30 Days Wild…Week One.

It was another WordPress blog: Sunshine and Celandines that alerted me to The Wildlife Trust‘s, 30 Days Wild, an initiative where you do something wild each day for the month of June. I quickly signed up, printed out the wall calender and got ready to immerse myself in ‘wildness’!

Actually, there wasn’t much immersing going on, what with it being a long week at work, but I did attempt to enjoy the nature around me – as I usually try and do! I live in quite a built up area of Liverpool so it is amazing that there is so much wildlife about!

Monday:

Going to work, I could hear the ‘merry’songs of Blue Tits, Dunnocks, and Black Birds that populate my area, and while in the office I could hear the rich sounds of a Robin and the alarm calls of Great Tits. David said he saw, all too fleetingly a colourful Jay on his way home from work.

Tuesday:

We watched the resident Blue Tit parents coming to and from our garden sourcing food for their brood. Last year I put up a bird feeder, (the second as mum kept the first in her garden next door!) I have feeders with sunflower seeds, fat balls and normal bird seed and in a Laurel bush I have a fat block. The Blue Tits like visiting the sunflower seeds and fat block, but they are so swift that I was unable to get video of them. The parents have become so dishevelled looking as they care for their young who constantly call out for food!

Wednesday:

With the weather slowly warming up for a very short lived ‘heatwave.’ I managed to pop out into the garden to see how the plants were coming along. The Scabiosa is starting to flower and has many heads on it and the Honeysuckle, which is a great grower is covered in flowers.

Honeysuckle

Thursday:

Today was the ‘hottest day of the year,’ for the NW of England! It was warm but not too warm and the sun lasted up until 5pm when a bank of cloud ruined any plans of a BBQ. It was my ‘short’ day at work, ‘thankfully,’ and I managed to rush home to spend at least an hour in the garden.

Something Blue – sky blue

En route home I popped into Wilkinsons for David who only wanted grit for the indoor aviary but I ended up spending £18! I bought flower seeds in the hope they will grow into Teasels for the visiting Goldfinches and also dried mealworms for the Blue Tit parents, (though they have not seen them as yet!)

I enjoyed the hour outside. I felt the sun’s heat prickling my sunscreen covered arms and sipped cava while Artie basked in the shade and hunted flies. As silhouette’s of the visiting Swallows could be seen flitting overhead, I took pictures of the insects visiting my Wallflower. A Tree Bumblebee, Mason Bees and a beautiful Golden Mint Moth!

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Friday:

I discovered today that my Cotoneaster has little white flowers on it! (I planted it last year and it’s taken a year to become established.) I am hopeful that the flowers will become pollinated and that it will develop berries! Fingers crossed.

Cotoneaster flower

Saturday:

The warmer weather seems to have been but a dream as it was cold and windy today. David and I, after doing the ‘weekly shop’ went to Bents garden Centre. I was in search of Borage and Alliums and David wanted a bird box. I came home disappointed, I’ll have to make do with seed Borage and try and grow it myself, but David managed to get his bird box and at £2.99 it was a bargain! However, I did not leave empty handed, I got myself a bee log which I hope will be shelter for solitary bees like the Mason Bee! I hope it will be more of a success than the still vacant Insect House!

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The journey home took us along the East Lancs Road, which cuts through arable fields. Alongside the road we saw not one, but three birds of prey hunting. I identified them as being Red Kites! Here’s a picture from David’s Flickr page of Red Kites from Gauntlet Birds of Prey in 2011!

Red Kite

Sunday:

Today we put up the bird box and bee log in anticipation of future visitors!

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All day we have been aware of a Blue Tit fledgling sitting nervously in the Laurel bush. It’s parents keeps visiting periodically so it has not been abandoned. He is concealed by the leaves and seems content.

I also noted that I had up to at least five bees in my garden all enjoying the Wallflower, Cat Mint and Honeysuckle and saw my first baby Goldfinch of the season but could not get footage of him!

Garden Bumblebee

It’s been a busy week for the nature in my area. I don’t know how I am going to better the sightings I have already seen, but here’s to week two of being ‘wild’! 😀

Oh no!!

Today, with only working four hours I was home relatively early in the afternoon. The bird feeders again were full of the usual suspects, Goldfinches, House Sparrows, Starlings and Pigeons. However on closer inspection of the feeding station I noticed a little parcel on one of the mesh feeders. Wondering what it was I took a closer look and was horrified at what I saw!!

