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 2 - The Tenants & New Tech(for me)

 

 A busy day so when I got home I decided to sit outside in the garden and try and photograph the roof tenants 😉 Hopefully though , in the coming weeks my 30 Days Wild campaign will spread beyond our garden.

The noisy tenants are the House Sparrows with at least 2 nests under the tiles currently with chicks.

 The star tenants though are mostly quiet except when they are screaming past the bedroom window in pursuit of insects. The Swifts.

 While I was writing this quick blog out, a charm of Goldfinches arrived on the sunflower heart feeders with the first juveniles I've seen this year. There were 7 or 8 birds with at least 3 youngsters. I quickly grabbed my camera and stopped writing to upload a few photos.

 Earlier today I was able to test some new technology for me even though the camera in question is 8 years old. A GoPro Hero. I charged it up and placed it into the bird bath to test if it still worked okay.

 As I mentioned earlier, hopefully I will not be restricted to my garden for the whole 30 Days Wild and will be able to expand on the diversity of Wildlife I can share with you.

Thank you for reading. :) 

#30DaysWild #GardenforNature #gardenbirds #Lincolnshirewildlife #wildlifetrust #loveNature #lovelife #connectwithNature  

 

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

So Long Tulloch......Day 12

 Our last morning waking up at Tulloch Farm. It was so good to be back and we had absolutely amazing time.It really is a magical place to stay, with the most wonderful hosts.The perfect base from which to explore the Highlands with all it's splendour and magnificent Wildlife.

We couldn't leave without saying a last goodbye to Shadow, Neville and Georgie and of course to those wonderful hosts(friends) Margo & Robert.

If you want to know more about the farm, their website link is below.Just don't all book it at once so I can't get back in 😉

https://www.tullochfarm.co.uk/

 Last photo of Tulloch Farm before we left.

 We weren't driving all 7 hours back to Lincolnshire today as we were going to 'overnight it' in Stirling. It meant we could take our time and stop along the way to admire the scenery, especially as our route home took us through Glencoe to Crianlarich and Callander.

 We continued on to Callander as it is always a nice place to stretch your legs and browse the shops. Little did we know that there was a race on and the place was busier than we've ever seen it.The main car park was full, mainly of runner's and stewards so we had to park along the river. At least it meant that it wasn't far to look for birds.

 A Robin sang for us and a couple of Jackdaws looked at us in anticipation of food and on the water there were Mute Swans, Mallards and Goosanders.

 Goosanders on the River Teith.

 Arriving at our final stop, Stirling Travelodge we settled in for the night and thought of the fantastic wildlife we had seen during our last 11 days in the Highlands. Tomorrow we would be back in Lincolnshire.

Photos by Stuart Pike & Majella Fox 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read any of my latest blogs about our Scotland trip. I really hope you enjoyed the photos and stories, and a look around the Scottish Highlands with us,

Hopefully it won't be in the too distant future when I do the next blogpost.

Thanks for reading.Stay safe and get out to connect with Nature.