30 Days Wild

Swifts, bees, poppies and roses, wayside flowers and favourite trees

For once, I’ll have time to do 30 Days Wild, I thought. Do it properly, fill in the wall chart, keep daily photos, tweet every day – it can’t be that hard. The month-long Random Acts of Wildness that is 30 Days Wild, The Wildlife Trusts’ campaign, encourages all of us to be closer to nature; pay attention to what’s going on in nature around us, and acknowledge the mental and physical benefits of being more connected to the wilder side of everyday life. Emerging from Lockdown I enjoyed seeing changes on everyday walks.

I’ve always loved walking past the hollyhocks and wild flowers growing out of the walls and pavements in St Leonard’s Lane. This June I paid attention to them, stopping to photograph them and thank everyone who lives there for not ‘tidying up’.

Outside my house the cornfield poppies, valiantly braving all the knocks from children and bikes that turn sharply at the corner, brought smiles to the faces of people who looked them up on their smartphone apps.

Being outdoors in heavy rain may not be everyone’s idea of wellbeing, but the sight and sounds of hail and rain falling heavily into the River Thames and reverberating was very special and refreshing.

This once-pollarded horse chestnut tree perched on the edge of the Iron Age hills of Dyke Hills, Dorchester was a great place to find shelter from the rain on an evening picnic with a friend. We laughed at the Lockdown Limericks. https://www.dorchester-on-thames.co.uk/news-and-events/lockdown-limericks/

Maybe we’re paying more attention to the flowers that we walk past because of the sounds we hear. Buzz-pollination is a thing, and not just the noise that bumblebees make in the flowers of musk roses and poppies in my garden.

The buzzing sounds of vibrating bees tells me they're enjoying the explosion of pollen they're generating as they bumble among the anthers. Buzz-pollination - a special skill of bumblebees! Bumblebee Conservation Trust has a new app to help us identify bumblebees https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/3d-app-brings-uk-bumblebees-to-life-on-your-phone/

The other sound I’ve enjoyed so much in 30 Days Wild are the screams and calls of the swifts as they circle my house, flying close to the nest box on the wall where two nestlings are growing fast, judging by the amount of poo on the ground beneath. This is the second year of a breeding pair in residence, and my neighbours are watching them too. One bird flew into their kitchen briefly and out again – the devil bird!

Watching wildlife from my kitchen window means that I spot dozens of bees feeding on cotoneaster flowers on first day of June, and a sparkling new Red Admiral butterfly alighting on the buddleia on the last day.

Yesterday I reached the end of 30 Days Wild and although I hadn’t filled in the wall chart or tweeted every day, I had paid attention to nature in the garden and on my walks, and I do feel better for it. 

Go Jauntly Nature Notes app https://www.gojauntly.com/nature-notes   

Research by the Nature Connectedness group at University of Derby shows that paying attention to nature helps us to feel better about life, happier in ourselves.
https://findingnature.org.uk/2020/05/21/30-days-wild-a-5-year-review/

Follow me @12beesbuzzing for more ramblings about gardening, wildlife and the countryside. If you have been, thank you for reading.