30 Days Wild Day 7: Dawn Chorus

As I'm typing this, I'm starting to feel the impact of this morning's random act of wildness. I'm tempted to go to bed and catch up on my rest but it's only 6.30pm! I got up at 4am, just as daylight had started to filter through the trees and the first robins had begun to sing. Listening to the dawn chorus is something I meant to do back in April/May but I just never got round to it. I'm not great at getting up extremely early and usually I associate 4am with going on holiday and getting to the airport to catch an early flight!

I started with just opening my window and letting the fresh, clean early-morning air drift in, along with the keenest of singers, the robins and blackbirds. Their calls dominated the chorus initially, with the song thrush's rattle rattle tseep tseep whistle weaving in between. What I noticed straight away was the unmistakable cuckoo cuckoo of that well known but sadly less common bird. I've only heard the cuckoo twice this year before this morning and it's a sound that emanates warm spring days for me so I was naturally pleased it was included in the chorus.

A few woodpigeons added their cheap cuckoo imitations to the mix and several rooks flew overhead, cawwing at each other. The thrush's song became more pronounced and the variation of phrases grew. I'm fairly certain I heard a goldfinch join the chorus at this point, the sort of rattly tseeep at the end of his song giving him away.

As sunrise grew closer, I moved out into the garden where the great and blue tits were jumping around the bushes and singing merrily. Several pairs of blackbirds performed their laughing calls before chasing each other across the driveway. Activity had picked up and birds were flitting from branch to branch. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the call of a buzzard right above me, obviously hoping that the early bird (of prey) really does get the worm!

On an overhanging branch directly across from where I stood, a beautiful male chaffinch took his place and began his rendition, the creeping light just catching his peachy chest and white wing stripes. By this point, the sun had just started peeking through the trees and was painting the oak leaves with orange. The woodpigeons' call created a blanket of soft noise underneath the higher, chirpier songs.

I do think that if I had managed to listen to this wonderful spectacle earlier in spring, the sound would have been triple what it was this morning. Obviously many of these birds have already found mates, laid eggs and even raised their chicks by now, so the object of singing is not so competitive as it would have been in April. Having said that, it was lovely to stand and listen, with no other noises interfering. It was very peaceful and a relaxing way to start the day.

30 Days Wild Day 6: Back Garden Bug Hunt!

I've been out and about today, viewing houses with my parents, so there hasn't been a whole lot of time for nature, however in the hour I had spare, I decided to go bug-hunting around our back garden. I am very lucky with the garden we have as it backs on to woodland and is pretty large, with lots of varying bushes, hedges and trees; plenty of nooks and crannies for insects to inhabit.

Being "Butterfly Awareness Day" today, I thought it would be a great opportunity to spot some butterflies but it was pretty blowy so I wasn't surprised that I didn't see any, despite the sun. I have actually noticed that butterfly numbers seem quite low in our area since last year and I'm wondering whether that could be down to the late summer we've had? Anyway, I didn't find any butterflies but I did spot a range of other creepy crawlies!

On the outside window ledge of our utility room, I found the remains of a yellow tail moth caterpillar caught in the web of this spider, who was feeding on the carcass. I don't know what type of spider it was, only that it was very small and had an especially shiny abdomen.

The various hedges and laurel bushes around our garden are especially popular spots for flying insects. The laurel is usually buzzing with honeybees, flies and hoverflies, like the one below. I'm fairly certain the second image is of a bee fly but I can't be 100% sure as it didn't stay still long enough for me to see the characteristic probiscis. It didn't look like a type of bumblebee to me.

Many of the laurel leaves had been munched and although I searched the underside of several leaves, I couldn't find any caterpillars lurking nearby. They've obviously been by in decent numbers but by now have most likely transformed into butterflies and moths.

A while ago, I dug a small pond in the garden. The property we live in is a rental so I was limited as to the size of pond I could go for. It gets used mostly by birds for washing and drinking although I have found a newt in there recently. Today, I lifted a few of the rocks to see what was living there. Among the few woodlouse and ants, I found this Flat-Backed Millipede.

