galloped back up the way they had come. So funny!

Week 19

Monday 17th May 2021

  • RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds

Today was a day that my thighs will never forget. A 9 mile walk is one thing. But a 9 mile walk including 2 very big, steep hills is another thing entirely. Especially when you’re trying to trek through peat bogs as well! Needless to say, I enjoyed the meal in the evening that we’d earnt!

The very special ‘act of wildness’ of the day, though, was spotting two new critters. We saw some golden plovers while we descended the first hill along ‘Little Shunner Fell’. The males are in full summer plumage, meaning they have a very striking black chest and a beautiful golden head.

The other bird we saw was a ring ouzel. Now, my partner has been banging on about this bird for literally ages. It looks like a blackbird but has a white ring around its neck and it migrates from Morocco and Tunisia each summer (see this article for more info). Since the moment we decided to have a holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, he’s been reminding me that ‘we could see a ring ouzel there’.

Both of us, deep down, knew this was unlikely though. They’re very rare and proper birders travel for miles to see a ring ouzel (as this news story from March 2020 notes!) But, unlikely as it sounds, we did indeed see one.

It was on the final stretch of our walk. We’d scaled two hills and had to follow the road for about 3 miles to get back to a place called Thwaite. We were tired. We were hungry. We’d had a couple of ‘power sweets’ (haribos) but our legs were nevertheless entering rigor mortis. Then, as we looked down into the steep chasm below the road, my partner got the binoculars and said ‘oh my God I think it’s a ring ouzel’. I couldn’t see it at first, but, luckily, it stuck around – and a friend even joined it! – and the bright white band around the neck was clear to see.

Tuesday 18th May 2021

The dark peat of the Arkengarthdale moors

Peat bogs. I’ve spoken quite a bit about peat recently. And I’ve mentioned before about how I’ve tried to go peat-free in the garden. Having walked through a range of peat bogs in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales, I can now say, for certain, that peat should never be in garden soil, compost, pot plants, or garden anything.

The walk today went across ‘trackless moorland’ – that was code for ‘fricking wet peatland’, though we didn’t know it until we started. Each time you put one foot on the ground, you have to pray that the moss doesn’t just give way underneath you. Aiming for rocks or tufts of grass is wise, but even then you can get stitched up. It’s tiring on the legs and trying on the mind. I think the most heroic blunder through the bogs so far was yesterday when I decided to plunge in, misjudged it terribly, felt my right boot sink straight into the ground, saw the muddy water lapping over the top, panicked, and decided to run. My feet got soaked and I lost what little dignity I had…

So, the ground on these moors is very wet and, within its cracks and crevices, you can see the rich, black peat that lies beneath. There really isn’t any other environment like this. The peat has taken thousands of years to form. You can’t just plant a tree to revive it. You can’t recreate it. It can’t be replaced. So it really shouldn’t be used to make gardens look pretty.

Wednesday 19th May 2021

Top on the list of bird-spots today was a little owl! We got a really good view of the little guy as we were walking towards a place called Fremington. It was stood on top of a dry stone wall and, if it hadn’t positioned itself so obviously on top of the wall, there’s no way we would’ve seen it. It was so well camouflaged against the greys and the whites of the wall. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to get a good photo but you can find out more about little owls here.

Thursday 20th May 2021

Some proper northern rain came today, but, just before it arrived, we went up onto the moor and had the opportunity to see some ruins of the region’s old lead smelting mills and spoil heaps. Arkengarthdale was the most notable lead-mining area in the Yorkshire Dales. Halfway through the walk, the true destruction of the moorland was plain to see – it was like a moonscape. Lead mining stopped in the area in the early 20th century and the moor still hasn’t recovered. There were no birds up here and it was such an odd thing to see. And it’s something we really should learn from.

Friday 21st May 2021

I want to write a bit about Arkle Beck today. The cottage sits right next to the beck and it really is quite a thing to watch. On the day we arrived, the sun was out and the beck was shallow. You could see the red, iron colouring of the water, along with lots of moss-covered rocks. Sandpipers and dippers could be seen hopping in and out of the water and wrens were nibbling about in the bank. It was very calm and tranquil.

After the rainfall over the course of the week, this beck has transformed into a fast-flowing torrent. Fuelled by all the water streaming off the moors, the current is unbelievable and I can’t believe how quickly it gained some serious height. In July 2019, the beck burst its banks and flooded the cottage, along with the pub, and it took out many of the footpaths and footbridges further downstream. We were luckily spared this!

Saturday 22nd May 2021

It was the last day at the cottage today. The dawn chorus starts early in Langthwaite and, given it was the last morning, I thought I’d take in the sounds of the blackbirds, song thrushes and wrens when they woke me up at 4am. I was grateful to get a bit more sleep once they’d died down after a while, but it was a lovely morning and I knew, deep down, I’d miss it.

Sunday 23rd May 2021

A rock dove near York Minster

The end of Week 19 just came too quickly. With the cottage a bit of a distant memory, my partner and I eked out as much of the remaining holiday as we could. We decided to have a weekend in York before setting off home so I enjoyed a different type of wildlife today. The greylag geese on the overflowing River Ouse and the rock doves (common pigeons) nibbling about around York Minster provided quite a bit of entertainment. I also learnt (though I didn’t see them) that the Minster has its very own peregrine falcon pair with 4 chicks! I hope those pigeons are on their guard.

And what about the art? Well, I did a few little birthday postcards over Weeks 18 & 19 – I used watercolour and ink for these. I also have lots of ideas for other art pieces following my Yorkshire Dales adventure and I can’t wait to get cracking!

