Day 15 - The Kingfisher - 30 Days Wild

Day 15: Star Species

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

Without doubt, one of my favourite bird is the kingfisher. I haven't seen many in my life and it was only last year I saw my first one. A spectacular, colourful little bird that is so charming to see and I get so excited when I get a glimpse of one.

Recently on Facebook I noticed there had been a few spotted in a lovely little place called 'Forest Farm' in Whitechurch, Cardiff. A great place and a haven to wildlife with some really good bird hides. We got comfortable in one of the hides and waited; whilst waiting we meet a lot of lovely people all eager to to get a glimpse of this beautiful bird.

A few other birds made an appearance, including a grey heron, green woodpecker and moorhens:

Grey Heron

Adult moorhen

Juvenile Moorhen

It must have been well over an hour before we got our reward, my partner Dan spotted it in the back of the pond. It was quite hard to see at first, with the orange breast blending into the reeds. But as soon as he started flying, with that striking blue, there was no way you could miss him.

The beautiful kingfisher at Forest Farm

Unfortunately, he was only around for about a minute and never returned when we were there. We didn't mind, we saw him and that was enough to make us smile!

I will definitely make Forest Farm one of my 'go to' birding places, it's great! Here are some of the other treats we saw:

Closeup of a Magpie from one of the hides

Great Tit

Not far from the education building we discovered this little patch of wild flowers; isn't beautiful? I would much rather see flowers like this than a well mowed lawn :)

Red tailed bumble bee collecting pollen from a cornflower.

Interesting Facts about Kingfishers:

• Kingfishers nest in burrows in the river bank.
• The kingfisher's feathers are not actually that colourful; the brilliant blue of the kingfisher’s back feathers are not the result of pigment, but the result of light striking specially modified layers of feather cells.
• In Victorian times, many kingfishers were shot and stuffed to put in glass cases, while their feathers were widely used to adorn hats.

Day 8 - The Shieldbug - 30 Days Wild 2017

Day 8: Star Species

Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina)

This time every year my garden is full of these lovely bugs; they spent most of the time mating in bushes throughout the garden. I love watching them (that sounds odd, sorry) and taking pics of them, they are also fascinating creatures. 

More about them - Coming soon...

Shieldbug eggs

Interesting Facts:

• It is often called the Green Stink Bug - it produces a foul smelling liquid when in danger and only has a few natural enemies.
• They mate by contacting their rears together .
• It's hard to tell the difference between the males and females
• In Mexico they are eaten both live and cooked - their pungent odour gives a dish an aromatic flavour. (yuk!)

Day 6 - The Blue Tit - 30 Days Wild 2017

 

Day 4: Star Species

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

The last few days I have had a few Blue Tits visiting the garden with their three fledglings. It was another horrible cold day today, but managed to get a few snaps of the fledglings in my neighbours tree.

More about them - The Blue Tit is a colourful little bird; made up of a mix of blue, yellow, white and green. It was one of the most regular garden birds with numbers increasing in the UK. 98% of British gardens have reported having a Blue Tit in them, especially in winter.

They usually breed the third week of April and can lay anything from 7 to 13 eggs. The chicks hatch naked and blind and as they grow the parents have the hard task to feed them. Their main diet at this age is caterpillars and each chick can eat up to 100 caterpillars each day; if there's 10 chicks that's 1000 caterpillars a day!

When they ready to fledge it becomes am extrememly dangerous time for them. They will stay with the parents for a few weeks and learn how to find food and avoid predators quickly. Unfortunately starvation kills many young birds after fledging and the domestic cat is a major cause of mortality.

Fledgling in the tree (notice how it's cheeks are yellow, not white like the adult)

Interesting Facts:

• An excited blue tit can be recognised by erect, short crest on the nape.
• Hawks, sparrows, magpies and cats are predators of adult birds, while squirrels also attack chicks.

Day 4 - The Small Magpie - 30 Days Wild 2017

Day 4: Star Species

Small Magpie (Anania hortulata)

Dicovered a small moth in the garden today, did a bit of research and discovered it is called the 'small magpie' moth. 

More about them - There are 2 magpie moths in the UK. The one I spotted is the 'small magpie' which is classed as a micro moth. It's common in Southern England and Wales, although it is the first time I have spotted one in my garden. A day flying moth that spends a lot of it's time in nettles and mint plants.

Interesting Facts:

• The small magpie moth gets its name from the black and white markings on the wings.
• The caterpillars remain hidden from predators by feeding inside a rolled up leaf.

Day 30 - 30 Days Wild - A look back over the month

* Today's random act of wildness -  a lookback over #30DaysWild

So today is the last day of #30DaysWild - what an amazing 30 days it has been. When i started I set myself a few goals to achieve in the 30 days they were...

