Category: Go Wild!

31 Days Wild: 10th May 2025

Today I found a dead cockchafer beetle on the grass. I recognised it because in its adult form it does look remarkably like its larval form in both colouring and size. Apparently they spend several years underground in their larval stage but only about 6 weeks as adults. They are also known as May bugs because they appear in early summer – although with global warming maybe they will be renamed April bugs.

The German word for beetle is Käfer. Both words originate from the Proto-Germanic ‘kabraz’ meaning gnawer – they chew through grass and plant roots amongst other things.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/beetles/cockchafer-beetle/

31 Days Wild: 9th May 2025

Today I made what is called a ‘hoverfly lagoon’! In the summer I often see hoverflies in the garden and I learn from the Wildlife Trust’s fact sheet that some hoverfly larvae eat aphids. The fact sheet also gave instructions for making a hoverfly lagoon being the equivalent of a bee hotel.

https://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-02/Hoverfly Hero booklet.pdf

31 Days Wild: 8th May 2025

An important part of my weekly routine is running in Richmond Park. I really value having this wild space so close to hand – it calms my mind and keeps me balanced. 

This morning whilst running I picked out the song of a sky lark. These birds live and nest in the Park and their presence of very special as they are on the RSPB’s red list species of concern. Protecting their habitat and protecting their nests (which are made in the ground) from disturbance by people and dogs, is really important. The Park requires dog walkers to keep their dogs on leads when walking near nesting areas – and this restriction is a good reminder that we need to be sure that we are sharing the Park fairly with all its inhabitants.

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/read-watch-listen/top-five-things-know-about-soulful-skylark?utm_source=email&utm_medium=mainnewsletter&utm_campaign=blog_2025&dm_i=1EGE,8WTF2,WEQKAR,115DG0,1

31 Days Wild: 7th May 2025

Again from my stays in Warwickshire, I have been able to spot my first swallows of the year with chattering burbling cry – these I saw in fact on Sunday 27th April – and my first swifts with their distinctive scimatar-shaped silhouette, which I saw yesterday in Warwickshire.

Seeing them reminds me however of the many we don’t see. I haven’t seen swallows here in south west London for many years, and the number of swifts I see, seems to be less and less each year. I have not yet seen any in London.

31 Days Wild: 6th May 2025

Last night I was staying over with my sisters in a Warwickshire village. The half moon shining in through the velux window was no brighter than in London but the power of the moon light was so much more apparent. Light pollution in London is such that it is never truly dark, but here out in the countryside the light shared by the moon was wonderful – and noticeably stronger that when I had been there the previous week. The night and its variable darkness is something we often fail to appreciate, and yet from a wildlife point of view it is as important as daytime.

31 Days Wild: 5th May 2025

What do I want to achieve over these 31 days? A bit more understanding about the natural world, about what the word ‘wild’ might mean, a greater aptitude to pay attention to the natural world around me – looking, hearing, smelling, feeling.

There is a little piece of woodland that separates a field from a local park. Its certainly not wild or natural in the sense that the trees were planted by a previous generation, but it does provide a habitat for a large number of wild birds – and I’m guessing other wild things such  as bugs and insects etc. I often pause here and use my Merlin app which identifies the different birds that are singing in the locality – as many as 14 different species on some occasions. I hope that by doing this regulalry I will learn to identify more birds by their songs. Today I could hear on one side of me a chiff chaff and on the other side another chiff chaff replying – their songs were similar but each had their own pitch. 

31 Days Wild: 4th May 2025

Growing up, our home had a lovely scented honeysuckle that climbed over the front door. Its rampant growth required periodic heavy pruning. I too have planted a honeysuckle near our front door. Its growth is sedate and its scented qualities unproven as every year its blooms attract a mass of aphids.

Aphids are meat and drink to lady birds – or so I am told – so I am loath to use an insecticide. Thinking about the aphid as part of wild nature, I googled aphids and honeysuckle. Apparently aphids on honeysuckle point to poor soil which is preventing the honeysuckle from outgrowing the aphids. 

Wild honeysuckle grows in woodland environments, where the soil is rich in humus, and where the roots are shaded whilst the stems climb up to the light. So I guess I need to replant my honeysuckle in a more homely environment!

31 Days Wild: 3rd May

Today I was working in the garden and was struck by the beauty of the striped snails that live there. I looked them up and apparently they are white-lipped snails. The other snail that is common in the garden is the garden snail!

Does garden snail imply a degree of domestication? That some snails have evolved or adapted to live in gardens? Presumably because here there are plenty of young fresh shoots and seed.ing to eat, shady patches to shelter from the sun, and plant pots, stones etc where they can overwinter without being disturbed. 

Perhaps them we shouldn’t complain about snails when our cultivation provides them with an ideal habitat!

garden snail left,

31 Days Wild: 2nd May 2025

In Braiding Sweetgrass,  Robin Wall Kimmerer writes of the reciprocal nature of gift. The Earth gifts us with plants and we gift the Earth the care and attention with which those plants thrive. The same is true for other living beings including insects.

I was gifted a bee hotel. For several years there were no guests. Then the bee hotel was blown down in a storm so temporarily I placed it in a nearby bench. The following summer every room in the hotel was occupied, each bamboo tube sealed with a paste of soil or brick dust. And every year since then red mason bees have made a beeline for the hotel. 

It seems that rewilding our environment can involve positive intervention – reciprocating nature’s gift. 

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/bees-and-wasps/red-mason-bee

31 Days Wild: 1st May 2025

Another Judith suggested observing 31 Days Wild during May after the example of the Wild Life Trust’s 30 Days Wild for June. So taking up challenge, I shall try and note something each day in this blog.

I’m currently in a small village Warwickshire village keeping my mother company as she recovers from a recent illness. Compared with East Sheen in London – which I always feel is very green – Frankton feels very much greener. From where I’m sitting I can see seven types of trees – beech, horse chestnut, elder, ash, yew, sycamore and hawthorn. The latter are bedecked with May flowers, whilst the chestnuts have blossoms that look like coconut pyramids held out as if on the palm of a hand.And chestnut leaves do look like five fingered hands!

Meanwhile the ash trees frame is still clearly visible as their leaves have barely begun to show. This is a year of the oak before the ash which according to tradition, presages only a splash of rain.