Post 418 - 30 Days Wild - Day 8 - Polluting Plastic Packaging - No thanks

Hey everyone, Day 8 of 30 days wild already!

I got an email from 30 Days Wild and one of the things it mentioned was about becoming a champion for wildlife. That's a really great idea because we need more people to stick up for our wildlife.

It's quite simple to do too and you can get results you don't expect. I've written to my MP before and had a response, though not the second time I wrote so I will be writing again. Another thing I did where I didn't expect a response was with my #cleanfornature campaign. This is really simple. If you are out and about at reserves or at the beach and you see litter, especially plastic that can be recycled, pick it up and recycle it. If you can't recycle it - put it in the bin. Either way it will make the countryside tidier and will help out wildlife.

A bit of what I picked up at Quarry Moor

So I was on a reserve I visit quite often, Quarry Moor, and the litter there was the worst that I had seen. I don't blame the company I will mention in a bit for the litter, it's the customers, and it is probably younger customers too as most of what I found was round a play area on the reserve. There were straws, plastic drink cups and loads of little plastic sauce pots everywhere. Well I tweeted to the company involved and I got a response. Didn't expect that but it was great as I got to email them with some ideas. The first was to ask if they would help clean the reserve, the second was to ask if they could use biodegradable packaging especially in the little sauce pots.

Why did I do this in the first place? Why #cleanfornature? Well it's because plastic is not good for the environment. Springwatch has done films about this and litter dropped on land can hurt terrestrial wildlife but by being blown into streams and washed out to sea it harms marine wildlife too. Plastic doesn't break down quickly so it is building up in our oceans, it gets into marine life which hurts them and it gets into our food chains which hurts us. I saw evidence of this again at Bempton Cliffs where there is lots of plastic fishing line in the Gannets nests.

There's so much information on the internet about this now. Here's a page from my local wildlife Trust, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on plastic in the oceans. 80% of it comes from land and is washed out to sea! Supermarkets charging for plastic bags has been a big help but there is still a lot of plastic used that doesn't need to be or where other materials can be used (dad said remember single packed banana's?). I like seeing in some places I go now that you can get wooden disposable knives and forks. The video in this tweet is worth watching - a Ted Talk by Martin Doreys who started the #2minutebeachclean - plastic gets washed up everywhere, even in the Antarctic.

Check out Martin Doreys @Campervanliving #2minutebeachclean TED Talk https://t.co/MCt2qhHnZ6 @2minbeachclean 🌊@CountrysideBen

— SealScotland (@SealScotland) 4 April 2016

So, to stop it getting into the seas we need to use less plastic and I try to pick it up and recycle it when I see it. This is why I wrote to the company that has a store right next to Quarry Moor reserve. It's McDonalds. They took a while to check things out and respond but they were very helpful. They have agreed to alter their litter picking routes to help keep the reserve clean of litter. I was really amazed that a huge global company would listen to one small voice like mine. Thanks McDonalds for helping to keep a bit of my patch cleaner and safer for wildlife!

The plastic packaging though is harder for them to deal with and they aren't able to do anything immediately but they are always trying to make improvements and they would keep it in mind to look at alternatives when they do a review of their packaging. I saw a great article recently about a beer company that has changed from plastic can holders to ones which are edible for marine life. So alternatives are possible.

Brilliant Brewery Makes Biodegradable, Edible Six-Pack Rings That Feed Marine Animals https://t.co/1X3lErpkpo pic.twitter.com/zQ9oK8rfhR

— One Green Planet (@OneGreenPlanet) 16 May 2016

I'm just one little voice so I thought it might help if lots of other people said they'd like less plastic to be used, and not just with this company but with lots of others that use plastic especially takeaways and supermarkets. Small companies could help too.

Also what about microbeads. They seem strange to me. I don't know why you need to have plastic in toothpaste? They come in lots of products that get washed into our drains and are too small to be filtered out by our sewage plants. This gets into our marine life and is hurting them as the beads absorb harmful chemicals and then get into fish etc. See this webpage and this infographic from Greenpeace on Microbeads.

So on World Oceans Day I thought I'd start a petition that asks the Government to help our wildlife by asking companies like takeaways, retailers, and cosmetic companies to use less plastic. I don't know what results it will have but if the Government and the companies know we all want this to help our wildlife, well you never know....

I've started the petition off, it's logged on the Gov website and I'm just waiting for them to check it and make it live. I'll post a Thunderclap link when it's ready so that people can share the petition if they want to.

I'd really appreciate it if people would support this and our wildlife will benefit.

