Audience Participation

June is here which means it's time to encourage everyone to get a little wild. The Wildlife Trust's 30 Days Wild campaign is designed to get people reconnecting with nature by doing a random act of wildness each day on the month.

I don't think many days go by where I don't do something in nature but of course I have signed up and will be making a concerted effort to persuade others to join me and get outdoors even just for a few minutes.

Yesterday was all about my granddaughter who is nearly 4. She played out in the paddling pool, grass beneath her feet and when she was finished she helped in the garden recycling the water onto my flowers.

Today we walked 6 miles around our local National Trust nature reserve - Wicken Fen. We often walk here and today we spotted a little owl, marsh harrier, meadow pipits, skylarks, goldfinches, cuckoo and brown hares. One of the hares was quite close before he/she spotted us.

We also saw a few dragonflies, the first of the season, and a painted lady butterfly.

As well as 30 Days Wild we also have BBC Springwatch back on our screens and they have a citizen science project - Gardenwatch - running with various missions to complete. I completed Mission 1 last week which is just telling them about your garden. You don't need a big garden, all sorts of garden data is helpful. I will be completing the other missions if possible next week.

One other project I noted was this survey to record sightings of 'cuckoo spit'. These contain the spittlebug or froghopper as it feeds on the plant and the data being collected will map the distribution of the insect in a pre-emptive strike against Xylella, a deadly plant disease.

Fen Drayton/Swavesey Lakes

This Sunday's walk was a good 5 miler around RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes. This is our local RSPB reserve and we have walked here many times before. It is full of bird life in the winter and has some fabulous landscapes on a misty frosty morning. We tend to avoid it in the spring due to the gnats! 

The river Great Ouse runs through it (along with Cambridge's Guided Bus!) and there are walks of various lengths. 

We got there about 7.30am and started off round the Fen Drayton side where we immediately spotted a family of Greater-spotted woodpeckers in a tree a little way off - time to again test my new lens to it's limit!

The river itself was quiet although the banks were buzzing with butterflies and damselflies. We checked out  the main hide, and were wondering why the door had been removed when we saw a sign had been put up. Sad that this is necessary but had to chuckle at the wording.

We decided to carry on around the Swavesey lake also, spotting herons, grebes, kestrels, butterflies and demoiselles. We just caught sight of the face of a lovely fox watching us through the reeds but he had gone before I had chance to raise the camera.

A beautiful morning walk.

30 Days Wild - Day 29 - What's the difference..

... between a grasshopper and a cricket?

This was my task for today's 30 Days Wild.  We found this one at Wicken Fen the other day - in fact I very nearly stood on it! I immediately said a cricket, my husband said grasshopper.  Grasshoppers are green aren't they he said? No it's something to do with their antennae I replied. No surely it's more than that he wanted to know.



So...

according to the Amateur Entomologists' Society (AES):

"One of the commonest questions asked about grasshoppers and crickets is how to tell them apart. There are a number of ways to tell if you're looking at a grasshopper or cricket:

• The main difference between a grasshopper and a cricket is that crickets tend to have long antennae, grasshoppers have short antennae.
• Crickets stridulate ("sing") by rubbing their wings together, while grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing their long hind legs against their wings.
• Grasshoppers detect sound by means of little 'ears' at the base of their abdomen; in crickets these are on the front legs. 
• Most crickets are crepuscular (which means they come out at dusk) whereas grasshoppers tend to be out and about during the day. 
• Grasshoppers mostly eat grass, but crickets are partial to animal matter aswell."

Okay well ours wasn't eating or singing and I couldn't see any ears. It was out during the day so could be a grasshopper but its antennae were definitely of the longer variety so I'm right cricket...?

Actually having researched it a bit more and compared my photo with others online I have decided it could be a Roesel's Bush-Cricket (Metrioptera roeselii) but if you think otherwise please feel free to enlighten me! 

