30 Days Wild 2022 - Day 3 - In The Night Garden

 

 Yes, it's the third day in a row in the garden but this time it's a bit different. No, it doesn't involve Igglepiggle or the Ninky Nonk but it does involve Bats, Moths and Hedgehogs 😊🦇🦋🦔

 With the weather staying drier and less breezy but still a bit on the chilly side for this time of year, I decided to put out the Moth light in the garden.

 

 Whilst awaiting the arrival of our Lepidoptera I switched on the Bat detector to see if the Moth's nemesis were also out and about.

 Throughout the 90 minutes I had the detector on, it picked up 4 fly-bys of our flying mammals. With the detector set at 45kHz and due to the area our garden is in, the most likely culprit of the clicking signal picked up is the Common Pipistrelle.

I caught some of it on video for you to hear.

 We hardly ever cut our grass at the back and leave it as long as possible to grow with whatever wildflowers arise so if in the garden after dark we have to tread carefully to avoid these 2 which are regulars. They are usually snuffling around in the long grass for the food we have put out and intermittently huffing at each other.

 The main reason to spend the night in the garden is to see what Moths have our garden on their flightpath. With us now at the start of June I did hope to see a few Hawkmoths about but no such luck last night. There were still 64 moths though of 27 species identified. Below are some photos of a few of last night's visitors.

                                             Lesser Swallow Prominent

                                                        Buff Ermine

                                                      Peppered Moth

                                                      Small Magpie

                                                          Brimstone

                                                Common White Wave

                                                         Treble Lines

                                                           Cinnabar

                                                               Snout

                                                    Brown Silver-lines

                                                          Purple Bar

 It's amazing what wildlife frequents our urban gardens throughout the nights. There will probably be more moths in the weeks to come.

Thank you again to all who have taken the time to have a quick browse through my wildlife blog, it is very much appreciated and I hope you all have a great day surrounded by our wonderful Natural world.

Stay safe.

Kindest regards

Stuart

#30dayswild #wildlifetrust #leidoptera #moths #bats #hedgehogs #gardenfornature #britishwildlife  #connectwithnature #lovenature #lovelife  

 

30 Days Wild 2022 - Day 1 - Our Garden Birds

 

 I first did 30 Days Wild in 2015 when it all began but have lost touch with getting to do Nature inspired activities on a daily basis over the last few years due to ill health. This year though, I am going to try and do something for each day in June again even if it is just watching the behaviour of a fly for 5 minutes.

 

 I am going to start with a quick and easy one as I had to stay in for a boiler service so spent some time with the birds that visit our garden.

 I'll begin with the current creche attendees. At the moment we have 9 or 10 juvenile Starlings along with 2 juvenile Blackbirds, a couple of juvenile House Sparrows and a juvenile Pied Wagtail.

The rest of the garden's visitors.

Pigeons

 Starlings

 House Sparrow 

Blackbird

Collared Dove

Blue Tit

Jackdaw

Goldfinch

Magpie

 I hope you have enjoyed the photos.Thanks for browsing my blog.

#30DaysWild #WildlifeTrust #gardenbirds #gardenforNature #connectwithNature

30 Days Wild 2017 - Days 4-6

  Okay so another triple header of days as I haven't been able to catch up til now.So will try and do Days 4-6 while trying to stay awake, so they will probably be very short posts ;)

  Day 4   Fundraising For Wildlife

  So Day 4 was a Sunday and my day off so I had the chance to get up at 4.45am to get to a reserve somewhere :)   Well no, that didn't happen, I did get up at 4.45am but instead the plan was to do 2 carboot sales.One started at around 6am-Noon and the other from 12.30pm so we went straight from one to the other.
  I have been doing them with my partner for a while and we have always tried to give money from the sales to a Wildlife charity or project.I think we are now at around £3500 given to Wildlife projects for Birds Of Prey, Hedgehogs, Tigers, Polar Bears etc in the last 2-3 years.
  We have never explained to anyone before this year that the money was going to help our wildlife so before this carboot season started I paid to get a banner done so people knew that if they bought anything from us, they would also be helping wildlife around the planet. :)
                    

  I also have been able (thanks to a local cafe) to sell my wildlife photographs to raise further funds for the local Hedgehog Hospital.
                                    
 
  So if you have some junk (I mean good stuff to sell) why not get out and do a carboot and give the money from it to your favourite wildlife charity :)


Day 5   A Quick Orchid Hunt

  Monday began by needing to take my Mum across the Humber bridge to Hull hospital and so "Wild" plans went out the door.Coming back though I thought of a cunning plan to take a slight detour (with my Mum in the car) to an area which I hoped may have a few orchids like the previous year.
  We arrived and I could see straight away the small fenced off areas that meant orchids were indeed present.They are Bee Orchids.

  This beautiful flower is in decline across the UK and until I started writing this section and reading a bit about them I didn't realise it can take 5-8 years of growth before the plant flowers and that in Britain they are able to self-pollinate and so do not actually need the mimicry of looking like a visiting Bee or the scent of the female that they give off.
  It was a very wet and blustery day but my Mum even got out of the car to walk over with us and it is the very first time she has ever seen Bee Orchids in her 65+years.


Day 6   Hedgehog DIY

  Today was another very wet and windy day in Lincolnshire and so any hopes of walking anywhere were pretty much gone.Instead I decided to head to the garage and do a bit of DIY on a plastic tub.
  So armed with a hacksaw, file and a tape measure I set to work.