While my petition is being checked here's a few plastic petitions that you could sign

Greenpeace - Ban Microbeads

Actively work to reduce the use of plastic packaging by retailers in the UK

Ban the use of non-recyclable plastic film and unnecessary packaging on produce.


Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 417 - 30 Days Wild - Day 7 - Watched a beetle hunting

Hey everyone, Post 417 and Day 7 of this years 30 Days Wild!


As usual I took my dog, Esme, out for a walk. Tonight as it was such a lovely evening we went to a place called Silton Forest. It's really lovely there and very peaceful.


On the way there we saw a foal with its mother that looked very young. A bit further on a stoat and then a weasel ran across the path of the car, to quick to barely see let alone get pictures of.

Poised to attack

When we got to the forest Esme did her usual thing of finding sticks to pick up and drop in front of us so we can throw them for her. This gave me the idea of trying to take some action shots of her. My pho-dog-raphy (sorry :-)
is getting better but I still haven't got the shot of her I want.

A little breather

I'm glad its getting warmer. The Cow Parsley and Angelica are starting to come out and last year they attracted loads of insects at Silton Forest. It should be great timing for National Insect Week :-)

Running away with prey

One insect I did see a little further on in our walk was a Green Tiger Beetle. I really like these beetles but they are very quick. I watched it hunting for a while. Then it caught a bit of of prey and tried to run off to the longer grass to eat it. Still I managed a couple of shots just before it got into the undergrowth.




Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 416 - Minsmere & a great end to a brilliant weekend!

Little Egret at the scrape at Minsmere

Hey everyone, a second post today, Post 416, as a lot has happened recently and I need to write it up before School starts again next week!

Marsh Harrier from the Island Mere Hide

Well you’ll know from my recent posts (Post 411 & Post 415) that I spent a bit of time in East Anglia with the BTO and some really fantastic young birders and heaps of bird experts from the BTO. What a great time that was. We knew it was going to be a busy weekend with early starts, late nights and days full of activities. So, as we’d travelled a long way Dad thought it would be just as well to have an extra night in the area (somewhere that had beds and showers!) and maybe pop somewhere else before heading back to Yorkshire....

So plans were made for a good long night's sleep in a hotel and for a visit to RSPB Minsmere before we headed back up to Yorkshire! I was so focused on the BTO Bird Camp I had totally forgotten what happens in the Spring at Minsmere: Springwatch! How could I have forgotten?! Well I saw the tweets about a week before Bird Camp which was great and got in touch and they said they hoped to see me while I was there. In the background Dad was busy emailing and we received an invite to be in the Unsprung audience so I was really excited about that as well as visiting Minsmere.

Southern Marsh Orchid

We arrived to news that the Purple Heron was still on the reserve and had been seen about 2 hours before we got there so we headed to Bittern Hide to see if it was around. It wasn’t there and the hide was busy so after a few minutes we moved on to Island Mere Hide. We hadn’t even got into the hide and we saw a Bittern fly in to the reeds at the side of the hide, only the second one I’ve ever seen! It was out of sight too quickly to get my camera on it though! Just outside of this hide I saw my first orchid of the year too, one I'd not seen before, the Southern Marsh Orchid. It was just emerging but was still beautiful.

Cormorant drying its wings

I watched Cormorants drying their wings, Marsh Harriers hunting, Great Crested Grebes diving, it was a lovely spot to wait to see if the Heron would show up. Then I got a bit of a surprise. Lindsay Chapman from Unsprung turned up in the hide and asked if she could have a chat with me. Obviously I said ‘Of course’ and then I noticed the camera. The chat was about my blog, how I’d managed to write about nature every day for a year, the BBC Wildlife Magazine Junior Blogger of the Year award and the BTO bird camp. At the end of it though she presented me with an Unsprung Hero’s Award. I was so surprised, it was hard to take in, but I was very proud to get it. I'm just glad I didn't burst into tears of joy on camera!

You can see the interview on the BBC Springwatch Website if you click the link below the picture:

Click here to see the video on the Springwatch website

On the Springwatch patio with Dad!

Sneaky peak at the
live cameras!

Dad had to fill in a consent form so that the film could be used on TV so we had to go to the place that Springwatch was based on the reserve.


We got to have a little look behind the scenes and at the studio. That was quite exciting too.

Well it wasn’t even dinner time so we went back on to the reserve to see what else was about. It was a great day for nature. I saw 60 species that day on the reserve and 3 new lifers – a Sandwich Tern, Long Tailed Duck and a Mediterranean Gull. The Purple Heron decided to be elusive though.

