Day 19: Today’s Random Act of Wildness for 30 Days Wild, is to visit a Wildlife Trusts’ Nature Reserve.
David chose the 250 acre reserve of Brockholes nr Preston, with its woodland, meadows, pools and reed beds. This year, Brockholes is celebrating 10 years of wildlife! We spent three hours walking around the reserve, watching damselflies flit along the paths, and dragonflies hum about like mini helicopters. The four spotted chaser was a new species for me. Of the flora there were common spotted and marsh orchids. Of the avian life we spotted oyster catchers, a male reed bunting (another first sighting), visiting common terns (or sea swallows), a summer visitor to the UK (another first), and a kestrel sand bathing! We had a perfect day out and here’s some of my photos I managed to capture with David’s Nikon.
Day 9: Gaining inspiration from last year’s 30 Days Wild, Wednesdays will be RAW days, meaning Random Acts of Wildness. In this series I’ll be using The Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild app, and the 365 Days Wild book to help choose the day’s theme.
Today’s RAW is admire a beautiful orchid.
marsh orchid
During my recent visit to RSPB Burton Mere I noticed many spikey purple flowers growing alongside the boardwalks. I discovered they were southern marsh orchids.
Following on from Sharon at Sunshine and Celandines wonderful post, I decided to once again compile some of my wildlife moments. There have been so many highlights this year, some however I was unable to capture on camera. There was a lone cormorant at Liverpool’s Sefton Park. Angry avocets flew over us on a visit to Lunt Meadows Nature Reserve and we even spotted a bat flitting about Wavertree Playground whilst walking Riley one evening. Below are just a small selection of wildlife moments from 2018 for you to enjoy.
The first wildlife wow of 2018 was in February when I saw a chiffchaff trying to land on a window box. I quickly got my camcorder and managed to film the annual visitor. I only see a chiffchaff once a year. Around late winter, they must make a pit stop in our yarden as they fly to richer pastures. It was a nice visit none the less.
Staying in the yarden. You would think that to see nature in the city is to seek out a local nature reserve or park. However it seems that nature finds a way of being present even in a city yarden. Our little pond which has thrived this year was home to a common frog. He/she managed to eat themselves from being a tadpole to an adult. We were lucky to see the frog even once as they are nocturnal. I wonder if our yarden is still home to this little frog. I do hope so.
Common Frog
Our flourishing yarden has recently become a hunting ground for a female sparrowhawk. This beautiful specimen of raptor was seen a couple of times unfortunately enjoying her dinner. A poor starling was on the menu one day and a baby goldfinch another.
Female Sparrowhawk
Our alleyway during the summer was a plant-fest. Sprouting through the cracks of the cobbled stones, wildflowers grew. One huge shrub grew outside our back door. I identified it as a black nightshade.
Black nightshade
Bittersweet nightshade
I had heard of the nightshade plant but never its siblings. Whilst walking to work one day I noticed a bittersweet nightshade, often confused with deadly nightshade.
My favourite colour is blue so when I saw it flashing on butterfly wings I was ecstatic! There were many common blue butterflies fluttering about the meadows at Pennington Flash.
Common Blue Butterfly
Participation in 2018’s 30 Days Wild by The Wildlife Trusts‘ produced many wonderful wildlife sightings. At Port Sunlight River Park we saw so many six-spot burnet moths that it made up for never seeing them before. We also saw our first linnet and house martin and watched as a kestrel hunted, whilst the air was filled with the calls of skylarks. The area was so rich in wildlife that we will definitely visit again.
Six-spot Burnet Moth
House Martin
Linnet
Kestrel
During a visit to Brocholes in the hot June weather of 2018, we spied oyster-catchers around the Nook Pool, many spotted orchids blooming and even a shy roe deer hiding in the tall grass!
Roe Deer
Oystercatcher
Spotted Orchid
On our few visits to Lunt Meadows Nature Reserve we spied many Lapwings nesting and greylag geese.
Lapwing
Greylag Geese
Even after 30 Days Wild I still remained focused on wildlife. On a short visit to Pickering’s Pasture we spotted a stunning wildflower meadow!
