day 27 #30DaysWild - with birds in mind

This morning I popped over to Staffordshire Wildlife Trust at Wolseley Bridge for more sunflower hearts for our feeders. While I was there I went to look for the kingfishers, unfortunately they didn't make an appearance, but I did spot a beautiful demoiselle flutter up into one of the willows on the bank of the River Trent.

There were also a good number of ducks, geese and this family of Mute Swans.

While I was there I also visited the sensory garden, maybe one of my favourite areas at the centre, there always seems to be something new to look at, as was the case again today with several new herbs planted in the raised beds.
The living walkway looked fantastic today, maybe this could be a project idea for next year, not on quite the scale of this one though!

Day 17 - 30 Days Wild - cloud watching

Today we arrived back home in Staffordshire having spent the last week in Cumbria, so we spent a fair amount of time in the car followed by unpacking and then shopping for the weekend, but we did have time to sit out for a while this afternoon enjoying a cup of tea and some cake ( yes we had some left over from our holiday!),  watching the buzzards soar and the kestrel hover over the common and the clouds, It was just nice to sit and watch!

I did though have a walk around our small garden too, so much had shot up, it looks as though I have some gardening to do over the next few days too.

oh and I found this large skipper sheltering in the comfrey

day 10 #30DaysWild - the hare and the fox

This morning we had a hare right outside our house, we have seen them on the common before, but never on our track. By the time I had got my camera the hare had moved on slightly out of view from our front door, but still on the track, so I rushed up to my workroom and managed to get these photos through the window glass!

Later on in the morning we were on our drive and the hare pelted past our gateway being hotly pursued by a young fox - far too quick for any chance of a photo. We didn't see any sign of either animal for the rest of the time we were outside, so unfortunately we do not know the outcome.

 my instagram post today was a video of bird song, going on around us as we sat out drinking am afternoon cup of tea

Now our attention is focused on the National Moth Night tonight, the trap is being sorted by Mr S as I type, we have a new location for tonight's trapping session providing a different habitat to usual, in a garden with plenty of mature shrubs surrounded by many tall trees, mainly coniferous, which will hopefully mean several new moths in the morning

Day 9 - #30daysWild - herb garden

Wow what a hot day!Unfortunately not much time to spend outside, but when I did get out I was drawn to my herb garden, pulling up a few buttercups that had sneaked in and watching the bees flitting from one flower to the next. Herbs are wonderful plants for so many insects, I am looking forward to the marjoram flowering, hopefully then the butterflies will start visiting too, but for the time being I will just enjoy the bees.

Later on this evening I spent a warm couple of hours sat outside for a meeting with fellow members of the Staffordshire Artists Co-operative. Around the same time we were starting to get nibbled by midges, a dozen or so swifts swooped around screeching above our heads - always a wonderful sight

Day 8 - #30daysWild - recording a new species and more moths

Last night the moth trap was set up again in our garden for an hour or so. This morning it was emptied. moth traps don't just trap moths, we regularly get other insects including hornets, cockchafers and other beetles, but this was our first ladybird, and not just any ladybird but an orange ladybird, the first time we have seen one here!

It is a shame it was a mid week evening, with the number of moths we collected in that hour we would have had a bumper haul if it had been left up all night! here are a couple of gems from the hour  a Lime Hawk Moth 

and a Small Phoenix 

Day 5 - #30daysWild - borage, cloudless sky and nature walk around our local common

After a chilly start the sun soon broke through and then we were in cloudless Staffordshire for the rest of the day!

So a day of more gardening with the the company of a fearless robin, who kept appearing near to where I chose to dig! could this be the year I finally get a robin to feed from my hand? any tips on how I go about this would be very welcome!
One of my tasks in the garden was to thin out the borage, which sort of fitted into one of the random wild acts on the 30daysWild App, so today I selected 'sow borage for bees' and adapted it to thinned out borage for bees. I sowed my borage seeds during last years 30 Days Wild and we enjoyed a mass of them in late summer, which then self seeded for this year, so reluctantly today I pulled up several seedlings from the bed, but have still left at least 20 borage plants growing so again I am looking forward to a mass of blue flowers along with the bees and the holly blue butterfly that enjoyed them last year.

After an hour or so of gardening we decided to go for a walk around our neighbouring common, we kept an eye out for small pearl bordered fritillary butterflies, but alas there were none, we haven't seen any for a few years now, but I remain hopeful that they are still here it's just that we haven't spotted them!
We did however see our first Painted Lady of the year which just happened to fly onto the only guelder rose on the common as I was photographing the flowers.

We also spotted this stunning broad bodied chaser dragonfly

a Mother Shipton moth

and lots of these micro moths glyphipterix thrasonella

but the star of the day had to be the fantastic show of ragged robin, probably the best I have ever seen on the common

When we returned home my attention once more was focused on our friendly robin, I became a human bird table for an hour, sitting still on our lawn for an hour arms held out with two palms full of seed. Needless to say I had no takers but it was very relaxing!

Day 4 - #30DaysWild - a day with moths - oh and a shieldbug!

Last night Mr S set up our moth trap in our garden, this morning when I woke at 6.45am Mr S was already up and out sorting the trap, this is not unusual, I just roll out of bed to take the photos, Mr S does the hard work of emptying, identifying and recording. I can now recognise quite a lot of the moths after four years of trapping though I have to say that small brown moths are and probably will always be just small brown moths to me! they have to have a bit of colour or character for me to take any interest! so here are the moths that caught my eye today! - there were quite a lot! ...

Pale Tussock (male)

Pale Tussock (female)

Peppered moth

Chinese Character

Small Magpie

Oblique Carpet

Clouded Silver

An early group photo

Gold Spot

group photo - some moths didn't want to hang around for the group photo and flew off but these obligingly stayed!

Silver-y

Pebble Prominent

White Ermine

Oak Hook Tip

Ingrailed Clay

Buff Ermine

Brimstone

hawk moths - Poplars and Elephant

Scorched Wing

Later on we had another pyralid moth,the tiny mint moth, flying around our garden.

Mint moth 

and then Mr S spotted this stunning shield bug which we have since identified as  a Woundwort Shield bug

Woundwort shieldbug

Woundwort shieldbug

Day 3 of #30DaysWild

A sad day today, our lovely lane lined with cow parsley is no more, the grass cutters were down this morning and this

has now become this!

so pointless when it is a single track lane with no junctions - last night when we walked along the lane the cow parsley was covered in diamondback moths, beetles and flies, I wasn't able to walk up tonight but I am sure that there will be far less insect life around now!

Anyway today the sun shone so I spent as much time outside as I could, My wild act from chosen from the 30 days Wild App was to 'get crafty in the sunshine' so I sat outside and worked on this,

it is now finished but I can't share the completed piece yet -
I also did some more gardening, and endless job but something I love doing, I bought a new Salvia today which is a great plant for pollinators so that is now planted ... and baby birds were about, 3 young magpies, a young robin. As parent birds are busy feeding so I thought I would give the robins a bit of extra food and put out a plate of meal worms on our bug hotel  from last years '30 days wild' well the robins didn't get a look in as the the jackdaws found it first! this was one of my instagram photos