Day One - A blackbird offers a fanfare to my wild month

Day one of #30DW wild wafted into my slumbers at 4am carried on the song of a blackbird. It was clearly the time for this bird to declare another day of its precious breeding season out there in the wild. As for me, so gently awoken from my slumbers by this rich and welcome song, I drifted back to sleep for a couple more hours knowing that the wild was ready to greet me when I headed off out and into the first of June.

Day Two - Mesmerised by Moths 

Today’s encounter with the wild fell into the ‘how charming’ category for me as I wandered along a track which was sheltered from the breeze. There I was halted in my stride by a small flight of yellow banded longhorn moths. This was obviously a male courtship display, in which it seemed that the sheer energy of those performing was enough to mesmerise any passing female moths. Their energy expired they then alighted on nearby vegetation allowing me to grab a photo or two before they whirled off into the air again.

Day Three - Skipping Through the Heather - LWT Cadishead Moss

The Cadishead Moss section of the Little Woolden Moss LWT Nature Reserve wasn’t quite as damaged by peat extraction as the rest of the reserve although it still needed lots of work to help it help nature to recover. Today I noted a large skipper butterfly flitting from one stand of cross-leaved heath and heather effortlessly moving through this recovering landscape. Such a contrast to me as I trundled on ancient legs, moving as ungainly as it can get, whilst I was carrying out one of my surveys of the wildlife for the LWT.It seemed to me that the Wild today was trying to average out our progress making for a harmonious balance....

Day 4 - A breeze driven encounter

Plaintive calls carried on a lively westerly wind drew me into that wonder filled world of the wild out on Little Woolden Moss LWTNR. Eyes watering – it was this due to the wind playing havoc with my rheumy eyes. Or was it those three new bundles of life that paused at their parents’ alarm call but soon resumed their search for food once said parents stood close? The wild had presented me with another heartstring-tweaking treasure in these three young lapwings and I gratefully moved on

Day 5 - The dark (wings) lit up my (rainy) day

Not the best of days to wander not that the rain really bothers me…apart from reminding me that the waterproof trousers I wear are past their best. Me and my soggy knees (truly past their best!) plodded on into not-too-rich a wildlife world in the area I chose to walk today yet it did give family parties of long-tailed Tit, whitethroat, great tit and a lapwing calling to hidden young. Leaving these birds to their frenetic day I moved into an area of rough grassland which ‘gleefully’ added to my soggy leg woes but it was here that a flash of dark wings dispelled the gloom of this grey skied day. My first meadow brown butterfly of the year lit up my day.