The babies have arrived! Day 1 #30DaysWild

So today is the start of the Wildlife Trust's 30 Days Wild - This will be my 4th year to do it and with my career change (I am now a self-employed freelance designer) I wasn't going to do it.

Then I heard that familiar noise I hear each year - 30+ starlings in the garden! I closed my laptop and ran to get my camera. It was hard to count them all, but the parents had brought the babies and they were rowdy!

The suet pellets and coconut shell was gone within a few hours and they were going nuts for the mealworm. It got so wild and loud at one point I had to just shut the door and try and get back to work.

I am so happy they are back and mad me realise that work should NOT stand in the way of nature, and I will once again carry on with the annual tradition of #30DaysWild

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2017- Day 1

This weekend Dan and I took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. We equipped ourselves with cups of tea, cameras and a notepad, and watched events from our vantage point in the conservatory.

We started our one hour birdwatch at 10.30am. This is what we saw...

One of the bird treats was this cute heart I found...unfortunately it was overlooked and lately ungratefully knocked on the floor uneaten!

Our vantage point for one hour, equipped with pen, paper and more importantly cups of tea ;)

One of our first visitors - Jackdaw

My 200 Bird Year Challenge!

Happy new year everyone :)

New year, new challenge and what better way to start than taking part in the Bird Watching Magazine challenge - #My200BirdYear. It encourages you to see 200 species in the course of 2018. This is a brief idea of what the challenge entails: 

"They can be anything from the birds you see on your back garden feeders, to seabirds passing offshore as you relax on the beach. There are no restrictions on where you do your birdwatching, and you won’t have to wait for your ticks to be approved by a committee – it’s all about enjoying new birds, and learning more about the wildlife all around us."

I am going to keep updating my page - you can find it above under My 200 Bird Year 2018.

#My200BirdYear http://www.birdwatching.co.uk/my200

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 18 - 30 Days Wild - Beachcombing in Bognor

* Today's random act of wildness - Beachcombing *

Today we ventured to Bognor Regis to stay for a few days with Dan's dad for Father's Day. I was worried I wouldn't be able to do anything 'wild' but was surprised at the amount of rooks that were in the service station we stopped at. They were so confident walking in and out of the cars and sitting in the trees - they are lovely looking birds :)

Rook

Rook in the tree

It took us forever to get to Bognor from Swansea, but we eventually arrived around 3pm. After spending some time with Dan's dad we had a little walk on the beach to see what we could see.

Middleton on Sea is mainly a sand and shingle beach with encourages an array of birds from Oystercatcher to Sanderling - the weather wasn't that great and the only birds we saw were a few egrets, heron gulls and lots of starlings.

Egret

Egret eating seaweed

Starlings

Apart from the birds there were lots of interesting things among the pebbles including lots of Spider Crab shells and mermaid's purse.

Mermaid's Purse with other bits of wash up organic items

Whelk egg case

Lots of Spider crab shells

The beach with Butlins in the distance

Day 1 - 30 Days Wild - An Evening Garden Birdwatch

It's back! 

#30DaysWild - A whole month of doing cool wild stuff which I am super excited about it. In case you don't know what it is, for the second year running the Wildlife Trust have launched a campaign where they encourage people to do something 'wild' every day throughout the month of June. This is my second year to do it, I loved it so much last year I didn't want it to end and continued to carry on writing about my adventures in my main blog (www.sands-walks.blogspot.co.uk).

What to do for my first day? Well, unfortunately I had to work today and didn't get home until after six so I thought I would keep it 'very' local and for one hour I sat quietly and watched what birds come into the garden at evening...

*Today's random act of wildness - A evening garden birdwatch*

Well first off I would like you to meet 'Wildling the Fox' he will be my little mascot throughout the 30 days...cute isn't he and proudly wearing my #30DaysWild badge :)

Apart from fatballs, peanuts and coconut shells the birds love this concoction of mealworm and suet pellets. At precisely 6.30pm I put it out for them...

...within seconds we get our first visitor - a feral pigeon.

Next up the sparrows, mostly males tonight.

Then the noisy ones...the starlings

It all starts kicking off on the feeder between the starlings and the pigeons "he's behind you!"

A face off over the suet coconut! 

It's not long before the pigeons give up and move along leaving the starlings victorious of the feeder!

It's just past 7pm and already our list looks impressive!

Next visitor was a magpie...

...then more starlings with a few juveniles

Finally we finish our hour with a few jackdaws (the other is just off camera)

Phew! I thought it would be quiet this time of the night, but great to see so much activity in the garden and what a great way to kick off #30DaysWild with launching it with our regular feathered friends :)

The full list is:

• Starlings - 7
• Jackdaws - 2
• Magpie - 1
• Sparrows - 4
• Wood Pigeon - 1
• Feral Pigeon - 4

Penllergare Valley Woods, Swansea - 5 March 2016

Penllergare Valley Woods is a hidden gem just 15 minutes away from Swansea City Centre. Situated off the A48 it is easily accessible and open 24/7 to the public. There is a car park with a coffee shop, but seeing as we were there before 8am we parked in the layby next to the Lezzet Cafe and entered the woods through that entrance.

Notice board with map and information about the woods.