  As I find with a lot of things, doing this was hard work when you can hardly use your left hand to hold anything due to my Arthritis so it took a little longer than expected.In the end though the idea was to create a covered feeding area for the Hedgehog that comes into our garden and leaves presents for us ;)
  The hole was around 4-4.5" so hopefully is small enough to prevent the local cats from taking the food instead.The Hedgehog in the photograph is my letter rack lol

  I will hopefully get this out before the weekend with meaty cat food and my trail cam to hopefully find out if it is just the one Hedgehog that explores our garden.
  Please make your garden as Hedgehog friendly as possible with easy access and leave out water and meaty(not fish) cat food if possible.They need all the help we can give them.

http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/

  Thanks again for taking the time to read through my blogposts :) There should be more interesting days to come back and read about with trips to Ireland and the Farne Isles planned before the end of June :)

Happy Wildlife watching :)
Stuart
 

 
 
 

30 Days Wild 2017 - Days 1-3

  Well it's that time again when, with the incentive from the Wildlife Trusts we all try and get out and interact with Nature just a little bit more for the month of June.
30 Days Wild is back!!
                                  


  Apologies for the triple header to begin with but this is my first spare few hours since June 1st.

Day   Moths vs. Moshis

  Whether you have kids or not you have probably heard of Pokemon Go or Moshi Monsters.Well instead of having your children search and collect these, there are some real creatures in your garden that give them a run for their money......moths!
  Headshot photos of these stunning insects show that they could quite easily pass as a Pokemon or Moshi Monster.
  Poplar Hawkmoth

  My nephew James was staying overnight so it was a good chance to educate him into the world of Moths.The Skinner trap set up in the garden.I have to put up the bed sheet to stop the light from the MV bulb shining down the alley to the houses behind.

  If you look at the bottom right corner of the sheet I also have to pin a bit up to still allow the Hedgehogs to come in.One even left me a "Thank You" message ;)   I will try to catch them on film later in the 30 Days Wild challenge.

  The following morning the trap was checked and found to be full of around 60+ Moths with a few more scattered around the fence and shed.With James help we had time to check them out including the Poplar & Elephant Hawkmoths.

  James with his new friends.

  Another species of Moth that impressed him was the Green Silver-lines.

  More of the moths trapped that night.There were in total 72 moths with 31 species just from a small garden trap.

  Small Magpie

  Brimstone

  Bright-line Brown-eye

  Snout

  Middle-barred Minor

  Common Swift

  Burnished Brass

  Shears

  Spectacle

  Hopefully James will keep his fascination with animals with the help of seeing things he normally wouldn't be able to.We need to show children what amazing wildlife can be found in their own gardens and at local reserves.

  If you want to be able to show moths to your children you can now get a Skinner Moth trap for around £100 and they are worth every penny.If that's not possible then start like I did with just a bright light shining on a white bed sheet or by making wine ropes and sugaring your fence :)

Day 2    Drive By Snapping

  Unfortunately as most days, work got in the way :( I knew I would be in the car for 5 hours+ so had no idea what I could do for 30 Days Wild but decided to take my camera with me anyway.When we reached the first village to do the first lot of deliveries I had already seen a few birds so then thought, how many can I photograph throughout the day from the car? So with camera now on my knee I looked everywhere to see how many species of bird I could photograph while stuck in the car.

  Please don't expect any top quality photos in this section as although I managed a few from the car when we had stopped and opened a window, most were taken from a moving vehicle through a dirty windscreen lol

  So how many did I get?

1. Blackbird

2. Robin

3. Swift (honest)

4. Wood Pigeon

5. House Sparrow

6. House Martin

7. Swallow

8. Jackdaw

9. Collared Dove

10. Carrion Crow

11. Dunnock

12. Starling

13. Goldfinch

14. Chaffinch

15. Moorhen

16. Magpie

17. Rook

18 & 19. Greylag & Canada Geese

20. Shelduck

21. Song Thrush

  So 21 in total with another 10 species(including Yellowhammer, Kestrel, Long-tailed Tit) that I saw but failed to photograph due to excessive speeds by my partner ;) Only joking, it is quite difficult to get a picture if the few seconds you have the bird in sight whilst moving at 30-60mph lol

  It is a great way to pass the time whilst in the car but only do if your a passenger and NOT the driver. ;) 

  If you are going on a long journey with children then give them a notepad and pen(or a camera) and see how many species they see or photograph.It will keep them occupied and help them learn about our everyday bird species.

Just clean your car windows first :)

Day 3    A Quiet Little Neighbourhood

  Another day with not a lot of time but I had an hour with the Black-headed Gull colony.As usual it was not exactly quiet as the adults were feeding their chicks and protecting them from trespassing neighbours.

  Black-headed Gulls are a regular sight to most of us and are not the most loved of birds but they are actually in decline and are an Amber listed Species.We have around 140,000 breeding pairs with Wintering birds numbering over 2 million.They are still a target for egg thieves who sell them to people to be eaten as a delicacy.Places like Poole harbour now have patrols to try and protect the colony from being decimated by egg poachers.

More wildlife crime that needs to be stopped :(

  A quick video clip of the Black-headed Gull colony.(I hope the sound works).

  

  If you have a local colony, go check it out.They are amazing birds to watch with their interaction and behaviour but unfortunately are mostly taken for granted.

  Okay that's the first 3 days sorted.Days 4 and 5 coming tomorrow as I continue to try and catch up :)

Many thanks for reading and browsing the photos.I hope you found something useful or interesting in that ;)

Stuart