*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 (356 Days Wild) 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!

Gone wildin’

I wrote this while I was sat in a cottage in a place called Langthwaite in the Yorkshire Dales. I already feel so spoilt by all of the wildlife I’ve seen and it’s only day 2 of my holiday.

There isn’t any wifi here and the signal is almost non-existent. An added bonus that I hadn’t anticipated.

So, rest assured, I’m still doing an ‘act of wildness’ everyday and I look forward to sharing them all with you once I’m back from my Yorkshire adventure. But, for now, I’ve gone wildin’!

356 Days Wild: Week 17

Though the weather has been a tad un-spring-like this week, the breaks between the showers have been an absolute treat. And we had a bank holiday this week – what more could a gal ask for?!

My wild highlights include:
🐦 Adding some more birds to the 2021 list
🌷 Identifying spring plants and flowers
🎨 A new watercolour painting
🐣 Finding some new chicks to spy on

Thank you for reading! 😊

Monday 3rd May 2021

My bird list for 2021 – I might need a bigger page…

Don’t you just love a bank holiday Monday? Sadly, the weather in the UK didn’t treat us very well this bank hol, but, before the rain hit, my partner and I managed to make a trip to Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve. We got there nice and early so it was lovely and quiet. The marsh lies just on the outskirts of Coventry and it’s managed by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.

We managed to add a few more birds to our 2021 list during our visit – new spots included some tufted ducks, shoveller ducks and blackcaps. Blackcaps have a very peculiar alarm call and I realised I’d heard this noise before on one of my regular walks – I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for more blackcaps near home! You can hear the alarm call here if you want to. We also heard a cuckoo so we’ve added that to the list too. It’s almost impossible to actually see a cuckoo these days.

Tuesday 4th May 2021

Evergreen bugloss – a common neighbourhood resident

I keep seeing a plant and not knowing what it is keeps bugging me. It’s a plant with tiny blue flowers clustered near the stem, with long pointy leaves. I had a look in the Collins Gem Wildflower book and just couldn’t find it in there. I thought that was a bit odd because I walk past these plants all the time.

After a bit more research, I started to wonder if they were forget-me-nots. The blue flowers looked a lot like the flowers on forget-me-nots but I still wasn’t convinced – the leaves and structure of the plant just didn’t fit. After some more research, I settled on evergreen bugloss. Funny thing is, when I saw the word ‘bugloss’, I remembered that I’d definitely looked this plant up last year. Brain like a sieve!

Wednesday 5th May 2021

Enjoying an afternoon read with Claude

I read a bit more of Sue Stuart Smith’s book this afternoon. The chapter I read focused on the importance of gardening to human culture. Ancient human culture, more specifically. It made me think a lot about what we may have lost as a species over the ages. We’ve obviously gained a lot too, but the care and importance assigned to growing things feels like it belongs to another age for most of us… My cat Claude thought it was an interesting read too!

Thursday 6th May 2021

Screenshot from the Somerset barn owl webcam

After the excitement of the Leamington peregrine webcam last week, I checked out some other live streams. The Somerset barn owls caught my eye – two barn owls (Finn and Orla) have had three little owlets, with a fourth egg still cooking. There’s sound with this one so, though I didn’t see the owlets when I was having a look, I could definitely hear them.

And this does beg the question – what on earth does a baby owl look like? Hopefully I’ll soon find out!

Friday 7th May 2021

I went out for a jog to Tidmington this morning. It was a beautiful morning and I thought I should make the most of it. I paused the jog once I got to Tidmington and walked through my usual spot, looking out for birds. I thought I’d seen a long-tailed tit and then realised, with disappointment, that it was ‘just’ a sparrow. But then I checked myself.

I thought back to an episode of The Stubborn Light of Things that I’d listened to earlier in the week. Melissa Harrison had been trying to record turtle doves during one of her local expeditions and she’d had no luck. The only birds she saw or heard were ‘big, fat, smug, dim wood pigeons’. And then she checked herself too. She reflected on why we only seem to value creatures once they become rare or at risk of extinction. And that we’re often ‘disgusted’ by animals that inconvenience us (even though their behaviour is often influenced by people and their waste) or, like humans, are abundant and therefore aren’t worth appreciating. But, as she rightly points out, they might not always be. Passenger pigeons were abundant and they all got wiped out.

So, as I continued my jog, I reflected on my reaction to the sparrow, determined to change my ways. And I thought about that little sparrow specifically and hoped I’d see it again soon.

Saturday 8th May 2021

Pied flycatcher watercolour

The rain came back with a vengeance today. It was the equivalent of those ‘wet play times’ you had at school. So I spent some time this morning finishing a watercolour pied flycatcher. I wanted to paint this bird after I spotted one on a walk a couple of weeks ago. I have a bit of a soft spot for pied wagtails so I had a lovely time painting this other pied critter.

Sunday 9th May 2021

With the sun shining down on us, my partner and I finished the week with a beautiful, long walk near Winchcombe in the Cotswolds. We were very lucky to have some lovely views of the Malvern Hills, Cheltenham and Gloucester. The plants and flowers also caught my eye. I think I’ve managed to identify all of these: the white and pink flower is from a crab apple tree, the purple flowers belong to an alpine clematis and a bugle and the pink flowers are red campion. Hopefully I won’t forget these too quickly!

*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!

356 Days Wild: Week 16

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

Let’s see how they turn out…

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

Some pictures from Tocil Wood, University of Warwick campus

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

A morning meadow walk – I think I might have to paint this at some point

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

A beautiful robin kept us company in the pub garden

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!

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