30 Days Wild 2021 – Day Fifteen.

Day 15:  Today’s 30 Days Wild by the Wildlife Trusts’ is all about ID’ing and learning about a plant/flower. 

Last week I went along with David as he had an appointment. On our walk to the venue I noticed these small pale blue flowers at the side of the pavement. Not knowing what they were I took a picture and used an app to ID them. I used Plantsnap and PlantNet and both came up with the same suggestion, that of flax or linseed.

Flax

I found it a rather bizzare find. Flax is used to make linen, one of the oldest fabrics in human history, and it’s oils make linseed used for it’s beneficial health properties. I was not expecting to find this kind of plant growing along the roads in suburban Liverpool. 

Have you found an unusual plant growing where you didn’t expect it?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine xx

30 Days Wild 2021 – Day Nine.

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.

Have you seen any orchids on your walks?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine xx

My May

May 2021 has been another rather uneventful month. The weather has been horrendous, cold and wet for most, and the warm weather we have hoped for has been very sporadic.

It was our houseiversary last week. 9 years of having the keys to our lovely home! I still remember the moment I got the call to come and collect the keys to the house on the 25th. It was a hot, sunny May day in 2012. 2012 had been quite a year for me! David picked me up from my then work at the University of Liverpool before heading down to the Dock Road to collect the keys. We got home and opened the front door and stood in shock. ‘What do we do now!’ we thought. Buying a home can sometimes be rather anticlimactic but then a further year and a half of demolishing walls, an outhouse, getting a new roof and exterior doors is hard work! However it is all worth it in the end when you come home after a hard days work to your loved ones and fur/feather babies. I love my home and the life I have made with David! Long may it continue!

Last year before Covid struck and lockdowns were galore, Peter Walker’s Peace Doves were planned to be installed at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral. I was excited to see this beautiful art installation of thousands of paper doves with messages of hope and love written on them, suspended from the vaulted ceiling. Then the exhibition was cancelled due to Covid. However there is light at the end of the tunnel. The night doesn’t last forever! This May it was announced that the Peace Doves were once again coming to Liverpool. One negative of Covid’s social distancing is that it has taken away all the spontaneity out of life, one now has to book before going anywhere. Gone were the days when you just woke up and felt like going the zoo. You now have to plan/book days in advance! Anyway, (rant over) I did mange to book tickets to see these Peace Doves. The installation was beautiful and quite moving.

The book I am reading this month, (or trying to read) is Davie Goulson’s The Garden Jungle: or Gardening to Save the Planet.

Which ties in nicely with the plants I have bought for the yarden. There were a few casualties during winter so I managed to purchase another salvia and forget-me-not plant to add to my spring flowering plants.

David and I have been watching a few films this month, most notably my favourite trilogy (save for The Lord of the Rings), How to Train your Dragon! I just love the friendship of Hiccup and Toothless. Who doesn’t love Toothless?

I have also caught up with the second season of ITV’s Innocent. The second series is based in Keswick with lovely panoramas of Derwentwater.

David managed to rescue three pigeons in one evening a few weekends ago. He captured and released one which had string around its feet and then quickly took in another two. One ailed sadly and passed away two days after but the second we managed to treat for canker and mites and she was so feisty that she had to be released and for the past few weeks now she has been visiting the yarden daily. It’s so nice to be able to help wildlife once in a while.

In the quite moments of life, I’ve been following an osprey webcam from the Dyfi Osprey Project. It’s quite stressful watching a wildlife cam, you invest so much emotion into it, however it’s been a privilege to follow the ups and downs of this osprey nest of Telyn and Idris as they raise their two young. Good luck to the two bobs!

Surprisingly, an adventure happened at the end of an uneventful May! The Spring Bank Holiday brought with it some lovely warm temperatures of over 23°C and David suggested we go on a day out. I had already decided where I wanted my first swim of 2021 to be and so on the 30th we were up at 6am on a beautiful clear, warm day and headed towards Snowdonia, Wales. We stopped off at two llyns during the day, Gwynant was my first swim of the year and Padarn the second!

May has been a quiet month, how’s your’s been?

Take care,

Christine x

Signs of Spring in the Yarden

With the weather warming up this week (and the days finally getting longer), I took the opportunity to have a wander around the yarden to see how the plants had fared over the cold winter. Sadly my fuschia isn’t looking it’s best, but hopefully it will pull through, as it’s a great autumn flower.

