My 30 Days Wild Challenge: pond

Showing posts with label pond. Show all posts

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Day 30 Go Pond Dipping

Day 30 and the final day of the 30 Days Wild Challenge. What a month! I've done some really great activities during June, some better than others. The important thing is that I've spent time outdoors every day and I've spent some memorable times with my daughters carrying out my random acts of wildness.

Somethings I did were a success and other things not quite as successful. I'd wanted to look for Water Voles, spot Kingfishers and see Lizards at Ainsdale but this month it wasn't too be.

Looking back over the thirty days I've managed to get to some great places and do some great activities such as walking up a mountain, visiting a wetland centre to see Avocets and Otters and managing to do a walk in my favourite place, a U-shaped glaciated valley outside Dufton in Westmorland.

Tonight I'd planned to finish off by going pond dipping with my youngest daughter. We drove out to Ashurst Beacon Country Park to visit a couple of ponds there but one was dried up and the other covered in duckweed. Sadly we didn't get to catch much with our small fishing net apart from tadpoles, snails and a couple of minnows.

A bit of a disappointment really as I was hoping for diving beetles and more. It didn't ruin the evening though as at least we'd managed to get out for an hour, stretch our legs with a nice walk and take in some fresh air.

Weed covered pond

Minnow

covered in lumps

Daughter having a go
at Pond Dipping

Grey Squirrels playing

Adorable pests

Playing

Hanging about on a tree

Walk through a shaded woods

Looks like our Pebble Bugs

have been breeding

So I've reached the end of this 30 Days Wild Challenge Blog now and all that remains for me to say is a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by and left comments. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed putting it all together. It's been hard at times having to come home and sift through hundreds of photos before resizing them and putting them on the blog. It's been a real labour of love but it's all been worth it.

Finally, I must say a big thank you to my lovely daughters who have accompanied me on most of my activities during June and I only hope we can continue doing lovely things for many more years to come!

My daughters enjoying the mud

at the Beacon Country Park back in April 2006

PS
Did you manage to have a look back at Day 28?

I managed to upload the photos
from the walk late Monday night as promised.

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Day 24 Spend an Evening in the Garden

Today after tea, I spent the whole evening in the garden. First I mowed the lawn, then I gave the border a little tidy up and then I watered the plants. With those jobs out of the way I put on an 80s music CD and relaxed in the chair at the top of the garden.

From the chair I was able to watch the birds flying to and from the feeders hanging in the Japanese Acer tree and my cat chasing flies around the lawn. After a while he got bored and so decided to plonk himself down on my lap were he then remained for a good hour whilst I gently stroked his head.

Sitting there I could hear the birds in the nearby trees settling down for the night and the resident Blackbird singing as the light began to fade. I then spent a good half hour watching a bat flying around, dodging between the trees and the houses. I tried to get some video footage but fading light and the sheer speed of the little thing meant it was never going to work out.

As darkness fell I paid a visit to the ponds at the bottom of the garden with my torch to look for the resident frogs and the newts. In the bigger pond (project #2) there didn't seem to be any sign of either frogs or newts but the tadpoles were in abundance. I then checked the tiny pond (project #1) and saw one of the frogs in the water probably feasting on the mosquito larvae.

A final check back on the bigger pond and I managed to get a quick glimpse of a newt before it hid away under the hairgrass plant but a look in another part of the pond I discovered the other frog hiding amongst the grass. I managed to get a photo but it wasn't that clear given that it was now pitch black in the garden.

A video of the garden from my chair

Pond Project #2

Pond Project #1 and the Bug Hotel

Closer view of Pond Project #1

The Bug Hotel

Pond Project #1

Pond Project #2

Bug Hotel accomodation

Leaves and cut grass kept in a bucket

for use in the bug hotel

A frog in Pond Project #1

Slugs in the borders

Something in the grass in Pond Project #2

It's the other frog hidding

If you're interested,
you can see how I built my Bug Hotel and Ponds
by visiting my main blog at the following URL:

http://my-wildlife-pond-project.blogspot.co.uk

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Day 23 Climb up a Tree

This evening I had planned to sit near a local brook with my eldest daughter to see if we could spot any Water Voles but dense vegetation meant it was near impossible to get to the waters edge.

We decided to leave the vole watching until another time at a different location and instead had a walk out across the farmers fields via some footpaths to a row of trees where we would be able to do some tree climbing instead.

fifteen stone of idiot

up in the tree

The tree we climbed in

Eldest daughter climbing

Going higher

From the ground looking up

One handed pose

Thumbs up

My turn to climb

"I'm sure I heard a cracking sound"

Stopping at the pond

Kirkby Brook

Simonswood Brook

Public footpath across the farmers field

Ox-eye Daisies

Buttercup

Ox-eye Daisies

Meadow Vetchling?

Clover

Elder

Ox-eye Daisy

Ox-eye Daisies

Monday, 22 June 2015

Day 22 Go on an Insect Hunt

I decided upon an easy random act of wildness today and so after tea this evening I drove out to Sidings Lane Nature Reserve on the Rainford Bypass with my youngest daughter. It's only a ten minute drive from my house but it's been over twelve years since I last visited the site.

The aim of the visit today was to see how many different insects I could find in the hour we were there. Finding them was one thing, photographing them another. I was either too slow zooming in with the camera and they took off or I couldn't quite get a sharp focus on my subjects.

At first it is quite difficult to find any insects in the grass and bushes but as your eyes become trained you start to see more and more. There wasn't a massive variety of insects on show tonight but we did manage to find a small selection in the hour we were there.

I will definitely make more of an effort to visit this site and would like to come early one morning to see if I can spot a fox or even a badger. One thing I will do after todays visit is make sure I master the manual focus feature of my camera.