Sandwich Tern behind the Kittiwakes

I bumped into another person who was there looking for it too, and they’d had a bit of bad luck as they were walking between the hides when it had decided to show early that morning. It was the Birding Biker – Gary Prescott. We had a lovely chat about what we both do and our blogs, it was great to hear about all the places he’s going to to see if he can beat last year’s list. I read on his blog later that he’d seen the Purple Heron at about 6pm.

Lindsay & me after the interview

I was a bit jealous when I read that but I was back in the Springwatch studio at that point getting ready for Unsprung as Dad and I were invited to be in the Audience. He’d arranged that earlier as well as getting me into the right hide at the right time for the surprise Unsprung Hero’s award. I wondered if we’d be seen on the show when we got to stand right in a corner but when Chris started to do a bit of a rehearsal I realised that I’d be in the opening shots stood right next to him! We got moved around a bit in the show too by Royston the floor manager so if you saw that episode I pop up now and again in different places.

My award badge!

On the Unsprung set

The show was great to see, getting the Unsprung Hero's award was amazing and it had been such a wonderful day on the reserve that I couldn't be too disappointed that I didn't see the Purple Heron. It was a great day to end an incredible weekend. I think I smiled all the way back to Yorkshire.

Cheeky selfie with @ChrisGPackham in the #springwatch audience! pic.twitter.com/PA7Kt0h2pJ

— Zach (@nerdboy386) 30 May 2016

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 415 - Brilliant & Totally Outstanding - BTO Bird Camp - part 2

The Dartford Warbler

Hey everyone today's post 414 and also the second instalment of my bird camp posts! Today's post is about the Sunday, all 12 and a half hours of it! So after a night's Night-jarring, we got to bed at about half 11, and in the morning woke up again at half past 4. After the Friday-Saturday sleep where most of us only got about 3 or 4 hour's sleep being so excited about the day in store, and after such an epic Day 1 of Bird Camp we all had no problems getting sleep this night...even if it was only for 5 hours.

It was up and out then, we all got into the mini-bus and, well, it was quite quiet for the next hour. Everybody was snoozing! It must have been peaceful for Ieuan, as it was probably the only quiet he got for the entire weekend! It took about an hour, as I say, to get there and when we did get there, most people got out of the mini-bus but a couple of us stayed in the bus until Nigel got there, our sort of tour-guide from the Landguard Bird Observatory!

A pretty knackered group of enthusiastic young birders at @LandguardObs after big day #birdcamp16 pic.twitter.com/9gJHNW8gaF

— Andy Clements (@_AndyClements) 29 May 2016

Nigel gave us a bit of history about the site, as well as a very funny, 'no-nonsense' view of the governments approach to protecting nature as Dad described it. It's a fantastic place, near the Felixstowe port, it's a fort dating back to Henry VIII's time made to protect the East Coast. Now half of it's an English Heritage site and the other half is the Bird Observatory. It's funny waking around and seeing old bits of fort that have been converted for wildlife, like a big concrete pit that was where a big gun used to be is now converted to a pond that had loads of newts in it!

Before we went on the walk/tour around the observatory, we saw the results of the Moth Trapping from that night and we did a bit of sea bird watching. The bird watching brought me some birds that I haven't seen much, such as the Little Tern and some Brent Geese. The mothing brought a Little Elephant Hawk Moth, and a Pearly Underwing! The Pearly is a moth that Nigel was very surprised to see, it's a migrant moth that he would only expect to see until October if I remember right!

Some sea kale by Languard

So then we went around the area that he said that even experienced ringers find it hard to get there head around. 30 bird nets! Most of them were mist nets, but there was a couple of more sophisticated traps, for example, Heligoland trap. I've never seen a bird trap this big or this clever. I didn't even know I was going into it! Basically, you walk up behind the birds in the forest to flush them the way you're going and you walk into a huge netted sort of room that the birds can't get out of. Then you go out the other side through the door and you open the trap door that has a piece of re-enforced plastic on an angle that the birds think is the way out, they then fly into the box with the slanted plastic in ready for you to take out, ring and then set free.

After he showed us this we had breakfast and then went on a walk around the beach. We found loads of interesting plants such as Sea Kale, a relatively rare plant in England and Scarlet Pimpernel! They were growing on a habitat that Nigel explained was quite scarce - vegetated shingle. When on the beach we managed to see some more Little Terns but a bit closer and we even went to where all the Ringed Plover nests are. We even saw the chicks! Apart from all this, there wasn't much else when we were there as the weather wasn't best for the rare migrants that a lot of the Young Birders were sort of hoping we might see... there was a Firecrest there on the Friday before we got there and a Kentish Plover on the Thursday after! :(

The Redstart, shame it was looking the other way!

