Day 7 of 30 days wild in Hedge End

The other side of the Wildern Nature Park grazing field lies Goodalls Meadow, another of Hedge End's small green public spaces. Perhaps the Town Council should look at joining them up, then we could have one big green public space!

We passed through on today's dog walk. There was a nice patch of (I think) common mallow, two pairs of red damselflies by the stream and pond, and on the mown part of the meadow, evidence of recent mole activity...

Day 6 of 30 days wild in Hedge End

We have been counting bees in the garden this year.  So far we have identified:

Common carder bee
White tailed bumble bee
Buff tailed bumble bee
Early bumble bee
Red tailed bumble bee
Honey bee
Red mason bee

Day 5 of 30 days wild in Hedge End

On day 5 I went to the cricket. Hampshire lost to Essex by the way.

I remembered a column in The Times by Simon Barnes. Mr Barnes was that paper's correspondent for both sport and countryside matters. He is also the author of  How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, a book I find it easy to relate to.

In his Times column, Mr Barnes wrote how he liked to combine his duties reporting on sporting events with his interest in birds by keeping a list of species seen at Wembley, Badminton or more exotic sporting venues. So I thought I would do the same at the home of Hampshire cricket.

The only bird I saw land on the pitch was a pied wagtail. There was a domestic pigeon resting in the roof of the Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie stand, and a small flock of domestic or feral pigeons flying about. Other birds seen on the wing were a starling, a carrion crow, a black headed gull and three herring gulls.

In total six species, or one for every hundred runs scored in the course of the one day match.

Day 4 of 30 days wild in Hedge End

.... an unexpected fish.

It has been a busy few days, and blogging about 30 days wild has fallen a bit behind, but day 4 took in a visit to the Wildern Nature Park during the daily dog walk. This is another of Hedge End's small green open spaces which are managed on behalf of the people by the Town Council.

Most of the park is taken up by a grazing field -

The grazing field

although there were no cows in evidence at this time of year - and a large pond. The pond suffers a bit from having to coexist with nearby people, but I have seen moorhen and mallard on it in on previous visits. The weather on day 4 was not great, so there was not much insect life to see either.

Consequences of nearby people

The pond

The koi

In fact, the most conspicuous living thing was a large koi carp which has presumably been released into the pond by some unthinking numpty who may have committed an offence under the Keeping and Introduction of Fish Regulations 2015.

Prospects for the carp look grim once it has hoovered up all the native wildlife in the pond.

Day 3 of 30 days wild in Hedge End

... a coy bullfinch

I have seen bullfinches in the woods around Goodalls Lane in Hedge End which are only a hundred yards or so away from where we live. But I'm pretty sure this was the first time we have seen one come to visit us in the garden. Although a neighbour spotted them in his garden a couple of days ago.

It was certainly the first opportunity Kim had to take a photo of one on the sunflower seed feeder. It just needs to learn from the goldfinches and greenfinches to perch on the side nearest the window so we can get a decent photo.

Other birds I have seen nearby but never in the garden itself are pied wagtails and green woodpeckers.

Day 2 of 30 days wild in Hedge End

An unexpected mallard....

Bridget Mary Garden is one of Hedge End's small green oases. Donated to the people of Hedge End by a local doctor and alderman in memory of his wife, the history of the garden has been researched by Hedge End Town Council.

From Upper Northam Road the garden looks like a building plot sized gap between two houses. It is hard to imagine that the owner of a similar plot today would do anything but sell it for development. We have to be vigilant. Local Lib Dems have shown they cannot be trusted to protect land designated as public open space. I have blogged about the recent decision to hand part of Hatch Farm public open space in nearby West End over to developers.

Bridget Mary Garden is a green space which is not overly managed by the council. Nature is pretty much left to its own devices most of the time. This means there is lots of healthy green undergrowth in the form of brambles, nettles and other common wild flowers, including a foxglove. There are some splendid mature oaks and beeches as well as younger trees.

On day 2 of the Wildlife Trusts' 30 acts of random wildness challenge the garden was also host to a squirrel, a blackbird and - which was more of pleasant surprise - a mallard.

It has been a busy couple of days. The challenge has only just started and blogging is already three days behind the events!

Day 1 of 30 days wild in Hedge End

Juvenile starlings on the bird table

I spotted the other day that the Hampshire Wildlife Trust is encouraging us to engage with nature during the month of June. The challenge is to carry out 30 acts of random wildness in the month, and it doesn't matter how small they are. Engaging with nature is supposed to make us happier and healthier. So what's not to like, I thought. I can make contact with the natural world and blog about it afterwards.



Friendly cooperation on the bird table

Living in Hedge End, a largely built-up suburb to the east of Southampton but administratively part of Lib Dem controlled Eastleigh Borough, there are unlikely to be huge numbers of rare species to spot. And working full time means during the week any contact will be with the nature that happens to come into our garden or is not scared away when I am out walking with Jack. However there are pockets of green space in Hedge End where nature is hanging on - not least in people's back gardens.

Adult starling nicking the robin's breakfast

So for day one I am going to celebrate a garden bird which used to be very common, but - I understand from Springwatch this week - has been on the decline. There have been at least three successful starling nests nearby.  Earlier in the spring we had adults raiding the mealworms put out with robins in mind, and in the last week or two juveniles have been descending on the bird table. I counted 15 today, but there have been 21 at times. We just need to attract them off the bird table and onto the lawn to eat the leatherjackets so we don't  have a crane fly population explosion in late summer.

We can't claim a Hedge End murmuration but 15-21 is a healthy sized flock for our average back garden. And worth putting up with the noise.

Adult starlings are handsome birds though

(All photos courtesy Kim Day)