30 Days Wild - Day 27 - Snail Trail

And then the rain came!  After our heatwave of last week where I couldn't move for sweating today the drips are coming from the skies!

Some people may not enjoy the rain but my garden is crying out for it! My water butt is on empty and the grass is curling at the edges. So welcome the rain! It is forecast to continue for a couple of days, which it needs to soak through - the initial downpours just running off the hard earth.

Today in the office, we saw the lightning light up the dark oppressive sky and we jumped as the crack of thunder came immediately behind. The gutter leaked under the deluge with a waterfall outside the door.

Then the snails came out. Outside one of the office windows the foliage has not been cut back for a while and is covering the glass. Three snails made their way across the windowsill to the tender shoots on the other side. My 30 Days Wild act for today was to encourage my colleagues to put down their pens and stop looking at their screens for a few minutes and come to the window to see the snails. They may have thought I was mad but they came and we watched and we chatted about the rain and the snails and how not a ripple could be seen as they slid over the glass.

A nature break without leaving the office.

30 Days Wild - Day 18 - It's A Bug's Life

Hot! Hot! Hot! I really wanted to get out for a walk this morning and find some butterflies but even early it was too warm and sticky for me so, as we are busy this afternoon, once again I took the camera out in the garden for 30 Days Wild.

All was still amongst the plants except the odd movement of tiny wings. The birds were oddly quiet too as I topped up the water in the bird bowl and the bee watering station. Then I sat under the umbrella's shade with my early morning coffee and silently wished my dad a Happy Fathers Day.

The deep purple salvias and lavender I bought at the garden centre a few weeks ago had come into flower and were welcoming their pollen hunting visitors.

No sound of lawn mowers, no smell of bar-be-ques but they will surely come later. Just me, the insects and my memories.

30 Days Wild - Day 13 - Nature Apps

I've lost count of the amount of times we have been out on a walk and have heard a bird singing but can't see it. I can pick out the common species - blackbird, robin, chiffchaff but otherwise I'm at a bit of a loss to identify them. I knew there was an app out there that you could record the call and it would give you an ID so today, for my 30 Days Wild act, I decided to check it out, and while I was at it a whole host of other nature and wildlife apps.

Here are the ones I went with - the links are for iTunes just because I have an iPhone but I think most of them are also on Android, and because a list of links looks a little boring I have of course added one of my relevant photos!

Bee Count - Friends of The Earth's Great British Bee Count - ID and log sightings between May and June.

BirdSongID - £3.99, record the bird and the Automatic Recognition identifies it.

BirdTrack - This is from the BTO and allows you to log your sightings and see what others have seen.

British Trees - An ID app from the Woodland Trust

Mammal Tracker - Contribute mammal sightings to The Mammal Society's Mammal Watch project.

Nature Finder - The Wildlife Trusts app giving details and maps of over 2000 reserves.

Stellarium - £2.99 Point your phone at the sky and identify the constellations, stars and planets.

And of course I already have the 30 Days Wild app! Please let me know of any nature apps you wouldn't be without.

30 Days Wild - Day 12 - A New Toy

I've been a hobbiest photographer for quite a while but more seriously over the past few years and I especially love wildlife photography, as you can see from this blog.  I have found though that it is not a pastime regularly associated with middle-aged (ahem!) women, even generally photography it is often depicted in adverts and articles as a male interest. Possibly now, with A level and degree courses available, younger women are taking it up but I've certainly not come across many 52 year old females. I'm not saying they aren't out there enjoying the art but I don't come across them out on their own, in the early morning, in the middle of a nature reserve. And this isn't surprising really. It should be but it's not. I often take my husband anyway as we enjoy walking. He is a great 'spotter' but doesn't like to sit still for too long! It sadly, and I accept it is mostly unjustified, feels a bit intimidating sitting in a hide with big men and their big lenses!