When this had finished, we headed back to the Nunnery, but not straight away. We were lucky enough to be able to visit a number of local sites that David Walsh (who I met last year at Birdfair last year) and Ben Moyes knew where they thought there would be some interesting birds around. I saw loads of lifers like the Dartford Warbler and the Redstart! It was interesting to see the difference between where each bird nested in comparison, the Warbler nesting quite low down in scrubby heathy land and the Redstart nesting quite high up in dead wood.


One stop off was to a site where there were Turtle Doves. Lots of us were excited to try and see these birds. They are having a really hard time and their numbers are declining lots. It's not helped by Maltese hunters that still shoot them when they are migrating even though European Law should protect them. Sadly there was only a brief glimpse of these birds in flight for a few of the group. The site was an RSPB reserve though and we saw lots of Avocet and a couple more Garganey amongst others.

Let's go get Gargany on the list @_BTO #Birdcamp16 #youngbirders! pic.twitter.com/bDutRuk6gU

— Lee Barber (@lee00barber) 29 May 2016

After the touring we went for dinner at a lovely pub, I'm a bit of a pie lover and had a great Chicken and Ham pie. It must have looked odd to the other customers to see a group of 20 young birders there. We sat chatting about our wildlife experiences from the weekend.

After lunch we headed back to the campsite. We packed everything away, said our goodbyes to a few people that were going straight to the train station like Elliot and Dante. The rest of us headed to the Nunnery where parents were waiting to pick up the other Young Birders. A few of us hung around though to see what the final list of species was. In all 108 species were seen over the weekend. There were a few I missed, like the cranes (as I'm both short and colour blind the view wan't good enough for me to see them!) so my final list was 100 species!

Then, sadly, the weekend was over! Well, for everyone else it was. I had another day in East Anglia in store!

In case I haven't said it enough, this was a fabulous weekend. my best birding experience ever. I met some amazing people from the BTO. Ieuan, Paul, Viola, Lee, Justin, Su, Mike, Greg, Thank you so much for showing us so many amazing things, I learnt so much.

I met some amazing young birders too that also taught me a lot and were incredibly friendly. I laughed a lot too! Such a great group of people and great new friends. I'm sure I'll not remember everyone and I haven't found links to all of their blogs or twitter accounts but do have a look at what these people do too, they're all pretty incredible.

The BTO #BirdCamp16 Young Birders

The young birders at the start of the weekend -
Ieuan was telling us what we had in store!

Elliot Monteith
Toby Carter
Ben Moyse
Luke Nash
Paddy Lewin
Max Hellicar
Dante Shepherd
Alex W
Mya Bambrick
Eleanor Morrison
Josie Hewitt
Sebastian
Tommy
Alex R
Amy Hall
Sam Pitt Miller
Harry
Cressie

Look out for another special themed final instalment about Bird Camp and another about an interesting Monday that was the end of such an incredible weekend!

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 414 - 30 days wild - Day 3 - Hunting out patterns in nature

Hey everyone, day 3 of 30 days wild and today I'm looking at patterns I find in nature.


You can do this anywhere. In your garden, at the beach, at a reserve or just walking down the street. I'm always astounded at the way nature makes such intricate patterns. They are everywhere and once you start to look for them you'll see them everywhere!


Nature is pretty awesome!

Dew drops on a leaf at Fountains Abbey

A weird brain like fungi I found at Nosterfield - anyone know the species?

A four spotted chaser at Minsmere - love the wing patterns

A tulip in my garden - its like looking into a kaleidoscope!

A snail at Flamborough

These are just a few I've seen since I started 30 days wild, I'll update you on what I see today!

Hope you enjoyed,

Z

Post 413 - 30 days wild - Day 2 - A wild day on the coast!

Hey everyone, well today is the second day of the wonderful 30 days wild.

I hope you managed to get out and do something wild today. I thought today that I would do something out on the wonderful Yorkshire coastline.

Well what a day to pick! This is was one wild day - so windy where I was which meant I didn't see as much as I'd hoped to but it was still a great day out.

So where did I go? Well I thought I'd visit another +Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve as well as dropping in on an old favourite.

Our family headed out to Flamborough Head and took a long ride through the gorgeous North Yorkshire countryside. The first place we dropped into was the Living Seas Centre where I had a nice chat to the manager Antony Hurd. It was nice to get this tweet off him.