1. Spot a kingfisher - Check :)
2. A visit to Skomer Island - Check :)
3. Plant wild flowers and see what they attract - Check :)
4. Go camping
5. Listen to dawn chorus 
6. Go star gazing - Check :)
7. Making my own suet coconuts for the birds
8. Litter pick to create a better environment for wildlife
9. Make a tasty moth syrup and see what shows up - Check :)
10. Do a reptile survey for ARC - Check :)
11. Trip to see the Ospreys at Dyfi - Check :)
12. Create my own bird table
13. Beach combing - Check :)

I only managed to do 8 out of 13, but I am very happy with what we achieved. The main one was seeing a kingfisher - that was a pretty awesome day to finally see the one bird I wanted to see all my life. The other great day was seeing the puffins at Skomer, I have been before but I never get bored of seeing those lovely little birds.

Some interesting facts from this month's #30DaysWild:

• Spotted over 100 different animals (including 60 different species of birds)
• Visited over 15 places
• Saw my first kingfisher (did I already mention that?)
• Met lots of lovey people through #30DaysWild Twitter & Facebook Pages.

Even though #30dayswild have now ended I will still continue to 'Stay Wild' and will document it on my other blog http://sands-walks.blogspot.co.uk/ :)

Roll on 2017, until then 'Stay Wild'!

Day 29 - 30 Days Wild - Fledglings in the garden

* Today's random act of wildness - Fledglings in the garden *

It's the last but one day today - it has gone so quick! This evening was spend in my shed looking at the birds in the garden. I noticed we are getting a second brood of starling fledglings and a few younf sparrows show up too.

I haven't just fed these birds for the last 30 days I have been feeding them for years and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Cute Starling fledgling

Starling fledgling having a drink in the bird bath

Starling fledgling with adult

This is what I feed them - suet pellets and mealworm

Suet cake (I also feed them fatballs, peanuts etc...)

Sparrows, the one on the right is a fledgling

Male sparrow

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar

Day 28 - 30 Days Wild - Pond dipping

* Today's random act of wildness - Pond dipping *

Day 28 and what horrid weather - it had rained almost all day! Finally at around 7.30pm the sun began to come up so we decided to go to Penllergare Valley Woods, a local woodland to see if there was any activity in the small pond there. Earlier in the year when we visited there were lots of tadpoles, so hopefully we would see some frogs or toads.

This is what we discovered...

The small pond full of lilies

A young toad in the grass

Young frog with water boatman 

Damsel Nymph

Newt Larvae - you can tell it's a newt tadpole because of the feathery gills around the head, distinguishing them from frog and toad tadpoles.

An adult newt, the water was too murky to tell if it was Palmate or smooth (definitely not great crested)

Another newt larvae

Young frog...

...this one still had it's tail

A huge dragonfly nymph

The sun starts setting and we decided it was time to leave.

Wildling enjoying climbing trees!

Day 27 - 30 Days Wild - Foxes in the churchyard...

* Today's random act of wildness - Exploring a churchyard *

Day 27 of 30 Days Wild - oh no, only 3 days left after today :(

In South Wales there are many graveyards and sadly many of them are neglected and over run with foliage. With so many plants and grass left to grow unattended there is no doubt that these sacred grounds must be teeming with nature.

I asked a few local people on Facebook which ones they felt were worth visiting for wildlife and I had a long list back, which was quite sad really that these once beautiful maintained areas are now left to the elements.

After work we went to the graveyard on Carmarthen Rd, Swansea to see what we could see. Unfortunately we couldn't access the place - it was so overgrown we couldn't see the paths for the graves - so we decided to leave this one.

A graveyard on Carmarthen Road, Swansea - not accessible due to the overgrown foliage

Gravestone lost under the brambles

Next stop was a church about 10 minutes drive away where the graveyard was full of bramble, balsam and other creeping plants. It was hard to see some of the gravestones due to the ivy, but there were indeed an array of insects. Many wildflowers were growing among the graves including clover, vetch & daisies - which brought the bees, wasps and butterflies. Here are some of the insects and flowers we found...

Purple Vetch

Clover

Bee on Yellow Vetch

Large Bee on nettle 

Insect needs IDing

Ringlet Butterfly

Micro Moth

The time was about 6.30pm when we reached the middle of the graveyard and we noticed a flash of orange through the long grass - as we got nearer we realised there was a beautiful red fox there just chilling out. We were very quiet and managed to get a few photos including a big yawn, we must have stood there for about 30 seconds until it spotted us and then it was gone. What a treat!

Red Fox just chilling out.

Big yawn!

The undergrowth began to get a lot thicker and harder to navigate so we made our way back to the car and drove home. In the evening I finished my kingfisher painting and was over whelmed by the response on Facebook when I posted it on there - over 450 likes is mind blowing and made me realise that perhaps I should have more confidence in my work and maybe consider selling them :)

My watercolour of a kingfisher - June 2016