30 Days Wild is over for another year so it’s time to wind things up on the blog. First, a summary of the last few days, and then a quick review of the month.
Days Wild 27 -30
In truth I didn’t do much on Thursday and Friday. I watched birds and butterflies and checked the wildflower patch. The tall blue flower I couldn’t remember the name of is Viper’s Bugloss. The new spiky blue flower that looks very nearly the same may be a younger version of viper’s bugloss or something else I can’t find again in my book. I knew I should have written it down (I probably have, on an envelope I can’t find at present.) And I didn’t download the picture, either!
I did finish reading Crow Country by Mark Cocker, which I’ll review later in the summer.
Here are some pictures from the garden anyway.
Saturday
I went to Cley bird reserve for a workshop making a pottery clay bird, with slip (liquid clay) decoration.
Our tutor, Dr Tim Willey, had kindly made the bodies of the birds we were to make ahead of schedule. Just as well, because after we’d decorated our birds, he showed us how to do them, and mine was a disaster!
Anyway, he demonstrated how to paint our birds using slip, ready for firing. Then we went and looked at some birds out on the reserve. There weren’t many waders about (the body form was best for them), but we ooh’d over a shelduck (as in the foreground of the picture)with a host of at least twelve very small fluffy bundles paddling after her across the lake. There was also a Little Ringed Plover nesting in the reserve car park, and I got a picture of her, but it’s even more difficult to spot her than my Swallowtail butterfly last year!
Then we came back and made heads and tails for our models, and then we decorated them. I was one of two trying to make something that looked like the avocets we saw on the lake, but all the birds were very fine. The beak is just a cocktail stick stuck in to make a hole to use after firing.
It was so hot the slip was already dry enough for Dr Willey to take away that day and prepare for firing and glazing. We’ll be able to collect the finished articles later, and finish their beaks and a stand of our own choosing. (Our hottest day of the year so far, 31 degrees C on the coast.) Our friends in France were suffering in the 40s.
Sunday
Another very poor showing for wildness. I admired several mushrooms on the golf course, including a blewitt and some lovely parasol mushrooms. But I didn’t have my camera with me 🙂
My 2019 30 Days Wild summary
All in all, what with the funny weather, a lot of golf, and a funny mood too, I didn’t get out and see much, and nowhere near as much as last year. As you’ll have noticed, most of my records have been from my immediate surroundings. But I did maintain my awareness of all things wild, and read a book I’d been meaning to read for years, too.
And I completed all four of the Gardenwatch challenges. BTO reported last week that approximately 65,000 bird boxes, 37,000 bug hotels, 19,000 hedgehog houses, and almost 50,000 individual ponds as well as other natural water sources have been recorded by the 100,000 records submitted so far. 25,086 gardens reported at least one bird nest. Blackbird, Blue Tit, Robin and House Sparrow were the species most commonly reported nesting in people’s gardens.
The GardenWatch project runs till the end of July, so you can still join in, here.
Also running to the end of July…
Most of my books are half price or less in the Smashwords Winter-Summer Sale. Time to pick up a bargain! Click the banner below to go to my book page.
Really like the pottery birds!
Fun project… though where I am in my life right now, I can’t help thinking, “one more thing to dust/move!”