A Magpie must have been raiding a nest nearby and the package must have been dropped in my yard! (I can’t think of how else it could have got there!) What I saw was a cracked egg! I first thought that it must have been laid by a visiting Pigeon but on closer inspection, inside the shell was the ready formed body of a bird. My stomach lurched! I have never witnessed anything like this at the bird feeders!

Then later, I got nostalgic and started rooting amongst the videos on my Sony pocket camera. I came across a video I took when the Lindt Big Egg Hunt was in Liverpool. The egg was designed by artist Mikey Georgeson and I share the video with you. I particularly liked the small poem painted on it.

My gift to you then is an egg,
Not mine to give nor yourself to beg
If you want it then it’s yours
Hold it gently till it soars.

Baking for the Birds.

Saturday after a long morning of endless shopping. David went into the new house to fiddle with the bathroom floorboards while I cooked up a mess in the kitchen!

I melted down a block of lard in the microwave and then added chopped peanuts, dried fruit, mixed bird seed, oats and flour. I then popped the mixture into three small plastic cups with string drawn through the bottom (for hanging on branches) and waited for the fat to solidify again.

This morning I was watching with glee as 10 House Sparrows, yes 10! Were in the garden eating the fat balls. No wonder I am having to buy a box load each week!! The Sparrows really did have a bumper brood this year!!

For this evening the family have planned to order a nice Saffron curry. I can’t wait!! 😀

My Weekend Starts….Here..! :)

Phew! What a week! I worked a full three and a half days! Believe me, my body has not been used to doing that for a good many months!

I worked my three days at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, meeting many company representatives and people who work in the admin side of Supplies and Nursing in the NHS and on Wednesday I ‘chief’ invigilated my first ‘big’ room exam! I usually specialise in ‘extra time’ exams for students with disabilities but this morning from 10am to 1pm I ran and conducted a medical exam for 20 students! To say I was amazed at myself that I could stand, talk and direct more than 20 people is an understatement. I really did not think I had it in me to stand before people and talk aloud! I am more stronger, more confident than I give myself credit for. I am surprising myself more and more as this year progresses. I always thought myself as shy but maybe I am now, finally coming out of my shell to fulfill my potential???

But today is Thursday and I have Friday and the weekend off! The UK is supposed to see some sunshine and summer like weather again, so I am hoping to spend tomorrow sunbathing before cheering on Andy Murray in his Wimbledon semi-final! On Saturday I hope the sun continues to bask down upon us and my family can enjoy a BBQ. Well that is what I have planned anyway!  🙂

Below you will find two videos I have uploaded to my YouTube channel recently. One is of baby Goldfinches I videoed on Tuesday evening around 7pm. They were making a right racket and the rest of the ‘charm’ were all eagerly gobbling the sunflower seeds on offer in my garden.

The second video is of my Bengalese (Society)  Finches, Chocolate (female) and Romeo (male). This is the first video I have made of Romeo since Caramel passed. (I still miss her.) I think Chocolate is cursing my name as since getting Romeo, he has not left her alone! It is pleasant of a morning to sit listening to him singing. Now, Thursday evening as the sun sets, it is nice to see them finally bonded and sitting on their rope swing together.

Hope you all enjoy the weekend wherever you are! 😀

Two Dunnocks!

It seems that spring has finally sprung and I am slowly coming out of my winter hibernation! 🙂

Yesterday, Saturday was a lovely bright sunny day. Dare I risk saying it seemed like a whisper of summer? I dressed in my favourite summer frock and while waiting to leave the house to do the weekly shop I popped my head out of the bedroom window and lo and behold I saw the friendly sight of Mr. Dunnock! He was in the tree opposite with two Blue Tits. I have noticed the Goldfinch charms have all broken up and only couples visit the feeders now.

While excitedly watching the Dunnock hopping about our yard, my eyes espied another wonderful sight: another Dunnock. There were two of them!! 😀 I watched both of them sifting about the yard for 15 minutes or so!

While spying on the Dunnocks, I also noticed many big bumblebees having finally woken from their slumber looking for flowers and I was overjoyed at seeing my first butterfly of the season, but I could not identify it properly. It was small and brown with an orange streak on its wing tips. I think it may have been a Hairstreak but not totally sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later on that afternoon David found an Early Bumblebee in the bathroom sink, we did’t know how long he/she had been there. David scooped the bee up in a glass and put him/her safely in the yard. After getting warmed up by the sun, the bee ‘buzzed’ off happy to be free.