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30 Days Wild: A challenge for June

The larger of two hedgehogs that met in the garden, 35 mins after midnight.

The Wildlife Trusts here in the UK have set a fun challenge for June and are urging everyone of all ages to join in :

“This June, can you do something wild every day for a month?

Feel happier, healthier and more connected to nature by doing something wild every day for thirty days this June. No matter where you live – from an urban jungle to a windswept mountain – wildlife and wild places are all around, waiting to be discovered by you.”

The Wildlife Trusts: Protecting Wildlife for the Future.

Pre blogging, I could never have imagined that so much wildlife could be found in a small, town garden. It keeps on coming too! I’ve discovered a completely new way to look at the garden and have enjoyed sharing how it has grown here.

The great thing about nature is that you can find it anywhere, so think about finding the wild in your life every single day – taking the kids to school; walking the dog; looking out from the train on your commute. The chances are that nature is already there, but maybe you haven’t noticed it yet. We’d love it if you can do something wild every day, but 30 Days Wild is about helping you make room for nature in your life.”

The Wildlife Trusts: Protecting Wildlife for the Future.

This being a gardenwatch blog, should I be able to post brief blogs for the whole month of June, my plan would be to focus entirely on garden wildlife to see if it would be possible to share something interesting on a daily basis.

Perhaps, this is a challenge too far! I only thought about taking part this morning and the garden is also at point that needs my gardening attention too. However, blogging about it or not, I have made room for nature in my life and my garden has become so much richer for it 🙂

Two hedgehogs officially started this challenge off, which is fantastic news for this endangered species. Their sighting was a great surprise when I switched on an outside light to view the garden before heading to bed. Having a hedgehog feeding station (with camera) hidden in a garden border I knew they were travelling through. Seeing two together is always special – what a great start!

7x Coal tit eggs laid, 7 chicks hatched and being fed by 2 parents 🙂

Coming forward to daylight hours, on Day 1 of a possible “30 days wild” challenge for the month of June and there was a very special place to look first. This nature watching was done from indoors, sitting at the PC. We’ve had a camera in a nest box for a number of years now and 2016 has seen a garden first with Coal tits taking up residency! We are thrilled, the chicks are now 7/8 days old 🙂

June 1st was a gloriously sunny day with a light breeze which drew me out to the garden later. A light spot of gardening and a coffee by the wildlife pond (camera on the arbour seat beside me) and in the nature came to join me. Having a wildlife pond has seriously brought so much more to the garden in terms of wildlife and our enjoyment than I ever imagined it would. Here’s a sample from today…

Female House Sparrow at water’s edge, never seen it there before.

A break in bathing, has she seen the tadpoles that favour the sandy strip?

Male Partial Albino Blackbird looked around the same edge but didn’t bathe.

He jumped up between the sun-kissed golden grasses and began calling.

Moments later, a Female Partial Albino Blackbird appeared and began bathing.

Bathing over, she jumps up to the drying perch – great to see it used!
The male is seen below her. They have to be a pair.
My guess here is that she has taken a break from a nest 🙂

Coffee break over, it was briefly back to gardening for me.
I do enjoy sitting in my garden, it’s good for reviewing the planting too 🙂

I wonder what Day 2 will bring to the garden. More Starling juvs I suspect (they were heard squawking in the garden today). They have discovered a feeder with fat balls hanging on a pine tree – they will be back! I wonder if Magpies will return to the grass edge of my pond again. A pair had been spotted early morning and they looked to be pulling out plant material. I must leave a camera out there to get a closer look!

Enjoy the wildlife where you are. Take time out to enjoy your own garden too – I bet you’ll be surprised at what you’ll see there 🙂

This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in June 2016.

5 thoughts on “30 Days Wild: A challenge for June

  1. I spend ages looking out the window or sitting out there watching what's going on in the garden. With this challenge I have the perfect excuse to keep doing that! Lovely scenes from your garden 🙂

  2. Fun to see your pond as a whole. It looks so clear. Do you have a filtering system running? I love the way it looks…so natural. Tadpoles. I would love to be able to watch them grow. I found this so fascinating when I was a child. I can't wait to see what all you see in your garden this month.

  3. Hello again to you both,
    Thanks for popping by and leaving your comments especially when I’ve been posting so infrequently of late 🙂

    VP, Delighted to hear it! As gardeners we probably don’t stop and stare enough. I get completely lost in my thoughts, especially sitting outside. The garden can be a healing place too 🙂 Thanks, I plan to catch up on your Chelsea blogs soon – perhaps next year I’ll join you. I know I keep saying it 🙂

    Lisa, Thanks, after taking such a long time to commit to this pond build and then do all the work, I love it! I can’t imagine my garden without it now. I had to keep the faith with my planting hoping that the water would finally clear – the wait paid off. These tadpoles are taking way longer to grow that I remembered as a child. As an adult, they are still fascinating to watch. This is going to be a very interesting and busy month for the garden. It will make a great record should I manage to keep up with daily postings.

  4. We have lots of young starlings discovering that the bird table has lots of good things to eat.

    I envy you the nest box activity. All is silent on our nest cam front.

  5. Hello again Sue,
    I bet your garden is noisy then! The Starling juvs certainly seem to be quicker than other newly fledged birds when it comes to identifying what they can eat. I feel your nestbox activity envy, we’ve had a few years of an empty nestbox too. It seems such a waste for a cam one not to get used. I’m guessing it’s too late for yours now – such a shame.

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