30 Days Wild 12 & 13 & a Patch Tick

Yesterday I must admit apart from watching the birds on the feeders and the fox in the garden I didn't do much wild. Work is immensely busy right now and I pretty much crashed when I got home.

Today though I made an effort and got out into the woods before work. A Chiffchaff was calling as we walked in and a Blackbird was singing. As we walked down to the pond the Great Tit family were flying all around, the youngsters were into every tree and shrub. A little further along by the stream another family appeared - Blue Tits - around half a dozen possibly more flitting around the trees.

A pair of Bullfinch flew in front of us and I just caught a Thrush before it flew out of sight. Dunnocks were along the path in their usual spot. No sign of the Robins though today. A female Blackcap was caught up in the Great Tit flock as we walked back. We also noticed 3 or 4 Stickleback in the stream, I knew they were in the pond but hadn't seem them there before, there's not a lot of stream for them to swim in!

As we were heading out my husband saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker in one of the trees, of course it flew off the second I got the camera on it! Still it was a new patch tick, I've only seen one on the patch before and that was several years ago.

Great way to end the walk!

30 Days Wild Days 10 & 11 & A Walk in the Park

Yesterday I spent time at my parents and managed a quick walk around their garden in between the showers. The trees are full of plums and cherries and they have lots of strawberries too. They leave the cherries for the Blackbirds but we all get a share of the rest! Bees have taken up residence in the compost bin so they've stayed away and let them be, I could see plenty of them about on the Cotoneaster but they were constantly on the move.

This morning I was up and off for a walk around a couple of the parks in Morley. I saw a few Swifts on the way. There were lots of branches and twigs on the ground, the trees here took quite a battering in the winds this week. Still there were plenty of birds and some were making use of the twigs lying about as I saw Woodpigeons and Song Thrush nest building!

In both parks I saw Blue Tit fledglings, but they were pretty well hidden in the trees. You can't mistake the noise though.

Back home and a pair of Collared Doves landed on the top of the feeder, they take a while to make the decision to actually go on the seed tray. This one ended up sliding down the piece of wood we have propped through the feeder and used it's tail feathers for balance whilst it ate.

The Lavender is blooming at the moment, it was covered in Cuckoo spit mid week and it looked gorgeous in the sun this evening. The yellow plant was already there when we moved in and we've just let it, it's spreading up and down the flower bed and looks great with the purple of the Lavender, I don't know what it is though!

Just had a lovely moment watching the fox from the open patio doors, a few feet away at the feeder, it kept an eye on me but seemed quite happy to eat there.

30 Days Wild 7,8 & 9

Life has got in the way of the wild a little these past few days, I managed a walk through the park to work and that's about it. I didn't take my camera though! The park is small but it's full of birds, Song and Mistle Thrush, Magpies, Blackbirds, all the small songbirds too.

At home the Starlings, and now the Fox, which has been back every night, are going through an awful lot of food at the moment, the young Starlings end up chasing the adults off. I've watched Goldfinch, Sparrows and the odd Woodpigeon in the garden too. The Swifts are a little quiet and i'm not sure if they've lost their nesting places with the old building over the road being renovated at the moment.

I opened the curtains yesterday morning to see a snail right outside the window on the Buddleia.

On my washing this evening I found a Shieldbug hidden in a towel.

So only a short post today and hopefully the next one will be a little more interesting!

30 Days Wild Day 6

On the ball with this one today. I was a little bit inspired though.....you'll see why.

The weather is still horrible at the moment lots of rain and some very strong winds. It felled a tree just near work, there was a couple of weeks ago an occupied nest in it (Collared Dove), luckily the birds were long gone.

It's also snapped one of the branches on the Buddleia outside our front window, I think it's the main one the birds like to sit on before they fly onto the window feeder. I can't tell yet they're so intertwined and it's too windy to check properly.

A pair of Goldfinch were clinging to the feeder as it swayed, they were persistent though and hung on a while! Our large Foxglove and Columbine plants where quite windswept too.

