30 Days Wild - Day 7: A flying visit

After our long and arduous journey on Friday, followed by our dormouse packed Saturday, we were in need of a relaxing stop on our way back up north today.

We settled on Shuttleworth, near Bedford. Home not only to a recently restored Victorian "Swiss Garden" but even more importantly (according to Gareth anyway) the best collection of vintage aircraft in the UK, if not the world! Even better than that, today was an airshow day so we could even see them flying.

You might think that an airshow isn't particularly "wild" in the natural sense - but you'd be wrong. Lots of the planes on show today had wild names; "Tiger Moth", "Martlet", Comper "Swift", Cirrus "Moth", Hawker "Cygnet"and "Hind", Sopwith "Pup" and "Camel", "Chipmunk", Piper Super"cub", the Mew "Gull" and Gareth's favourite of the day the Fieseler "Storch" (German for Stork!?)

The Fieseler Storch - Capable of incredibly short take-off and landings, seemingly able to hang in the air. A very apt name indeed!

Just to make sure we'd covered true wildness today we did spend some time in the Swiss Garden with the local wildlife, particularly the resident peacocks and watching dozens of bees busy pollinating these Nepeta.

So not all plane spotting then....

 

30 Days Wild - Day 6: Can we handle it?

So what did we drive 9 hours across the country for yesterday?

Dormice of course!

We spent today on a "dormouse handling and survey techniques" course at Wildwood in Kent.

They have a fantastic collection of native animals and have captive breeding programs for several of them including the hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius). This gives the perfect opportunity for trainees to practice dormouse handling techniques, especially us northerners who are beyond the present natural range of this endangered woodland rodent.

We've done plenty of nut searches and nest tube surveys for this species as part of our work in the past but have only actually seen a handful of dormice (and not all at once!), so we hoped to get some new skills and refresh some of our old ones.

Our tutor for the day was Hazel Ryan, Senior Conservation Officer at Wildwood, who took us through the classroom theory in the morning followed by a whole afternoon in the dormouse pens where we practiced safely checking boxes, removing, handling, sexing, weighing and returning dormice.

Into the bag and ready to be weighed. It is actually awake - it just decided to blink for the photo!

What amazing animals and a really interesting day. We hope to get to grips with this species more often in the future!

30 Days Wild: Day 5 On the road again

We spent nearly all of today on the road, paying particular attention to junctions 24-25 of the M25 in a 2 hour traffic jam!

As a result the best we could do for today's wild encounters were a particularly plucky magpie;

 And this rather impressive looking specimen.

Our initial thoughts were some kind of coastal/dune species but we think it might be a species of poppy? We weren't expecting to be botanising on this trip but will look it up when we get home.

We promise a much more exciting  blog post (to us anyway) tomorrow......

30 Days Wild - Day 4 Going off the rails

With a couple of hours between bat surveys this afternoon we decided to get some exercise (as well as some much needed vitamin D!) on a bike ride along the transpennine trail from Oxspring to Dunford Bridge.

Its a steadily rising 12km ride along part of the former Woodhead Line, turning around for the return leg at the entrance to the Woodhead tunnel, which now only carries high voltage electric cables, not trains, under the Pennines to Manchester.

There are lots of opportunities to experience nature along the route as it passes from town into pasture and eventually heather moorland. The local volunteers do a great job of maintaining the habitats along the trail too with some nice wildflower areas developing.

As I was busy cycling I didn't actually get any photos during the ride, but I did get this one in the garden at home whilst mowing the lawn by the pond;

When we built the pond about 4 years ago I put that rock there, hoping that one day I'd get a photo of a frog sat on it - and there it is!

30 Days Wild - Day 3 Alien Encounters

Ok, so its not technically day 3 anymore, but better late than never.



Saw plenty of alien species on our site visit today.

The main "invader" spotted was Japanese knotweed, a gift from our plant obsessed Victorian forbears! Nowadays we know how easily this plant spreads and how difficult it is to get rid of, as well as the impact it has on our native vegetation. It's safe to say that it has definitely outstayed it's welcome in the UK.

Still an impressive plant though, but it belongs in Japan; not Pontefract! 

Turning Japanese? - You can help find and track this unwelcome invader.

If you've got a smartphone you should definitely download the Plant Tracker app. Its a free app which makes it easy to identify, record and submit sightings of non-native invasive plant species. Fun for all the family and useful information too. Why not make "invasive plant tracking" your wild activity tomorrow?

30 Days Wild - Day 2 Birdfood Cocktail

Another indoor day for us today but, thanks to the weather cancelling our bat survey tonight, at least we've got chance to fill up the bird feeders at home.
Our little corner of South Yorkshire isn't particularly well endowed when it comes to garden birds, but that won't stop us!
First first stop for any wannabe garden birder is obviously bird feeders.

We try and tailor our home made seed mix to the tastes of our regular avian visitors:

For the sparrows,coal tit, blue tit and starlings a mix of suet pellets and sunflower seed (with and without shells).
For the goldfinches, niger seed in it's own special feeder, although they seem to prefer the sunflower hearts these days. 

For the rest; blackbirds, dunnock, collared dove, wood pigeon and the occasional magpie, they get what the others throw onto the floor!

We also put out suet balls and suet cake too which they all seem to use as a backup when the cocktail feeder runs out.

The pond seems to be a big draw for the birds too, the blackbirds particularly enjoy a bath in the shallow end.

Although it's not scientifically proven, we think we've made a difference in the last few years, the house sparrows being a fairly recent return after several years absent. We also get starlings nesting in the soffits on the front of the house; they've already had 1 brood fledge this year.

A site day for us tomorrow so hopefully we'll be able to post something a bit more out of the ordinary.

 

 

30 Days Wild - Day 1: Buzzards!

It's the 1st of June so time for our first "30 days wild" post!

We've been mostly in the office today, however on a quick drive to Leeds we couldn't help but admire (whilst giving the road our full attention!) several common buzzard (Buteo buteo) along the M1 between Ossett and Leeds.

It wasn't so long ago that these wonderful birds of prey would have been a rare sighting in these parts, having suffered from persecution, poisoning by agricultural chemicals and a reduction in their rabbit prey to Myxomatosis.

Stronger legal protection and the banning of certain pesticides has meant this species and several other birds of prey have made a real comeback in our lifetime. How long will it be before Red Kites move south from Harewood and start to become a regular sight around Wakefield and Barnsley?