30 Days Wild is an event, set up by the Wildlife Trusts, which runs throughout the month to encourage people to do a random act of wildness every day in June. Anyone can participate and the Trusts also produce a booklet to give you ideas of activities. I've taken part every year so far although I don't always blog about it. I will try and do something every day and hopefully do some posts.
Day 1 - Friday, 1st June
I decided on Friday to make an easy start by spending five minutes looking for yellow flowers in the garden. Here's a few I found.
Corydalis
A recent purchase from Morrisons - waiting to go in the garden but the flowers will be yellow:)
Cat's Ear in the "no mow zone" of the main lawn.
Yellow flags round the pond
Welsh Poppies
Yellow Rattle
Meadow Buttercup
Day 2 - Saturday, 2nd June
On and off throughout Saturday and over a 24 hour period I did a mini garden bioblitz. I will do a separate post on this later in the week as I have about 15 species of insects and grasses to identify.
Day 3 - Sunday, 3rd June
Yesterday we went for a walk along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal near Bodymoor Heath. The canal, which opened in 1789, begins at Gas Street Basin in Birmingham City Centre and passes through urban areas until reaching the countryside and continuing to Fazeley, near Tamworth.
Elderflower
and poppies near where we parked the car.
Initially we decided to walk in the direction of Kingsbury Water Park and then on to where the canal passes RSPB Middleton Lakes but to be honest it looked fairly busy in that direction and so
we retraced our steps and followed the canal in the opposite direction. Above a photo of what I think are hybrid ducks.
Lovely views over the Warwickshire countryside.
We saw lots and lots of clumps of Yellow Flag
By one of the bridges allium had been planted and there was
a brick structure - you won't be able to make out the wording but it said "Hollies Field" and there were engravings
on the individual bricks. I've tried to find out more but without success.
Although the grass on the tow path itself had been cut short there were plenty of wildflowers on the canal bank.
Blackberries are now starting to flower - already thinking ahead to collecting some in the late summer :)
A sure sign June has arrived - Dog Roses flowering in the hedgerow.
Buttercups were everywhere along with
Cow Parsley (plus Hogweed and what looked like the dreaded Giant Hogweed were seen in places) and Ribwort Plantain.
Does anyone please have any idea of the id of the tiny yellow flower below. I have seen it before and failed to identify but did wonder if it was Crosswort??
Sow Thistle
Germander Speedwell
Only a few poppies to be seen in a field of Oilseed Rape.
Hedge Woundwort
Meadow Vetchling?
Vetch
Campion
Cow Parsley
Daisies
Dandelion Seedhead
Ash
I've puzzled over the next flower - Black Medick?
Please let me know if I have got any of the identifications wrong.
Common Carder Bee on Clover
We saw loads of Damselflies - Common Blue and Azure and, as in the photo below, Banded Demoiselle.
We found this poor dead damselfly on a leaf. D insisted on bringing it home and there was a slight moment of panic later when he gave it to me to hold while he was taking photos of ducks and I continued walking and horrors of horrors noticed it had disappeared off my hand. An anxious 10 minutes and I eventually found it again on the path!
A photo I took at home - even with id guides to hand and a magnifying glass I am struggling with id. I think it is either a female Banded Demoiselle or a Female Beautiful Demoiselle due to the emerald green colouring and the white false pterostigma near the tip of the wing. Due to the fact that we didn't see any Beautiful Demoiselle but dozens of the Banded I am leaning towards the latter.
We didn't see too many birds - Mallard, the hybrid ducks, Black-headed Gulls, Blue Tits, Blackbirds and this Moorhen.
Mallard
The ducks D was taking photos of when I lost the dead damselfly
Mrs Mallard guarding her young who were bathing and trying to catch insects.
Finally, back at the pub - near where we had parked.
House Martin nests - I saw 3 if you click on the photo to enlarge you may just be able to see the head of the adult about to leave.
A swift pint of Speckled Hen - well, it would be rude to say no! (Deborah - I ordered you a virtual half of Perry!).
Actually, it is not a pub I would rush back to - the service was awful - we had to wait for well over 15 minutes to get served and it wasn't that busy!
Day 4, Monday, 4th June
Just after midnight (which counts as today!) I spotted an Elephant Hawkmoth in the garage - it was fluttering by the window and I managed to "trap" it just in time as a Large House Spider started to run towards the moth!
*D Photos taken by my son with Canon bridge SX50
All other photos taken by me with Panasonic Lumix FZ330
10 comments:
Seems like a very worthwhile annual event, especially sine the rules for participation are so broad. It enables many people to take part at whatever level fits their comfort zone.
David Gascoigne - Thank you - yes you can spend as little or as much time as you want each day. It is a good way also to get people, especially children, involved in something that they may not have done before and anything that encourages an interest in nature has to be good :)
Lovely to read that you're keeping up with 30 days wild, I am too but i'm not managing to keep up with blogging about it!
Pam - Thank you - great you are taking part in it too! Not sure how much I will keep up the blog posts - time consuming! Plus really I should be thinking of clearing my mum's house and putting it on the market and "persuading" the relative who lives there that they will have to move out! To be honest it is easier to put off all the worries and stresses of that and concentrate on nature!
Great post Caroline. Not sure about the wee yellow flowers but on Crosswort the flowers are close to the stem at the base of the leaves. I photographed said plant this weekend but it's going to take some time to sort through the loads of pics i took.
Dean Stables - Thanks so much Dean. Yes, I noticed in my books that the flowers are on Crosswort are closer to the stem. Will keep looking through my books :) Hope you had a good weekend and look forward to photos when you have had chance to sort them out :)
How lovely it looks along the canal and so many different plants and flowers spotted on the way, always good to find a pub at the end of the walk although it sounds as if you perhaps wouldn't go there again. Love the yellow flowers in your garden too. I did 30 days Wild a few years ago but haven't done it since. I was thinking of starting it this year but as our elderly cat can't be left for very long we don't get out and about as much as we used to. Thank goodness you saved the lovely moth from the spider:)
Rosie - Thank you :) It was good to find so many wildflowers growing along the tow path - both on the canal bank and on the other side. I do try and do 30 Days Wild most years although some days I only spend about 5 minutes and don't always get time to blog about it. So good to see your cat is living to such a good age although as you say when pets are poorly it is difficult to leave them.
I feel you have practically done your 30 Days Wild already! Another amazing post. I'm not an expert, RR, but my thinking is that the Damselfly is the female Banded Demoiselle. I've still to see a Demoiselle at all this year... and they are high up on my favourite insect list. It has been cool here today so there has been little about (apart from a dead pigeon on the lawn this morning and a pair of Magpies wanting to hi-jack our Blackbird nest...). I would love to find an Elephant Hawkmoth in our garage, a species I have yet to see.
Caroline Gill - Thank you and ha ha! I won't be keeping up at the pace I started. Will be smaller 5 minute things for the rest of the week!
Thank you for id help re the Banded Demoiselle - great minds think alike :)
A pair of Collared Doves were chasing a Magpie here a couple of days ago - I suspect it had been nest raiding :( I do hope you get to see an Elephant Hawkmoth - they are stunning.
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