This was the first I've ever seen of these millipedes so it was nice surprise but what was an even greater surprise was this small frog I found under one of the rocks! It very kindly hung around long enough for me to snap a photo before disappearing into the pond with a 'plop'. I've found a few toads in the pond over the past year or so, but this is the first frog. Not an insect of course, but certainly a bonus find!

Next, I had a peek inside our compost bin, somewhere I knew would be teeming with all sorts of insects. I tentatively lifted the lid and a pile of tiny, white eggs and worker ants fell from under the lip. It turns out they had built their nest right on the top edge of the bin! It was fascinating to watch the workers scurrying around to collect the eggs that had rolled away from the nest; a few had fallen into a nearby spider's web and one ant was tugging at them with pure determination. It really didn't take them long to collect all of the eggs they could and put them back in the nest. They have strength and a work ethic to marvel at.

On the side of the bin was this beetle. Now I'm working on pretty minimal bug knowledge so I am just assuming this is a beetle, based on the size and the fact it doesn't look like an ant. It was at least five times larger than the worker ants and the alternative answer would have been the queen ant, but I doubted whether she would be wandering off near the ground, doing her own thing as this beetle was. Please do correct me if I'm wrong! I'd love to know the exact species.

Of course, there were plenty of flies, honey bees and various bumblebees too. I never take the bees for granted, as I mentioned in a previous post.

Insects aren't really my area at all; as I said, my knowledge is very basic. This was a great opportunity to try and improve on that and pay attention to what is flying, crawling and wriggling around the garden everyday. It's extraordinary how much life is quite literally on our doorstep, if only we took the time to search for it.

30 Days Wild Day 5: Planting Sunflowers

For the past few years I have been planting sunflowers every Spring. They are one of my favourite flowers, the other being the wild poppy. I love to have sunflowers growing in the garden; their bright yellow colouring attracts a variety of insects, most importantly bees and they are just such a joyful flower, especially when they grow to be taller than me. Not that it's particularly hard to exceed 5ft 3".

Around a fortnight ago I planted the seeds into yoghurt pots filled with earth and they have absolutely shot up in that time, so today's random act of wildness simply had to be staking the seedlings, otherwise they'd be bending all over the place!

As I stood in the garden gently securing the stalks to wooden sticks, I was serenaded by the fantastic song of a nearby chiffchaff. I only very recently learnt this song and it's wonderful to know just through sound that one is close, even if I can't see it. The call of a buzzard also floated across the road from the fields opposite but the canopy of oak trees prevented me from seeing him too. I am planning to make one of my wild days this month all about learning bird songs and calls, as this is one of my weaker areas.

30 Days Wild Day 4: Lunch With Tunnicliffe

Even though the sun has been shining, I've had lots of work to get done so have had to stay indoors. I decided to have my lunch break outside in the garden and after seeing last night's Springwatch segment about Charles Tunnicliffe, I took "A Sketchbook of Birds" out with me. 

What a lovely half an hour it was, looking at Tunnicliffe's beautiful artwork, listening to the birds singing and absorbing some sun. Perfect. I only wish I could sketch as well as him!

30 Days Wild Day 3: The Colours of Nymans

I set myself the theme of colour for today's wild act as myself, my mum and aunt visited the beautiful National Trust property Nymans in Handcross and I knew that the gardens at this time of year would be abundant with different plants and flowers. Not only did I come across a huge array of colours but also a variety of different bees, who's legs were all heavy with balls of pollen.


There was one particular bed of flowers which was white and yellow with a strong aniseed scent and it was absolutely teeming with honeybees! I stood for quite some time watching them at work.

White-tailed bumblebee

Red-tailed bumblebee

The "aniseed" flower

Tree Bumblebee

 I think this was a type of solitary bee but not sure on exact species.

I believe this was a Green Orb-Weaver spider; correct me if I'm wrong!

As we sat having our lunch outside after touring the gardens, we were joined by a rather tame and cheeky male chaffinch. His colouring was beautiful; such a blue head!

I think in total I must have spotted five different species of bee, maybe more and if my I.D. skills were more up to scratch, I could have been a smidge more accurate! Still, it was brilliant to see so many hard at work when they are in such trouble at the moment.