Pickerings Pasture Wildflowers
Over the summer on our jaunts to local nature reserves we spotted numerous dragon flies and damselflies. Below find a small selection of what we saw.
Azure Damselfly
Migrant Hawker
Yellow Darter
Broad Bodied Chaser
Autumn brought with its smokey chill and vibrant leaves, many mushrooms appearing in nooks and crannies. I managed to spy a shaggy ink cap mushroom whilst walking to work. I’m not a mushroom expert so after a Google search I found that this short lived mushroom is edible.
Shaggy Ink Cap Mushroom
As the nights grow darker and summer seems just a memory I look forward to seeing colours emerge from the hard winter soil. This crocus field really brought a cheer to an otherwise dull February day.
Crocus field
What were your wildlife moments this year? Here’s to many more in 2019!
I wasn’t going to do a Sunday Sevens (devised by Natalie at Threads and bobbins). I haven’t taken that many pictures this week, but I thought I would give it a try and see what I could come up with.
Beauty:
Among a bunch of flowers I bought this week, were some yellow roses. I thought how pretty the folds of petals looked.
Yellow Rose
Dan Brown’s Origin
Book I am reading:
I’m currently enjoying Dan Brown’s latest Robert Langdon offering, Origin. Though it’s punctuated with endless lectures on the many geographical and historical places in the novel. I am looking forward to finding out the true reason for Winston!
#walk1000miles:
A quick update on my weeks mileage, which has been 33. Bringing my annual total to 643 miles.
Yarden:
This Saturday, David and I took a visit to my favourite garden centre, Lady Green. We went in the hope of getting (shade loving) rockery plants for around the pond, but ended up getting the wrong type (sun loving). However the mistake was a blessing as the phlox I bought ended up in the main yarden around David’s recently moved acer. In total we bought five plants, and all have now got new homes. 🙂
Bee Sculpture
I also fell in love with some funky art for the yarden. These funny bee sculptures really do brighten the yarden up and at £3.99, weren’t too expensive either. 🙂
Riley Walks:
This Bank Holiday weekend has been unprecedented. The NW of England has been blessed with wall to wall sunshine and temperatures hitting 24°C. It truly has been a lovely Bank Holiday. On Sunday David and I took a hot Riley to a local nature reserve, Lunt Meadows. We visited Lunt last year as part of my 30 days Wild, so decided to go for another 4.5 mile walk around the reserve.
Christine and Riley
David and Riley
Lunt Nature Reserve
Greylag Geese
The sun was hot even at 10am! Peregrines soared before a cloudless blue sky, while greylag geese eyed us wearily. Bees buzzed among orchids and there were innumerous bird songs, most I could not identify. Speckled woods fluttered in nearby woodland. Orange tips, small tortoiseshells and peacocks, were all too fast for us to take a picture! Our leisurely morning walk flew by. Riley, though hot seemed to enjoy the different smells and sounds of the lovely nature reserve.
Thanks to Louise from Ramblings of a Roachling, for giving me the heads up on this weekends #photoanhour on Instagram. It’s been a while since I participated so without further ado, here’s what I got up to during my 12 hours of day!
Photo an Hour – 24th March 2018
8am to 9am:
My Saturday began like many other Saturdays, at 8am. I fed Artie before making breakfast and coffee to ease myself into the morning.
Clock
Shopping
9am to 10am:
We took a weekly trip to the local Asda to do the big shop.
10am to 11am:
Once returned from the supermarket, David and I headed back out towards Speke Retail Park and Dobbies.
Driving
Orchids
11am to 12pm:
It was mum’s birthday on Sunday and as a gift she requested an orchid. There were many to chose from in the shop!
12pm to 1pm:
Back home, we had lunch and I enjoyed a cup of Costa coffee before the hard work of spring cleaning the house beckoned.
Break
Cleaning
1pm to 2pm:
There was no getting away from the spring clean this week. I like to clean the windows in March before the clocks go forwards, which happened to be the Sunday. So I tied my hair up and gritted my teeth. Three hours+ work was ahead!