Throughout winter the herb rosemary has flowered it’s delicate blue flowers and I noticed its colour was joined by flashes of purple and yellow from the crocus and the green leaves of perfumed hyacinths, which I thought had been overshadowed by an azalea. I even spotted the leafy promise of bluebells that will hopefully flower in April/May. I’ve two hellebores, one I thought was being swamped by a dwarf rhododendron and cotoneaster, but I noticed it’s purple and white flowers bending in the breeze. There are also an abundance of buds on the star magnolia and camellia.

The pond also seems to have braved the frosts and the oxygenating plant within, is still vibrant. Hopefully we will have lots of aquatic life enjoying our tiny pond this year.

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Calls from the visiting birds has also changed in recent weeks. The goldfinches have moved on from the winter chatter to their now playful chirp and waggle of their tails in the hope of attracting a mate.

What signs of spring have you noticed recently?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

Batty for Bats

Seven years ago David and I began work on creating a wildlife yarden. We focused on attracting as much wildlife to an inner city walled yard as we could.

Yarden

Bird feeders were the first and easiest addition to the yarden and during late summer/early autumn the feeders are usually awash with different coloured wings and bird calls. From chattering charms of goldfinches and the happy chirruping of sparrows to boisterous gangs of starlings. The odd blue tit is seen nervously snatching away a sunflower heart as well as two delicate greenfinches who’ve visited among with the goldfinches. All this activity has caught the eye of several sparrowhawks whose presence in the yarden is a wondrous sight to behold.

Goldfinches Picture by David Evans

Starling Picture by David Evans

Female Sparrowhawk

About three years ago we put in a wash bowl pond. It’s in a sheltered spot so we don’t have dragonflies or damsels visiting but we did have a little frog for a short while.

Frog

Pond

Over the years we have planted shrubs and herbs which flower at different times of the year to attract insects. We even have the odd sapling tree, with a hawthorn being my pride and joy!

Common Wasp

Red Mason Bee

Honey bee

Honey Bee and Passion Flower

Large White Butterfly

Hellebore Flower

Swallow Tailed Moth

Red Tailed Bumblebee

Willow Beauty

Trying to increase the insect population means that other predators will hopefully move in. Imagine my excitement and surprise when I discovered that a bat frequents the area!

I know nothing about bats so here’s a few facts on them:

• There are 18 species of UK bat, with 17 breeding here
• They all eat insects and are a natural pest control for e.g. mosquitoes
• A pipistrelle can eat up to 3000 insects a night
• They use echolocation to find food
• They are indicators of biodiversity
• They pollinate and spread seeds
• Like the dormouse and hedgehog they hibernate
• The mating season is from September and females give birth to one pup around June in maternity roosts
• Cats and birds of prey are their main predators
• They are the only mammal that can fly

I wonder what type of bat is visiting? It could be the most common bat in the UK, called a common pipistrelle. I’d need a bat detector to discover the identity of our new visitor, perhaps I’ll add one to my birthday/Christmas wish list. :p

Have you got bats visiting your garden? What is your favourite bat?

Thanks for reading,

Christine xx

30 Days Wild 2020 – Day Twenty-one.

Day 21: Today’s 30 Days Wild hasn’t gone according to plan. I had planned on getting up at 4.40am to watch the sunrise. However I must have slept through my alarm as I awoke disappointingly to a gray morning at 7.30am!

So instead of watching the beginning of the day, I decided to go on a wildflower hunt around my local area.

Here’s what I spied on my walk.

Welsh Poppy

Herb Robert

Bindweed

Ragwort

Sweet Alison

Californian Thistle

Have you spied many wildflowers on your walks?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

Sunday Sevens #67

These Sunday’s come round awfully fast! Here’s another Sunday Sevens, seven or more pictures from my week. Thanks to Natalie at Threads and Bobbins for devising the series.

Back Yard Nature Guardians:

Though aimed at children I decided to sign up to protect my precious back yard(en). Back Yard Nature are looking for guardians to protect a chosen patch of nature. Though the initiative is in its infancy there will be seasonal missions to accomplish. Save the bees will be the first. I have noticed that I have seen less bee action in my yarden this summer. It is a concern.

Art for the Yarden:

On Thursday David came home with another bargain from his work’s shop. An owl garden ornament which rocks and moves with the wind. I think it’s quite striking! Definitely a good addition to the yarden.

