Category: Go Wild!

31 Days Wild: 31st May 2025

Since last weekend, the blue tit chicks have fledged and left their nest – least ways they are no longer cheating imperiously for food nor are their parents darting back and forth with more food. 

The young starlings have also left wherever their nests are for they are now in the garden in large number. Junior starlings are adult size but have browny gray feathers as opposed to the shiny and sparkled feathers of the adults. However even though they can fly, they are – at least initially – unable to feed themselves and the garden is full of their squawks as they demand to be fed by their tireless parents. Once they have mastered the art of feeding themselves, they are enjoying the purple berries from the mahonia shrub. 

31 Days Wild: 28th May 2025

Walking along a narrow and little used lane, I looked at the plants growing along the verge – a variety of grasses, buttercups and the occasional late dandelion, convululus (hedge and field varieties),  dock plants, cow-parsley and hogweed – all of which I’m sure are beneficial for wildlife. But what I can’t judge is whether this diversity of wild plants is good or not so good – it’s hard to judge what’s not there!

However I am encouraged by the following observation made by the Natural History Museum: “Road verges cover an enormous area in the UK – they span about 500,000 kilometres, equivalent to driving more than 12 times around the Earth! Their total area is thought to be slightly larger than the Lake District National Park. Museum botanist Fred Rumsey says, ‘The sheer scale of the road verge habitat in the UK is pretty mind-boggling. In terms of providing habitat for our threatened wildlife, this huge network of linear strips is increasingly important.’” (1)

Warwickshire Council has a scheme for improving biodiversity by focusing on encouraging wildlife friendly verges – https://www.warwickdc.gov.uk/info/20855/biodiversity/2016/wildflower_verge_trial

(1) https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/why-road-verges-are-important-wildlife-habitats.html

31 Days Wild: 27th May 2025

I am again up in Warwickshire (wet and windy). Today two things caught my attention – one was fields that are yellow with buttercups. The other was field of grass that instead of buttercups was full of black rocks feeding. I wondered if maybe the rain had brought a lot of worms and beetles etc close to the surface of the grass and whether that was attracting such a number of birds. 

“Worms, beetles and other invertebrates are the rook’s main food, which it catches by probing the ground with its large beak. It will also feed on grain, fruit, acorns and occasionally carrion and birds’ eggs.” https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/birds/rook/

31 Days Wild: 26th May 2025

I have a no more approach to both front and back lawns. 

The front lawn favours longer grasses and other plants because it gets little human footfall – but does get cat worn paths or this year, flatten areas where foxes have played. I picked one of each sort of grass that I could find and these are what I think they are.

31 Days Wild: 25th May 2025

Just passing through Grantham on the train and I am thrilled to see a mass of white ox eye daisies fluttering in the the wind. They together with red valerian flowers are populating the  space between the railway tracks. A beautiful wild surprise!

The land alongside railway tracks is also often a haven for wildlife and equally serves as corridor along which flora and fauna can travel.

31 Days Wild: 24th May 2025

Working in the garden this afternoon I caught sight of a fox. He (or maybe she) between the raspberry canes,  his (or her) sharp pointed nose peering round, eyes following and then seeing no danger, he (or she) lept onto the top of the compost heap, curled up and slept. Is the urban fox a wild animal? Or a byproduct of a human settlement?

This morning as I ran past Ham House I saw a healthy looking rat run across the track.  I  saw the same (or maybe a similar) one last Saturday. Is the urban rat a wild animal? Or another byproduct of a human settlement?

Thinking about it, many wild animals have and do adapts their behaviour to maximise the benefit they can gain from humans – eg birds that daily frequent our bird feeders, deer  that choose to stay within the confines of Park rather than moving out into the streets of suburbia, peregrine falcons that nest on high rise buildings etc. Rather than denigrating some of the wild creatures that share our neighbourhoods, we should not celebrate their adaptability and take it as an encouragement that we should also be sufficiently adaptable to alongside others. 

31 Days Wild: 23rd May 2025

Some days seem so busy I feel I fail to engage with anything wild. Today was such a day which took me – late afternoon – to Guildford Cathedral for a Christian Climate Action vigil, praying that  both cathedral and diocese would pursue the path of financial integrity and switch to an ethical bank aligned with the principles of social justice and care for the environment. 

As we prayed I saw a couple of tiny red creatures scurrying back and forth on the steps – money spiders! Or at least that’s what we called them as children: they were good luck creatures. Checking on the web, they are a red velvet mite or Trombidiidae, and having eight legs (but no feelers – instead they use their front pair of legs) are classified as  arachnids. However it is another group of spiders – Linyphiidae – that are noted as being called money spiders.

Either way, who we bank with can have a big impact on whether or not we are promoting care of the wild aspects of  the environment. 

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