Great to meet @nerdboy386 this morning on his @YorksWildlife nature reserve challenge. Let us know what you find in the rockpools

— YWT Living Seas (@YWTLivingSeas) 2 June 2016

Esme checks out Limpets

I'd done my research before I left on the tide times. Low tide was at 10 and we had got there around 11.30 so I was surprised when I got there that most of the rock pools were already covered. That was a shame as Dad had been wanting to find some Sea Squirts. Still we had a look round and Esme, our dog, had a good sniff at the Limpets. It was great to be by the sea even on a day with such powerful winds. I watched a few Sandmartins going to and from their nests, there must have been about 80 tunnels in the cliff face.

Puffin in flight at Bempton

Next we moved on the Lighthouse and then on the the North Cliffs, all part of the Flamborough Cliffs Nature Reserve to see what was around. It was very exposed and hard to see anything as the wind kept threatening to blow you off the cliffs. It was hard to keep the binoculars or telescope still in the wind. There were a lot of Guillemots around, Kittiwakes too. The biggest surprise was on the way back to the car when a lovely Skylark jumped up out of the grass a couple of feet from us and hovered singing its heart out just above us. So beautiful. It stayed like that foe a little while before the wind got the better of it and it flew further off. I'll have to go back as I'd heard there was more to see including Manx Shearwaters which I want to see. I just have to see the bird who's name is Puffinus puffinus but sadly not today.

A Tree Sparrow at Bempton

Then we headed up to RSPB Bempton Cliffs. just as windy here but the viewing platforms mean you aren't going to be blown off a cliff while birdwatching! When I got to the visitor centre I was really please to meet one on the people I know off of twitter - Chris Calow. He was really nice and we talked about what was about on the reserve but, in general, he was (and has always) really supportive. Thank you Chris! After talking to Chris I had a walk out to the cliffs, seeing a flock of Tree Sparrows on the way.

Gannet in flight

Gannet collecting plants for its nest.

At the cliffs I saw loads of different species such as Razorbills, and Kittiwakes. But the two things that I was most looking forward to see were the Gannets and the Puffins. I love seeing the Puffins just because of their amusing nature just to dig holes and basically just ferret around with big orange beaks...I also love how they fly it seems so hap hazzard, well it certainly did today in the strong wind.  I also love the Gannets because of how beautiful they are, they have no markings on their perfectly white bodies, completely clear, and the way that they glide around so gracefully makes them definitely one of my favourite birds. I tried for ages to get some good shots of them in flight, they seemed to be able to use the wind much better than the Puffins.

A lone Hoverfly - how it could fly
on such a windy day was amazing! 

One thing I was quite surprised to see was a lonely Hoverfly on an umbellifer. Not identified the species yet but I think it did well not to end up in Norway!

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 412 - Wonderful Wildlife Trust 30 Days wild - Day 1

Hey everyone,

Well it's here!

One of the best parts of the wildlife year!


It's 30 Days Wild!


If you've not heard of it well you can find out more about it on the Wildlife Trust Website - 30 Days Wild.


So what am I going to do this month. We'll there's all sorts of things that I have planned but we'll see how many I get to do.

Walking in a wood

A lovely Red Deer

Today's Day 1 and I thought I'd start with something quite simple, just a walk around a place I like with my friend, Mum, Dad and Esme. We went to a great place, Fountains Abbey, which has lot of parkland set in the countryside. There are loads of deer roaming about like the Red Deer in the picture.

Oystercatcher and chick

Neptune saying -
"Ooo, look at those Oystercatchers!"

I did a bit of a list of birds while I was walking around but it wasn't a serious bird watching expedition but I still managed to find 22 species including Coots, Tufted Ducks, Chaffinches, Pheasants etc. The surprise was seeing an Oyster Catcher nesting in the middle of the lake on the little island being guarded by Neptune!

The cygnets

Jackdaw waiting for crumbs

I also saw a pair of Mute Swans with their cygnets. The mother bird was very busy chasing off a group of Canada Geese that were a bit too close for her liking!

Jackdaws are doing well here too and they were around for most of the walk but their favourite bit of the place is the cafe where they were looking around for crumbs. They are really striking, intelligent birds with fabulous eyes.

Well, that was a great walk. The great thing about it is there are wild woods, bits of parkland as well as lots of tress and ruins to climb too. So all in all it makes it a great wild day out!

Wonder where I'll get to tomorrow!

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.