This brings me on to my new toy! My birthday is next week and my husband has bought me a new lens. A longer one for the birds and beasties. I had a 300mm but this is 600mm - and it's massive! I am sure there is always going to be an issue to a certain extent with longer lenses and weight, but I wonder how much this is researched and looked into, and if more could be done to loose the lbs? I'm all for equality but there will also men out there, not into weight training, that would struggle carrying some of these around for any length of time!

Then there's the strap - firstly the best ones are shaped and are meant to be worn on the left shoulder with the camera on the right hip. I'm left-handed so that's a disadvantage to start with. There are a few straps for lefties but not much choice. Secondly that choice disappears completely if you happen to be a left-handed woman! There are one or two straps with the shaping designed to sit round our curves but I've yet to find a left-handed version. Perhaps I'm being fussy and there really aren't many women photographers out there who are going to use these heavy lenses. Perhaps there are even less left-handed ones. In the meantime I am seeing the positive and relishing in the exercise my bingo-wings are going to get!

For my 30 Day Wild act today I had a practise with the new lens in the garden after work. Of course when you want a bird to fly in they are conspicuous by their absence, but eventually one or two popped by, along with a beautiful Hummingbird-Hawk Moth. This tested my ability to manoeuvre the lens quickly as it skimmed around the honeysuckle, but the real test was holding the camera up to the sky as a group of Starlings flew over.  Weight aside though I'm really pleased with my present, if I only manage to take it out locally while I build up the strength, and courage to take it to a hide, it should enable me to get some closer images without worrying about disturbing the wildlife. PS - it is irritating me intently that I chopped the tail off the baby Blackbird in the last shot - but they were getting too close for this lens. I know - never satisfied!!

30 Days Wild - Day 11 - Visit A Nature Reserve

Most Sunday mornings my hubby and I go for a walk. Alongside this 30 Day Wild challenge I am also doing the Walk1000Miles challenge - I know!  Today we decided to cover both with a 5.5 mile walk round our local National Trust Nature Reserve - Wicken Fen. It is the National Trust's oldest reserve, a Site of Scientific Special Interest and a Wetland Special Area of Conservation. We've been lots of times before and during the winter it has thousands of birds visit but this time of year the insects take front stage with dragon and damselflies - in fact the reserve is also home the British Dragonfly Association's Dragonfly Centre

As well as walking and photographing as much as I could, I also thought for today's 30 Day Wild challenge I would endeavour to identify whatever we saw and find out one fact about each key species. There were a few things we didn't manage to photograph - Reed buntings, Egrets, Buzzard, Grey Heron, Moorhen, Shoveler ducks, Cuckoo, Small Red-Eyed Damselflies, Common Blue Damselflies and a possible Marsh Harrier - and probably loads that we missed or could only hear - it is home to over 9000 species after all!

Marsh Orchid: These could be Southern Marsh or Early Marsh Orchids - both are found here. FACT - apparently notoriously difficult to tell these apart unless you're an expert!

Scarce Chaser Dragonfly: FACT - only 6 main locations in UK - Norfolk/Suffolk, Sussex, Wiltshire/Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Kent and Dorset/Hampshire

Yellow Flag Iris: FACT - chosen as the county flower for Wigtownshire, Scotland

Four-Spotted Chaser Dragonfly: FACT - the males prefer a perch looking away from the sun as their eyes are more sensitive to UV and blue-violet light and therefore suited to detecting pray against the sky.

Ragged Robin: FACT - in Shakespeare's time it was called Crowflower and was featured in Ophilia's garland.

Buff-tailed Bumble bee (I think!): FACT - it is the UK's largest bumblebee species
Thick-Legged Flower Beetle: FACT - often called the Swollen-Thighed Beetle

Garden Tiger Moth Caterpillar: FACT - commonly known as 'Wooly Bears'

Meadow Pipit (I think!): FACT - it flutters like a parachute in display flight

Lapwing: FACT: Lapwings (or Peewits) are a red list species

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly: FACT - the species was first defined in 1758

Snipe: FACT - the male 'drums' with its tail feathers in his courtship display