It finally stopped raining so I went out and took some photos of the pond, we've got to finish off the planting and create a few hiding places - hopefully to encourage frogs and toads. The plants we put in the pond are all doing great.

I was just about to get in the bath when my husband shouted there was a baby Fox in the garden, I moved fast and ran for the camera. It's been a while since we've had one in daylight in the actual garden! I didn't need to run though it stayed around for half an hour polishing off all the mealworms we'd put out for the Hedgehogs and finding every single bit of food around the feeder! It wasn't quite a baby but definitely a youngster, maybe one of last years cubs? We watched it till it left, it wasn't too happy with the wind blowing the trees and every now and then it would jump and eye up the Flowering Currant by the fence. Such a lovely moment.

30 Days Wild, 3, 4 & 5

The weekend was a bit of a blur, I spent some of it in Manchester and had mainly caught a little wild from the hotel window in the form of Herring Gulls and Crows. Of course the motorway there and back brought Buzzards, Kestrels and a Red Kite. I even spotted a Deer munching happily on an embankment seemingly oblivious to the masses of traffic going past. 

It was the Garden BioBlitz too at the weekend but I just didn't have the time to do a full on blitz though it's something I'd really like to do. The garden has been taken over in a few spots by self seeded plants and is full of bugs. 

It also has regular visits from Hedgehogs, usually one comes in an hoovers up the food under the bird feeder but last Thursday we had two. They've made use of the water dish we put out for them too.

After watching Autumnwatch (I think) and seeing Chris Packham talking about how even putting a pond the size of a washing up bowl would work in a garden, we decided to give it a go. I say we, me and my daughter, my husband is skeptical (though he did the digging for it)l! I went a little bigger than a washing up bowl but not much as there isn't really a lot of space for one. It still needs some work around the edges.

This is what it looked like three weeks ago, Sunday I discovered the first signs of life in it. I had to check what they were - Mosquito Larvae - mostly they look like swimming cloves from a distance and they weren't quite what I was hoping for but it's good food for other creatures right?!

This Hoverfly spent a lot of time hanging around the pond.

It's just about dark now and i've realised I haven't taken a proper photo of the pond since we put it in so that'll be my plan for tomorrow.

Monday was a little wet to say the least. Still I walked through the park to work (then jumped on the bus for the rest of the journey). A family of Blackbirds were splashing in a puddle, I think there were 3 young ones. So Monday was a bit of a wash out all round. More effort is needed tomorrow.

30 Days Wild Day 2

I was going to have a go at blogging daily for this but i'm away at the weekend so that may not happen.

Today though I took another walk in the woods before work but went in the opposite direction to usual, where the trees are larger, older and it's a little bit darker!

Straight away i'm surrounded by birdsong - Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin, Blackcap, Wren, Chaffinch, Song Thrush, Woodpigeon (not entirely sure their call can be a song!). A Nuthatch was flying around the trees, only my second time seeing them on the patch.

Squirrels are everywhere in this part of the woods and aren't bothered by people so much. Two were chasing each other around a tree trunk, they looked almost cartoon like.

I got a nice new patch tick with a pair of Stock Doves on a nest box too.

It's an entirely different feel in here to the lower part of the woods I usually walk in, it feels more like a wood despite being able to see the houses that surround it in places!

30 Days Wild

The 1st of June is the start of The Wildlife Trusts 30 Days Wild.  Granted nearly every day is a wild day in some way or another but i'm more than happy to increase the wild! My daughter as her part in the school council suggested the school join up, they seemed quite interested but i'm yet to discover if they actually put anything into action. She is staying with my parents over the weekend and is going to get them out for a nature walk!

I took a walk into Churwell woods this morning before work. Goldfinch, Sparrows and Chaffinch greeted me on the first path. There are Buttercups and Iris's everywhere.

As I watched the water from the bridge I could see birds down near the little woodland, walking down I found a group of Great Tit fledglings, they were a bit difficult to count as they were flitting through the undergrowth but I think there were around 7 or 8. Lovely to watch.

There were plenty of Speckled Woods flying around, lots of them in pairs too.

It was only a 20 minute walk but look how it was worth it!