30 Days Wild - Day 11 - The 4 Elements

Day 11 of 30 days Wild I looked at the 4 Elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

Firstly I had fun walking bare footed in amongst the daisies as they tickled my feet. I looked closely at the mole hills and thought about all the animals that live under the ground where it must be cool in todays heat. Down by the stream I found Roe deer tracks in the wet mud.

Air was these easiest element to look at as we are always surrounded by Buzzards and Red Kites rising on the thermals. This Buzzard, who is H3's mate was crossing the Rook's territory when they came out of nowhere and attacked him. Once he had got past the telegraph pole the rooks turned back.

There are many different types of seeds that use the wind to carry them



Fire was the hardest to do as the Sun was the most obvious thing, but I couldn't take a photo of the sun this afternoon without damaging my eyes. So here is a photo I took a few weeks ago of my sister on a Zipwire at sunset.

There are a few streams in the woods which are important to the animals that live in the wood. We saw a couple of tiny fish and quite a few beetles. Some of the streams dry up during the summer, but there are still two large ponds.

30 days Wild - Day 10 - Nature table

We went to a talk last night on Dormice, at the talk they had a nature table, so I thought I would have a go at one myself.

This afternoon, while out with the dogs we found the things below.

The nest was on the ground. I don't know what type of bird it belongs to, it is made of wool, some bale string, moss and hay.

The Woodpecker feather was all that was left on the ground in a splash of bright red blood, so it must have just been eaten before we got there.

The other feathers belong to a Buzzard, a pheasant, a magpie, a rook or Crow and what looks like the remaining feathers of a fledgling that didn't last very long.

At the Dormouse talk I learnt about looking at nuts to see what has eaten them, these look like a wood mouse and a squirrel have eaten these ones.

H3, the local Buzzard was around, her mate was not far away too

This is the tree that nearly fell on us the other week in the wind. We had stopped under it, then walked away a few metres when we heard a large noise and the branch had fallen down.

A couple of different types of spiders webs

The fledgling Great tits were very noisy

30 days Wild - Day 9 - Jackdaw gang pick on Crow

I didn't go far for Day 9 of 30 Days Wild, infact I stayed in my garden watching the local gang of Jackdaws picking on the Crow.

The Crow has been around for a couple years coming for food when we open the back door by hopping onto the fence post and cawing until we throw him something. It has a nest in an oak tree in the field next to our house.

The local gang of Jackdaws have just sucessfully raised a family in our neighbours chimney pot. They have been regulars at the feeder for a while.

The Jackdaws are very boisterous and knock the smaller birds off the feeders but luckily they don't use the feeders all day long.

However, when the Crow turns up for its food the Jackdaws appear from nowhere and a noisy battle begins.

Where ever the Crow is sitting the Jackdaws take it in turns to dive bomb it, pecking the crow if they get a chance. They are amazing at acrobatics and will fly up high, turn sharply then dive straight down at the Crow, sometimes feet first, sometimes beak first.

While this is going on the smaller birds get their chance to have a go on the feeder.

30 Days Wild - Day 8 - Planting seeds

Planting some seeds is today's Random Act of Wildness for 30 Days Wild.

We have a large space spare up at the allotment, so looking forward to having a Pumpkin patch as large as Hagrids in Harry Potter.

30 Days Wild - Day 7 - Learn something new

For Day 7 of 30 Days Wild we went to Cheltenham Festival of Science.

It was set in The Imperial Gardens so it was nice to wander around in the sun looking at all the stands.

We learnt loads about water and how much is used on everyday things.

The Dinozone was great especially when the lights went out and the voice over explained about how the night sky was different in dinosaur times.

Worst thing was trying to drag my mum out of the book shop.

Later in the afternoon we headed over to listen to Jack Horner talk about dinosaurs.  

He is a very funny and interesting man with some amazing (crazy) ideas, including his Chickenosaurus project.

Jack Horner was and is the dinosaur advisor on the Jurassic Park films and it was fasinating to hear about the new film Jurassic World.

Jack Horner answered my question about 'Did he think we have found all the dinosaur species there were?, by saying that he thought they had only found around 1%.

Ben Garrod did a brilliant job at hosting the talk and together they were very funny.

Thank you to Ben for introducing me to Jack Horner.

Jack Horner, Ben Garrod and me

30 days Wild - Day 6 - Guided nature walk with experts

It is Day 6 of 30 Days Wild and my family went on a guided walk as part of the Oxford Festival of Nature.
We met at Wytham woods this morning and were guided round by researchers from Oxford University and members of the Oxon Mammal group.

Firstly they talked about how to trap small mammals including Weasels, Mice and voles.
When the researchers trap the small mammals they weigh them, measure them and tag them.
This mouse below is a Wood mouse.

Which was then let free.

This is one of the traps, it contains food, bedding and an apple for moisture.

Longworth mammal trap 

After the Mouse we moved on and then talked about how to track Badgers and Deers by recognising their droppings, footprints and Burrows.
A little way further into the woods we meet up with Danni and Amanda who were checking bat boxes.
They very kindly show us how they ringed, weighed and measured a Natterer's Bat.

More badgers for Day 5 of 30 Days Wild

Part two of my Day 5 of 30 days Wild.

I took some footage of the badgers last night.

Sorry, you can't view them on an ipad or iphone.