We headed right towards the upper lake - the reason being there has been a kingfisher spotted on this lake over the last few weeks and we are desperate to spot one this year :).

The view of the lake from the bridge.

The upper lake (fish pond).

It was not even 8am and there were already lots of birds around: mallard on the pond, robins, blackbirds and great tits flying in and out of trees and bushes.

We walked slowly along the river, desperately trying to spot the kingfisher that has been sighted numerous times recently. After half an hour we gave up and decided it was time to explore the rest of the woods...maybe we would get to see him on the way back?

Male Blackbird.

Great Tit.

Female Mallard (there were males on the pond too). (pic by Dan Turner)

At the other end of the pond you can clearly hear running water and, after one last look back to see any flashes of blue and orange, we decided to check out the cascade.

It looked beautiful today and it wasn't long before a dipper made an appearance. I love watching dippers bobbing up and down and splashing in and out of the water. They are lovely little birds and every time we visit Penllergare we always see them. Another regular visitor showed up too: the grey wagtail, infact there were two of them flying around the waterfall.

The upper pond from the other side.

The cascades.

Dipper. (photo by Dan Turner)

Grey Wagtail (there were a pair). (Photo by Dan Turner)

We continued walking along the river and near the Llewelyn Bridge we saw a blackbird and song thrush having a dispute. When we crossed the bridge we were greeted by lots of birds: great tits, long tailed tits and a rook in a tree on the hillside.

The scenic river.

The Llewelyn stone bridge - a new bridge which was built in 2013.

Song thrush.

Long tailed tits (Pic by Dan Turner).

Great tit.

After seeing the rook in the trees in the upper part of the woods, we made our way up the incline. The views from here are fantastic and you appreciate how big Penllergare is. There were lots of daffodils flowering up here and a flock of great tits were in a nearby tree.

The path up to the higher section of the woods.

Great panoramic of the woods and ponds.

Daffodils.

Walking along the path we saw a Dunnock and as well as daffodils there were a few snowdrops flowering...spring is definitely on it's way.

Dunnock.

Snowdrops

From here we started making our way back down the valley, lots of birds like robins and wrens were in and out of the bushes and we noticed one of the paths was closed off. Unfortunately a small section of the woodland has been infected by a fungal disease and hopefully they will be able to keep it under control and fix it.

The path into the valley.

Robin.

The path off limits due to fungal disease.

We eventually reached the river again and we crossed one of the narrow bridges, we followed the path around and arrived at the big old oak tree. Who knows what lives in this tree that must be a good few years old.

The narrow bridge crosses over the river.

The old oak tree.

From here we continue on the path and eventually reach the other lake in the woods, this one is called the lower lake and we could see some mallard and coots. A few weeks prior we had seen cormorants and heron on the lake, check out the video below...

Lower lake

A coot.

Mallard flying about the lake.

After a nice break and waiting to see if any other birds arrived we decided to leave the lake and make our way back on the path. On the way we heard a carrion crow making a racket in a nearby tree and plenty of great tits flying around. We headed down the Cadle Mill side of the woods to see if there were any tadpoles in one of the ponds.

Carrion Crow

The path leading to Cadle Mill

Great Tit.

There was plenty of life down this side of the woods, Marsh Marigolds were flowering on the bogs and we spotted plenty of frogspawn and tadpoles in one of the ponds. We also saw newts, but we couldn't get a photo or tell which type they were.

Bogs full of life.

Marsh Marigold.

One of the ponds full of tadpoles...

...and frogspawn.

From here we made our way back on the path and up to the higher point of this part of the woods. Many times I have seen buzzards in this section, but unfortunately there were none today but we did see a greater spotted woodpecker.

On our way up the mountain.

Greater spotted woodpecker.

The views up here are amazing, you can see so much of Swansea. It's so peaceful its hard to think you are in a busy city. We had a little sit down watching the woodpecker fly from one tree to the other. From here we made our way back down, passing a few old trees where we have seen woodpeckers in the past and spotted a treecreeper looking for grubs in a mossy tree.

The view of Swansea.

Dan enjoying the view and watching the woodpecker fly in and out of the trees.

Making our way back down...

Treecreeper.

We took one of the earthy paths back down to the main section of the woods and when we got to the bottom we were confronted by huge redwood (sequoia?) trees. Along the river we looked out for dippers again, but they weren't around - what was around was a lovely little wren singing it's heart out.

On the way down to the main part of the woods.

Passing huge redwoods (nb Dan is 6ft 4, so you can see the size of them).

Walking back along the river

Wren.

We passed the cascades again and walked slowly along the upper lake, hoping the kingfisher would show itself and make our day even better. Unfortunately it wasn't to be today and our quest to see a kingfisher goes on...

The cascades.

The upper lake...still no sign of Mr Kingfisher!

Cute sticker on the dog poo bins and was photobombed by this doggy :)

Penllergare Valley Woods is indeed one was Swansea's hidden gems, I can travel over 50 miles looking for wildlife and see nothing - But every time I venture here (only 15 minutes away) I always see something new. It's my go to place when I need to be with nature. I have to give credit to the all the people who are restoring it, they are doing an awesome job making it a beautiful place to visit all year round.

Check them out on facebook and their website.