You might be thinking, what is 30 days wild? This is a campaign by The Wildlife Trusts to get people more involved with nature and wildlife. So, for each day in June you simply complete a task, or 'random act of wildness', to help nature or to bring you closer to it. If you head to their website, you can request a pack to give you some ideas of what to do and how to get a school or your workplace involved. For Day 1, 4 and 6, I spent my time volunteering at the Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital to help provide care for the hundreds of animals there that are currently in need of some TLC! That means a lot of cleaning but also hand-feeding baby birds and the most rewarding part of all - releasing the rehabilitated animals back into the wild. You should check out their facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/leicestershire.wildlife.hospital/) to see some of the wonderful animals and also to find out about fundraising events where your support would always be massively appreciated! Day 2 - On this day, I cleaned some bird feeders in the garden before filling them up with sunflower hearts, fat balls and bird seed. This is very important to stop the spread of disease between birds which is a problem with bird feeders which attract a large number of birds into the same area. Also, if you notice any food has droppings on, discard this food. To clean the bird feeders, just use a disinfectant and scrub them, leave to dry and fill up again! Day 3 - I found a bumblebee looking very worn out so gave 'him' a spoonful of sugary water which he soon drank and flew off looking much better! It is super important right now to save our bees as in the last 5 years, they have reduced by 1/3rd! Day 5 - This day I unfortunately saw a cat take a blackbird out of it's nest. It was sad to watch as the parents were clearly very distressed and trying to do everything they could to save their young. During this, the 2 other baby blackbirds fell out of the nest. Fortunately, my dad and I had noticed this. As I was 100% certain of their nest and I was able to watch them all day to make sure parents were still coming back to feed them, I returned them to their nest and was very happy to see their parents flying in and out all day long (and even right now, as I am writing this, I can see them!). There's a photo below of the 2 of them, which I am so so glad are doing brilliantly! I do however just want to say that if you do ever find baby birds, do NOT return them to a nest unless you are 100% certain that it is theirs. Also, even if the nest is theirs, there may have been a reason they were kicked out of it (e.g. the birds had grown and there was simply not enough room for them) so returning them would not be a good idea and instead, I would recommend ringing your local wildlife rescue centre, a local vet (who do not charge members of the public for wildlife), or the RSPCA. In addition, if you are unable to get them to a wildlife centre/vets etc then remember that they are very young so are on a specific diet with a lot of fats and protein. For example, if these blackbirds needed to be hand-cared for, live mealworms would need to be fed to them approximately every 20 minutes. The most important point is that every situation is unique so always ask for advice and seek professional care. Day 7 - Today, my act of wildness is writing this blog post to raise awareness of '30 Days Wild' and to hopefully get some more people involved! A few more ideas for this; go for a walk and see what animals and plants you can spot, plant some wildflowers to attract more insects to your garden, go out for an hour and pick up as much litter as you can see. I hope that I have convinced at least a couple of you to sign up (http://action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/20877/petition/1) - even if you just do a few 'random acts of wildness', it all helps in bringing everyone closer to nature!! ©
0 Comments
|
Categories
All
|