2pm to 3pm:
As expected, David and I were still working hard at cleaning. I took to cleaning the windows, while David tackled the mold on the walls. The washing machine worked splendidly and cleaned the voiles, curtains and even the settee covers!
Clean Windows
Clean curtains
3pm to 4pm:
By 3.30pm the bedroom window had freshly washed voiles and the spring/summer curtains were up.
4pm to 5pm:
David, took a breather from cleaning and fed the pigeons. Hoppy, who has visited for the past two years and comes to David when called, enjoyed the food offered.
Feeding Hoppy the pigeon
Salad
5pm to 6pm:
While David was cleaning the settees, I turned my hand at making a salad to go with the evenings meal.
6pm to 7pm:
It was nice to finally sit down and enjoy a warm meal. We had pizza. I am sure I had the same dinner last #photoanhour. However this time, dinner was in daylight. The longer days of summer are on their way! Yippie! 🙂
Dinner
Cleaning finches’ cage
7pm to 8pm:
There wasn’t much time to digest dinner as I remembered that it was the day to clean the finches. *sigh* So I cleaned the Blue-faced Parrot-finches’ cage while David cleaned the aviary.
The rest of the evening:
From 8.30 to 9.30 (local time) David and I observed #earthhour. I turned off all the lights, lit a candle and we snuggled together to watch All the Money in the World. We left the candle burning ’til 11pm
Thanks to Janey and Louisa for setting up the challenge.
The Wildlife Trust’s, 30 Days Wild 2016 dawned on a cloudy Wednesday, a hump day! I must admit it was difficult to find my ‘get up and go!’ However the sun made an appearance in the afternoon. It shone down hotly, as I slowly eased into this June by doing the usual pottering about the yarden (yard/garden)!
I participated in 30 Days Wild last year and thoroughly felt enlivened just by noticing the nature and wildlife around me.
I do try to help the wildlife in my area. It started off by putting out feeders for the birds. Then it progressed to planting for bees, butterflies and other insects. And this year David and I have built a small pond in the hope of bringing even more wildlife to the urban back yarden.
Day One: Wednesday.
Like last year I will blog about my 30 Days Wild in weekly installments. Thanks to Annie Irene from Trails&Tails who wrote about the many bloggers featured on The Wildlife Trusts, My Wild Life website. It is always good to read what other’s are getting up to this June, so if you are interested like I was, then follow the link and get reading!
One of the positives about reading other people’s experiences of the ‘wild’ is that you learn something new almost daily. Today, I learnt that a ‘weed’ I have ashamedly been pulling up out of the yarden (oops), is called Herb Robert or geranium robertianum. This wild flower is apparently edible and has many therapeutic properties.
Day Two: Thursday.
Today, David had a day off work. I suggested we go to a park in search of wildlife. We decided on visiting Liverpool’s Festival Gardens. We seem to make an annual pilgrimage here, but really should visit more often. It has lakes and woodland walks. It also features the restored Moon Wall and Pagodas that featured in the Garden Festival of the 1980’s!
Wetlands Area
Moon Wall
On our leisurely walk, there were coots with chicks on the lake. Alongside the paths David and I spotted orchids and oxeye daises, and in the woodland we saw several butterflies, one was a Speckled Wood.
Coot chicks!
Oxeye daisy
Speckled Wood Butterfly
We had a picnic alongside a stream, where under a strong beaming sun we sat listening to birdsong. I’ve identified (using British Garden Birds) the song of a chaffinch and maybe a wren, but is there a third song? Can you tell?
Day Three: Friday.
If you are struggling to find something ‘wild’ to do in June, then why not download the 30 Days Wild app for 101 random acts of wildness? I did and the first act suggested was something blue. So here is a picture of one of David’s rockery plants, lithodora ‘heavenly blue.’
Lithodora ‘heavenly blue’
Day Four: Saturday.
This March we planted some seed maris bard potatoes in the hope of growing our first vegetables. Today I noticed that the first flower has opened. I read that it will be soon be time to harvest these earlies! Isn’t the flower very strange looking? Well I thought so!
