Just like that, we’re into the first week of 30 Days Wild, the Wildlife Trust’s biggest mass participation campaign that challenges people to do a random act of wildness every day for the month of June. Now in its sixth year, 30 Days Wild is growing year on year with thousands of people taking up the challenge to do something wild, making wildlife part of their everyday lives. The beauty of 30 Days Wild is that your random acts of wildness don't need to be time consuming or require going on a wild goose chase looking for rare species, it can be simply taking the time to follow a line of ants, walking through the grass without shoes on or climbing a tree. Of course, your acts of wildness might just be a little more adventurous and you may well stake out to catch a glimpse of an elusive species, the great thing is, it’s open to all and the variety wildness is always so great to see.

If you haven’t signed up just yet, don’t worry, there’s still time and you can sign up and download your free online pack here. Here’s what we’ve been getting up to across the week;

Day 1 – To start 30 Days off in style, I took the opportunity to guerrilla chalk our Head Office to highlight fantastic everyday wildlife that is quite often missed. Finding a mouse run that went underneath a bench, through a flower bed and alongside our water butts in our beautiful Brooke House garden, hearing the popping of pinecones as they opened in the summer sun, spotting a sparrow nest in the guttering and evidence of snail’s teeth on the drainpipes, I highlighted them so that others who might have been visiting or using the footpath that runs past the office, could have a look themselves. It’s great fun finding the wildlife to highlight and then setting others the challenge to find them, why not have a go at home?

That evening, I ventured to Holywells Park on a night safari to see what species I could find. Although I often start 30 Days Wild with a group of you in tow armed with bat detectors and torches, helping me find different urban species, I still wanted to bring the best of Ipswich’s wildlife to you at home, albeit this time, I’d be going solo. Finding stag beetles, toads, foxes and at least three tawny owls, it was a great evening and I loved being back in Holywells Park again, after the restrictions had been lifted slightly allowing me to do so.

Day 2 - I challenged myself to find goblin and witches gloves looking for one of our native woodland species. More commonly known as foxgloves, they are able to grow up to two metres tall and are easily recognised by their pink / purple tubed flowers that are decorated with delicate spots.

Much folklore surrounds foxgloves and the spots, which help guide bees such as carpenter bees into the flower, are said to be created by fairy footprints. It is also believed that foxgloves get their name as the tubed flowers look like gloves and were worn by foxes to quieten their footsteps when hunting.

Some believe that where a foxglove grows, a fox den is never far away and whilst we don’t know if this has any truth behind it, we had a go trying to find signs of dens nearby! Whist no dens were near the foxgloves found on this day, we did spot several bees visiting the tubed flowers and could hear them in their flowery chambers.

Day 3 - Susan Stone, our Reserves and Conservation Advisor took over for the day and shared the overnight visitors to her moth trap.

“A couple of years ago my dad and I made a small moth trap for me to use in my garden. It doesn’t trap masses - just a few at a time. As a relative beginner on moth ID this rate suits me well and I can identify them without spending hours ‘unpacking’ a moth trap before work!

One of the greatest pleasures is recording moths which have nectar / larval foodplants in my garden or nearby surrounding habitat.

The first species identified (pictured) was a White Ermine - a very descriptive name – just what it says – very glamourous looking moth - which slightly belies its taste for fairly common habitats in gardens, with larval foodplants including nettle and dock. It overwinters in plant litter – so a good argument for not being over-zealous with tidiness in the garden.

The species found was a Treble-bar – again the aesthetic equivalent of onomatopoeia – with three distinct bars. Its larval foodplant is St John’s wort or Hypericum.

Moth trapping is great fun and a fantastic way to start learning how to identify moths. Why not have a go yourself and check out our simple guide on how to make a moth trap here. 

Day 4 - Ben, our Head of Conservation, looked, quite literally, into the nest of a queen hornet who made her herself quite at home, creating a nest around an existing common wasp’s nest.

Queen hornets are able to grow to a whooping 3-4cm in size with the male worker hornets reaching 2-3cm and their sheer size often makes them unpopular with people. Contrary to belief, however, hornets rarely sting and unlike their often equally unpopular relatives, the common wasp, they are unlikely to visit your picnics, instead being more drawn to light than your ice lolly!

European wasps are facing a decline across Europe due to their nests being removed, and whilst you should treat this species with care and respect, they are fascinating. This is the second time hornets have featured in our #30dayswild, this first photo is last year’s throw back with the second being Ben’s find this year!

Day 5 – Saw me going on a Big Stag Weekend... don’t worry, it’s not quite how it sounds, I was out looking for stag beetles, a once common sight across the UK now sadly declining and extinct in some areas of the UK. Although the unfortunately-timed turn in the weather meant that it wasn’t the right conditions to see many stag beetles, it didn’t stop me trying. 

Looking for stag beetles is on my 30 Days Wild list every year as we have a great population of them in Ipswich and the more people that can look out for them and record sightings, the better.  

Male stag beetles display “antlers” on their head that they use to fight other males with and although they look fierce, they are perfectly harmless to us and they need our help. The People’s Trust for Endangered Species collects data on stag beetle sightings so if you spot one, log your record here.

The best time to see stag beetles are on warm summer evenings. Look out for males in flight with their antlers in the air or both the male and females crawling along pavements due to the warmth they provide (if they are in danger of getting stepped on, why not give them a hand move to safety). Going on a stag hunt is a great activity and helps with conservation efforts – why not make it one of your 30 days challenges?

Day 6 – Chasing the rain-filled clouds to Southwold beach, close by to where she lives, Sarah Groves our Communications Manager, went beachcombing under the brewing Suffolk skies finding a variety of different species, from beadlet anemones, to common limpets, bladder wrack and gooseberry jellies, which in the right light you can see their bioluminescent abilities.

If you time your visit to the coast just right, a fantastic activity to take part in is listening to limpets. That’s right, you can actually hear the rough tongue of a limpet, called a radula. It’s the world’s strongest biological structure, and it needs to be in order to not become worn down as it grazes the surface of rocks for algae.

Day 7 – Heading out into the garden with her family, Nic our Membership Manger, took the 30 Days Wild helm and set about identifying the different birds they could hear and see. Managing to identify several, they spotted a magpie, wood pigeon, dunnock and great tit in just a short amount of time.

It’s a great time of year to start looking out for birds, whether you are learning to identify them for the first time, or watching the different behaviours they display such as feeding fledglings, tussling over food on the feeders or watching their mating rituals, spring is a busy time for birds and can provide hours of fun just sat watching them.

These are just some of the random acts of wildness that our team have done this week and we would love to hear from you and what you’ve been up to. We have lots more random acts of wildness coming up and we can’t wait for week two of #30dayswild.