Day Thirty - The Last Day

Day Thirty - final day of 30 Days Wild

We had great 'wild' plans for today driving back from our short break in Norfolk but I'm afraid this took over......

......so after a morning in Leicester we decided on plan B - to drive straight home.  

When I got home the first Sweet Pea flower was out to welcome us, there is much to be done in the garden but that will have to wait for a cooler day.  I've filled the bird baths with water, the feeders are topped up, the plants watered and ripe strawberries have been picked so I'm afraid that will have to be my wild adventure for today.

The last 30 days have been fun haven't they?  Thanks for sharing them with me.

Day Twenty Nine - Walk along a beach

Day Twenty Nine - Walk on Hunstanton Beach

This was so different to the beach we walked on day twenty six.

These are the famous red and white cliffs at the end of Hunstanton Beach.
You can walk along this beach to Old Hunstanton and back along the cliff path above the beach, we've done that before and the sunsets on here are spectacular.
 

 The lower part of the cliffs is made up of red tinted limestone laid down in the Lower Cretaceous period and above the white chalk layer laid down in the Upper Cretaceous period.

There had been a recent rock fall.  There are warnings not to climb on the rocks but people are tempted by the fossils they hope to find.  We saw a couple of people searching amongst the debris.

It was fun walking along the beach, listening to the call of Black Headed Gulls and Fulmars.

 There were also lots of rock pools to explore.

Day Twenty Eight - A walk by a river

Day Twenty Eight - Along by the Wensum

Yesterday was day 28 but we decided to join in with the 'no screen day' so I'm just reporting on what we did yesterday.  What a difference a day makes!  Yesterday was windy and rainy in Norfolk.

 Today in contrast has been very hot

We wandered along at the side of the River Wensum
 

It was lined with misty looking cow parsley
 

The path was full of little froglets

It took us ages to walk along as we were concerned about stepping on the little frogs.

 The wildflower meadow nearby was full of orchids

More little froglets along the path making their way to the river
 

 This bush was full of spiders' webs

The meadow was also full of glinting damselflies including these black-winged ones.

Day Twenty Seven - Wildflowers

Day Twenty Seven - Wild flowers on or near Ancient Stones

Out and about in the fresh air today at Castle Acre Village, Priory and Castle

I spotted quite a few wildflowers growing in the crevices of the walls of the ruins of both Priory and Castle.

Here are a few from around the castle 

The castle mound

Great Mullein

 Poppies

 Dandelion Clock

 Bindweed

Tomorrow (Day 28) is a non-screen day so I'll be back, hopefully, on Monday.

Day Twenty Six -Walk Along a Beach

Day Twenty Six - Walk along a Beach

The beach at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Holme Dunes Nature Reserve was so quiet and peaceful to walk along this afternoon.

There are nesting birds in the dunes and lots of wildlowers too

 

There are also lots of shells on the beach

Down near the shore line there was a cooling breeze.  It was a 'wild' moment I'd been waiting for for ages.

Day Twenty Five - Butterfly

Day Twenty Five - Identifying a Butterfly

Whilst out and about today I spotted this butterfly

I think it is a Wood Brown or Speckled Wood 
It says that this butterfly likes to be in shaded woodland dappled with sunlight which is exactly the kind of area we saw it in. 

Day Twenty Four - In the Garden

Day Twenty Four - In the Garden

We've spent quite a bit of time in the garden today and I've been taking photos here and there.  I spotted a bee on a white Cosmos flower, it was very still with its head pointing away from the centre of the flower.  We thought it might be resting in the heat of the day but I've just been out to check and it is still there.

I think it is dead, in fact I'm sure it is.  Poor bee.

Day Twenty Three - Visit to a Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve

Day Twenty Three - A Visit to Westport Lake

I thought it was time that, as the 30 Days Wild challenge is being organised by the Wildlife Trusts that we had better visit one.  It is a  place we visit quite often to walk around the lakes and sometimes along the canal.

 

This is the fairly new visitor centre at  Westport Lake where we always stop for a morning coffee after our walk and sometimes buy bird food too.

 Here are some photos we took on our way round the larger lake

 Grebe

Coots

 Young coots

 Nesting Coot

 Bunny

Pied Wagtail

Giant Mace

 A hybrid goose - looks like a white goose/greylag cross

 This poor white goose has Angel Wing a deformity found mostly in ducks, geese and swans and is thought to be caused by people feeding them white bread.

There are loads of rock doves at the lake or 'town hall pigeons' as my neighbour calls them.  I found myself looking at them more closely, they had so  many different patterns and colourings.

We ventured up into the wild flower meadow, which was wonderful - full of yellow rattle, vetch and Yorkshire fog as well as many other plants and flowers.

 Woundwort

 Wild Rose in the hedgerows

 The Visitor Centre is well run by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust

Day twenty two - Birds in the garden

Day Twenty Two - A few of the birds that visited our garden this morning 

As it was raining on and off all day we sat in the conservatory  to drink coffee and watch for birds visiting the feeders.  All the photos are taken through the windows so are not perfect but it was certainly a day for young birds.

 Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Starlings - two youngsters being taught how to forage in the grass by an adult
 

 Young blue tit

 Young robin - we've spotted two now one slightly darker than the other - we just happened to see them at the same time at first we thought it was the one little robin who was changing colour quickly.

Sparrows - always plenty of those

 Dunnock

Young blackbird

Adult male blackbird - is he the one who sings to us so sweetly from about 4a.m. every morning?