30 Days Wild Day 2: The Rain Won't Stop Me!

Today was a day of two halves where the weather was concerned. I woke up to gale-force winds that rattled the windows and shook the oaks, and rain coming down in thick sheets. I confess I didn't relish the idea of venturing outside at all! I was due at Pulborough Brooks where I volunteer every week in the RSPB visitor centre, so I bundled myself into the car, dressed for autumn and spent most of my journey being buffeted by the wind on the exposed A24. 

I decided that, despite the weather, I wanted to use my lunch break to get some fresh air and see what I could spot and hear. The winds had actually calmed by the time it came to my break and the heavy rain had become a light dusting. The car park was more or less deserted where I was, as there were very few visitors brave enough to head out on to the reserve, but the animal activity made up for the absence of human. Blackbirds and robins sang the loudest and in a moment when these two were resting their vocal chords, I caught the beautiful song of a chiffchaff. A pair of woodpigeons clung on to the powerlines, swaying in the wind. I was treated to the sight of a stoat scurring across the car park, only a few feet away from me, that characteristic bushy, black tail swaying behind it. That was actually the second stoat I've seen this week; one dashed across the road in front of my car on the way to Chichester yesterday. Ever since last week on Springwatch when Chris Packham told us the way to tell a stoat and weasel apart is the tail, they keep popping up all over the place!

One of my absolute favourite things about nature is the smell after it has rained. By the time I left Pulborough, the sun had come out and the rain had stopped . Once I was home, I stood for a moment in the garden, smelling that fresh, post-precipitation scent that I learnt recently is called petrichor and is caused by plants releasing oil into the air when rain falls on dry soil. I like to think of it as a reward for putting up with rain in June! 

And to mis-quote a rather popular Disney film, "the rain never bothered me anyway."

30 Days Wild Day 1: A Date With the Peregrines

Well. I don't know about you, but that wasn't quite what I was expecting from the first day of June! It certainly didn't feel like Summer is around the corner, that's for sure. I hope that, despite the slightly dismal weather, you managed to commit a random act of wildness on day one of 30 Days Wild!

I was rather lucky to spend my "Day One" in Chichester with the peregrines; what a fantastic way to kick off the month! I was in volunteer mode in the marquee and thoroughly enjoyed chatting to a steady stream of visitors throughout the morning. Since I last blogged about the peregrines, the chicks have been growing at an incredible rate and are now three weeks old. They were ringed yesterday by a trained ringer from the Sussex Ornithological Society so we now have confirmation of two females and a male. I still cannot get over the speed at which they are changing! They have been demonstrating lots of wing-flapping, moving around the turret and are now being fed larger strips of food by the female; I've even seen the odd starling leg being swallowed whole!

Wing-flapping on 30/5/15

Image credit: Chichester Peregrine Facebook Page

The adult birds were very active today, definitely the most active I've seen them since I've been working there. Early in the day, the female took off suddenly from on top of the turret and began squawking an alarm call, before pursuing a buzzard that was gliding directly above our tent. We had a fantastic view as the falcon took several low swoops on to the buzzard and she earned a few gasps from the spectators as we saw how close she came to the intruder. While this was happening, the male remained perched inside the top band of tracery on the cathedral spire, obviously content that she was taking care of things sufficiently. 

Later on in the day, I was fortunate to witness a great example of a food pass between the male and female. Thankfully these events are always preempted by some form of noise from the birds so I was able to look up at the right moment to catch the act. For the remainder of the day, the female remained very alert, frequently taking off and circling the cathedral before returning to the turret. She even chased off a herring gull and pigeon on separate occasion, the latter while she was still carrying food in her talons! This is unusual as normally the peregrines don't take any notice of these smaller birds. We expect she was slightly on edge after yesterday's ringing, as any conscientious parent would be.

The chicks are all at healthy weights, are getting fed frequently and their adult feathers are coming through rapidly, and it will only be between two and three weeks more before they are ready to fledge. I have to admit, that is the part I am most looking forward to seeing. Once they have a full set of juvenile plumage and they take their first flights, what a sight that will be!