The Wildlife Trusts’ annual 30 Days Wild campaign has captured the imagination of the nation.
At the beginning of June I wrote that I had signed up for The Wildlife Trusts’ annual 30 Days Wild campaign.
The idea was that people would pledge to re-connect with nature in some way every day throughout June.
Our columnist Erin McDaid, of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, said the challenge, now in its fifth year, had captured the imagination of the nation.
Thousands of people sign up every year, committing themselves to doing something linked with wildlife every day.
I signed up, received my 30 Days Wild pack, and enthusiastically set about finding things to do.
Now, having completed my 30 days, I have to confess that I didn’t necessarily try to do something particularly wild every day — but I found wildlife somehow creeping into what I was doing anyway.
And that’s simply because I started to notice it more.
And having noticed it, I started to photograph it. That’s the beauty of smartphones — although I initially felt guilty at taking my phone out of my pocket when surrounded by far more lovely things to look at on my regular evening walks around a nearby lake.
But having the phone it meant I could take a quick picture, and then go home and try to work out what I had seen.
I am not the greatest photographer, so there have been a few blurry guesses — not to mention the fact that wildlife tends not to stay still for the camera.
My favourite find has to be a pretty little pale pink plant that I spotted in some long grass. It had what looked like a bee on it, so I knelt down to have a closer look.
It turned out the bee wasn’t a bee at all. It was a plant called a bee orchid, and it was beautiful.
I also tried to listen as well as look, and was rewarded by both first hearing and then seeing two oyster-catchers, which I didn’t know could be found inland.
I was delighted to hear a woodpecker — but my dream of hearing a birdsong familiar in my childhood, that of the cuckoo, never happened. I haven’t heard one for years, and that is one of the reasons why I’m going to try to appreciate what wildlife I can still see, and hear, even more.