Owl Ornament

Riley

Walking the dog:

I took Riley on another solo walk this week. We took a 2.8 mile walk around our local park. I think Riley enjoyed the walk as much as I!

#walk1000miles:

Since I am now counting to 2000 miles, here’s my weekly total. I’ve walked 38 miles this week, meaning my overall tally is 1,111 miles.

New Life:

The saga of the herring gull chicks continues. The nest at the front have retained their two chicks. However the nest to the back of our house has had another loss. David noticed there was only one chick left, the other had either fallen or was tossed off the chimney. Come morning the chick was nowhere to be seen. Probably food for another gull? Nature can be hard to witness sometimes.

RSPB Membership:

Guillemots

Linnet

Meadow Pipit?

Rock or Meadow Pipit?

Silver Studded Blue

South Stack

Stonechat

This Friday, David and I visited RSPB reserve, South Stack on Holy Island off Anglesey. We saw thousands of guillemots on a cliff face and enjoyed a picnic overlooking the Irish Sea, with stonechats, pipits and linnets bobbing past. To end our visit we spotted silver studded blue butterflies fluttering over the heath-land.

That was my week, how was yours?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day Twenty.

Day 20: For today’s Throw Back Thursday I will be returning to the theme of planting for wildlife as I did in 2015. 2016 saw me celebrate the summer solstice. In 2017 I showcased bees and in 2018 I walked alpacas.

Planting for wildlife can be so rewarding. My little yarden is five years old and has some wonderful plants for birds and insects.

Such as ivy, polemonium, crocus, salvia, hellebore, red campion, passion flower and delilah.

Salvia

Passion Flower

Red Campion

Polemonium

Crocus

Honey bee

Hellebore

What flowers do you grow for pollinators and birds?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day Fifteen.

Day 15: Today’s 30 Days Wild post comes from a quick visit to Port Sunlight River Park, where I went in search of bee orchids.

This small orchid is a wonderful example of a mimic. The flower mimics a female bee (it even smells like one), enticing a male bee to come in to mate; in reality to pollinate the flower. UK bee orchids however are self pollinating but nonetheless they are beautiful. I was overjoyed to finally see and photograph them!

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

During our short time at Port Sunlight River Park, I watched skylarks flutter overhead. I spied a six spot burnet moth resting on red clover. Willow Warblers sang loudly and wildflowers of viper bugloss, daisies and geraniums buzzed with numerous bumblebees. Even on a grey day there was so much wildlife.

Have you seen a bee orchid? Visited Port Sunlight River Park?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

The Ingleton Waterfalls Trail

As the weather was forecast to be changeable this Spring Bank Holiday Monday, David and I went for a five mile walk along the very commercial Ingleton Waterfalls Trail. The trail boasts 20 falls with six main viewpoints. The well defined path (no worries about getting lost), follows two rivers (Twiss and Doe), and meanders through an oak wood before crossing open moorland. The area is a designated SSSI. Instead of parking charges there is a relatively steep £7 each for admittance (that was my only bugbear!) We spent a leisurely three hours walking the trail and were lucky the weather stayed dry.

On our walk we focused on the sights, sounds and smells of nature. Before we reached the first waterfall on the trail, we spied a parent dipper feeding its two fledged youngsters. It was fascinating to watch as the adult would plunge into the water, swim and then pop up with insects or fish in its beak. The two fledglings stood begging with open mouths waiting for the parent to bring back breakfast. The scene was a highlight of our visit and David got some great footage.

Dipper feeding young

Fledgling dipper

Dipper feeding young

Adult dipper

As we continued our walk, climbing upwards through woodland the smell of garlic scented the air and the path was awash with wild garlic (ransoms). I attempted to focus more on the flora of the area and noted a splash of bluebells among emerging woodruff and the odd early purple orchid. I identified the latter two with the help of the app PlantSnap, thanks to Sharon for the suggestion. (Sorry for the poor shot of the orchid.)

Woodruff

unfocused picture of an early purple orchid (sorry)

Wild garlic

Of course the waterfalls were undoubtedly the star attraction. Here’s a selection of photos by David and I.

Pecca Falls

Hollybush Spout

Thornton Force

Beezley Falls

Baxenghyll Gorge

Snow Falls

Have you walked the Ingleton Falls Trail? What did you get up to during the bank holiday?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x