Day Five: Sunday.
Naughty Artie!
Today was World Environment Day. Nicky on her blog Too Lazy to Weed, highlighted that it was also The National Garden Bioblitz weekend! So we spent the whole day in the yarden. I busied myself with counting the flora and fauna that we have in our small space. My fellow ‘spotter’ Artie was watching the bees and butterflies for a very different reason!!!
I counted about 60 plants. Of that number we have two trees and many shrubs, alpines and perennials. I used the Pl@ntNet app to ID some annuals and I was surprised at the results! One of the wildflower seedlings has roundish leaves so I used the app and found out it is a nasturtium!
Of the many insects that visited the yarden, a number of them were bees. Those identified were: common carder bees, a dark variant of the tree bumblebee, mason bees and white-tailed bumblebees. Thanks to UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Facebook page for help with ID-ing the bees. My skills are still not great! Below are five useful facts on each bee.
Common Carder Bee on Lithodora Blue
Tree Bumblebee (dark)
Garden Bumblebee
Mason Bee
Common Carder Bee:
Found widely in the UK.
On the wing from March to November.
Nests above ground, such as cavities, hedges, plant litter or birds nests.
They gather moss or grass to cover their nests.
A social bee, can have a colony of up to 200 workers.
Tree Bumblebee:
Came to the UK ten years ago, under own steam.
Not reported to have damaged native bumblebees
Prefers wide open flowers, i.e. daisies.
Nests in cavities or birds nests/boxes.
The males are sting-less.
Mason Bee:
One of the solitary bees, (there are no worker bees).
Nests in cavities, i.e. walls.
Uses mud to close their brood cells.
Are non aggressive.
Are just as good pollinators as honey bees.
White-tailed Bumblebee:
Is another group of social bees.
Nests underground, i.e. rodent nests.
Has a short tongue, so prefers wide open flowers, such as daisies.
Are accomplished nectar ‘robbers’. By boring holes, means they don’t have to enter the flower.
On the wing from March to November.
David, Artie and I were also given a spectacular mating dance from two, small white butterflies. It was truly uplifting to see the two flutter delicately about on a hot summers day!
Day Six: Monday.
I don’t know if it is due to tiredness or the heat but I have been feeling kind of tired and low today. So it was going to be a lazy kind of day. After the midday heat had passed, Artie and I headed out into the yarden to sit quietly. I took out my library copy of Roger Deakin’s Waterlogged, (a tale of ‘wild’ swimming around the UK), and relaxed while the yarden hummed with bees. I am finding the book hard reading. I simply can’t get into it! I usually like history but the historical passages in the narrative just bore me. I will persevere though!
Day Seven: Tuesday.
I have always wanted to try my hand at writing a Haiku (traditional Japanese poetry.) You may have guessed that I can go on a bit while writing the blog, so you’d think a three lined poem would be easy for me! Wrong! I have been racking my brain trying to get syllables to come together. Below is my best attempt. What are your thoughts? Have you tried writing a Haiku?
Bees, buzz, drunk on nectar (5)
Flowers’ scent, enticingly (7)
Pollen baskets, full (5)
Summary: The problem with this years 30 Days Wild is that I have wanted to do everything all at once! And that is not plausible. I have felt like a daemon possessed! Panicking if I don’t do something to the extent I want. For the second week, I think I need to ‘chill’ a bit more and enjoy nature instead of forcing it!
I hope you will come with me on this next week of discovery?!
Day 19: Today’s Random Act of Wildness for 30 Days Wild, is to visit a Wildlife Trusts’ Nature Reserve.
Day 9: Gaining inspiration from last year’s 30 Days Wild, Wednesdays will be RAW days, meaning Random Acts of Wildness. In this series I’ll be using The Wildlife Trusts’ 
The rest of the evening:
I don’t know if it is due to tiredness or the heat but I have been feeling kind of tired and low today. So it was going to be a lazy kind of day. After the midday heat had passed, Artie and I headed out into the yarden to sit quietly. I took out my library copy of Roger Deakin’s 
Christine Lucas 