The Adventure of the 30 Days Wild '22 (I)

In which I do one wild thing a day...

The Wildlife Trusts run an event called 30 Days Wild in June. The idea is to do one wild thing every day in the month and if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have seen that I am taking part this year. In this blog post I'm going to share what I did for the first fifteen days, going into a bit more detail about some things than I have done in my social media stories. 

Day 1: I did a few jobs in my backyard, the most significant being building a new planter designed for climbing plants. Since I've moved in I've wanted to get some greenery on the large fence panel at the back of the yard and now I've finally got a new fence I've been able to do it. I'm on year two of my gradual mission to add some greenery and life to my small yard and have managed to add loads of flowers this year. 

Day 2: I had arranged to visit my friend, her husband and their kids at a local country park. Before they arrived I spent some time looking for sand lizards, one of the UK's rarest reptiles, which are present in the park. Unfortunately I failed to spot any in the wild but the park hosts a vivarium where they breed lizards as part of a conservation programme and I was able to spot a male sand lizard in there. I also enjoyed spending time in nature and in nature with some young kids which is so joyful. 

 

Day 3: My parents made a rare visit to my flat and I took them on one of my regular walks which takes in various great natures spots in the town. I've been watching moorhens nesting on Coy Pond for a little while but hadn't made it down for a few weeks to see if the eggs had hatched. Today thought there were moorhen chicks everywhere, some casually sat on the footpath next to the pond ready to be admired. 

Day 4: Another of my favourtie walks today, alone the River Stour. Amongst other things I saw quite a few damselflies including many banded demoiselles which are delicate and beautiful insects. 

Day 5: Whilst walking through the local park I couldn't help but admire the wildflowers that have been planted this year. The local council does a good job at planting flowers on parks and verges and these are really important for bees and other pollinators. The hope is to create 'wildlife corridors', lots of strips of land that allow wildlife, including bees, to travel from place to place with a constant supply of food and shelter. 

Day 6: I decided to do a little bug hunt in the back yard, mainly by seeing what was lurking under the many plants pots. I spotted many a woodlouse, a beetle and a millipede which curled up into a ball. Unfortunately I failed to photograph the rather stunning moth that had been attracted to the plants and flew off when I disturbed it. 

Day 7: I had a walk through the local woods in the evening after work. I have to admit that finding the time and energy to work on this challenge once I returned to work hasn't been easy and it's a general problem in life to find time to connect with nature when you're working, when you're tired and when you're not feeling your best. It can be so rewarding though to breathe in the fresh air, to hear the birds singing, to see the bees being busy and smell the spring flowers. I was glad that despite the tiring day and the headache which I hadn't managed to shift I forced myself to go out because it made me feel better in all sorts of ways. 

Day 8: I walked to work, something which is lovely but again I struggle to find the time and energy to do as often as I'd really like. It had rained overnight and so various walls and trees were covered in snails, many of which were really beautiful. 

Day 9: Nature can often be surprising and today was one of those occasions. I was walking to the local shop when I noticed that a bollard was covered in ladybird larvae. I can only assume that the black bollard was quite warm in the sun so they were attracted to the heat. Unfortunately I think these were probably the larvae of harlequin ladybirds which are an invasive species which eat native ladybirds. Unfortunately they have decimated the native population and it's now pretty unusual to see any other type of ladybird here in the South of England. 

Day 10: On my walk home from work today I had a look for 'pavement plants'. Despite humanity's best efforts to concrete over the world, nature always finds a way and seeds find their way into cracks and gaps and up grow little plants. When you look closely it's astounding just how many pavement plants there are- in the one and a half miles home, in a very urban area, I managed to spot twelve different species of plant. 

Day 11: With my hayfever being especially bad this year, I decided to take a walk along the beach today. Bournemouth Beach is always beautiful and I always fine it interesting to see what has washed up on the beach. I found a mysterious bone which looked like some sort of rib bone, a cuttlefish backbone and the shells of various sea creatures including a cockle, some mussels and the vicious sounding Atlantic Jackknife. 

Day 12: Another walk along the Stour today, the highlight of which was seeing the swan family. They nested in a really visible spot this year and have successfully managed to hatch six cygnets who all appear to be doing well. They are cute and fluffy, what's not to like?

Day 13: I've taken to sitting outside quite a bit in the evening now it's lighter and the weather is better. I was out relatively late tonight and enjoyed the nature that dusk brought flying over including lots of moths, a few bats and a maybug. 

Day 14: I really managed to summon my energy and hopped in the car after work to go for a walk on the nearest heath. Dorset has internationally important heathlands, a habitat that has been lost throughout much of the rest of the UK and Europe and a lot of the heathland is within a few miles of home. I had a lovely walk in the setting sun and I was delighted to spot and photograph some Dartford Warblers, a bird I've been trying to see ever since I moved here. They are sadly a bird which is highly endangered though numbers have increased significantly in the last fifty years- in the 1960s they nearly went extinct in the UK. 

Day 15: I was sat out in the yard and enjoyed watching various pollinators visiting the flowers, including bumblebees and a marmalade hoverfly. When I inherited the yard it was a dead space devoid of life and I'm delighted that now there are all sorts of insects visiting. 

The second part of my 30 Days Wild adventure will be here in two weeks time and in the meantime you can see snippets of what I've been up to on my Insta/FB stories. See you soon!