Week two of 30 Days Wild has flown by with a whole variety of different random acts of wildness from our members of staff across the county. 30 Days Wild is the Wildlife Trust’s biggest mass participation campaign that challenges people to do a random act of wildness throughout the month of June, making wildlife part of their everyday lives.

It’s never too late to join in with 30 Days Wild, why not sign up here and download your free digital pack. Here’s what we’ve been getting up to this week;

Day 8 – This section comes with a warning; scroll past now if reading whilst hungry! Our Head of Learning, Sara Holman, started off the week by making everyone dribble over their screens with her elderflower fritters drizzled in honey. Sara explains that “eaten straight from the bush, elderflowers have been described as tasting ‘as frothy as a glass of ice-cream soda’ but are delicious fried in light, crisp batter and dipped in caster sugar or drizzled with warm honey”.  

Luckily, Sara had some top tips for us to try these ourselves and advises to pick your elderflowers when the buds are freshly open, before the petals brown around the edges, and in full sun as this is when their flavour is at its best. Shake the flowerheads to remove small insects but don’t wash them as you will remove much of the fragrance. Eat immediately after frying as they lose their crispness quickly – something I feel many of us won’t have any difficulty in doing.  

Elder trees are still displaying flowers well and there’s still time to try this yourself, why not have a go? Remember to always forage responsibly and only take a small amount, leaving the rest for wildlife to enjoy

Day 8 of 30 Days Wild also coincided with World Ocean’s Day and The Wildlife Trust’s asked for your help to protect our seas, asking you to do your bit by calling on the government to establish Highly Protected Marine Areas in our seas. This protection would offer the upmost protection possible for marine environments and give nature the best chance of recovery and become full of life once more.

At the time of writing, we are 1,500 signatures off from our target of 5,000 and it’s not too late to pledge your support here. 

Day 9 – Susan Stone our Reserves and Conservation Advisor, challenged herself to find a floral rainbow whilst on a walk in the Suffolk countryside and searched for different colours of the rainbow represented by wildflower species such as poppy, fox and cubs, bird’s foot trefoil, germander speedwell, knapweed and common mallow.

Susan’s walk started in her own garden, through the countryside and to one of our reserves close to her home. Why not try and have go yourself? You could even see if you can find different insects, or other species, to create your rainbow.

You can read more about the species Susan found here. 

Day 10 – Jane Eade, our Digital and Communications Officer took a wild route on her run, creating wild shapes whilst in Felixstowe taking in the scenery and wildlife as she went. Fortunately, going faster than a snail’s pace and creating her shape using her Strava app, Jane spotted a sparrowhawk hunting, a painted lady butterfly, robin, song thrush and lots of bumblebees.  

Why not try taking a wild route yourself and go on a walk, bike ride or a run and see what you can create and spot along the way?

It seemed that snails were the species of the moment as, like Jane, I found inspiration from our slow-paced friends, looking at snails’ teeth marks, the perfect activity for what was incredibly rainy day.

Knowing that snails love the damp conditions I thought I would head out to look for their teeth marks and I didn’t need to venture very far as I noticed the roof had signs of snails having scooted across munching their way across the glass. How could I tell that they were snail teeth mark’s I hear you ask? Well, the funny little triangular shapes are the tell-tail signs of snail teeth as they literally have thousands of teeth on a band-like structure called a radula, that pick up particles as they go and they leave behind this really distinct and awesome pattern!

I loved looking at these last year for 30 Days Wild and couldn’t resist another look this year and I was really pleased to find them. I also have the perfect excuse now to not clean the windows… I couldn’t possibly deprive the snails from their dinner!

Day 11 – Venturing out in the evening, Ellen Shailes, our Broads Warden, went on an evening adventure to find nightingales and nightjars and was lucky enough hear them calling. Nightingales are elusive birds visiting for the summer and you can hear their flurry of high, low and rich notes in their song. 

Nightjars, as their name implies, are nocturnal, and they are masters of disguise during the day with their mottled grey-brown plumage allowing them to blend in perfectly with their surroundings. At night they are silent in flight when foraging for their insect dinner of beetles and moths but the males’ churring tones can be heard and this is what gives their presence away. Have you been lucky enough to hear either of these species calling this year?

Day 12 – Using her beautiful collection of Ladybird books, Sara Holman, Head of Learning, went on a nostalgic search for everyday nature in our beautiful Suffolk countryside. Managing to find scenes very similar to those in her book collection such as hedgerows full of elderflowers, bushes billowing with dog roses and field margins splashed with poppies, Sara explains  “June is the month when the meadows are full of flowers and blossoming grasses… June is the beginning of summer.”

"'WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN SUMMER', part of the much-loved Ladybird Nature Series 536, by E. L. Grant Watson was first published in 1960. The beautiful colour illustrations by C. F. Tunnicliffe, R.A. have a nostalgic familiarity and continue to inspire me and my family to take a closer look at our everyday nature."

Whilst I unfortunately don’t currently own any Ladybird books, although I will be looking out for them when charity shops reopen, Sara’s post inspired me to dig out and dust off my much loved collection of Observer guides last week and I had great fun hunting for urban wildlife in Ipswich. 

What are your favourite vintage nature books that inspire you to head out to our greenspaces or use to identify nature with? We would love to know what your favourites are!

Day 13 – Simone Bullion, Conservation Manger for Suffolk Wildlife Trust, took charge of Saturday and was lucky enough to come across a nationally scarce plant, sulphur clover. Spending her morning looking at Roadside Reserves, a project run by Suffolk County Council, Simone was pleased to come across this scarce plant that is found in a only a few places across our county including being found in only on two of our Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserves.

If you would like to have a go looking at Roadside Reserves, why not check out the Suffolk County Council’s website for advice on locations and safety upon visiting.

Day 14 – After what was a sweltering Sunday, I was pleased that my 30 Days Wild challenge took me to our coastline to Bawdsey to search for Shark’s teeth, one of my absolute favourite activities! Enjoying the cool coastal breeze I spent the evening a noses’ distance away from the surface of the beach. It took about 20 minutes to find my first shark's tooth of the evening, having been fooled by many a piece of tooth-like shell and worn down crab’s claw that are there only to get shark tooth hunters’ up, I’m sure.

Digging around in the upper part of the littoral zone in among the broken parts of shell and smaller pebbles is the best place to search and getting so close the sand’s surface allows you to see all the species that make the sand their home, such as sand fleas, that I can’t help but love due to their seemingly unrelenting energy as they bound from one spot to another. 

By the end of the evening, I had pocketed three shark’s teeth, stupidly managing to lose one when I decided to do a “celebratory handstand”, so now might be a good time to go hunting for Shark’s teeth as one might just be sitting on top of the sand, just waiting to be found!

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 three of #30dayswild. This weekend is the Wildlife Trust's, Big Wild Weekend with a jam packed line up of guest appearances, quizzes, wildlife webcams, live music, summer solstice camp outs  and more. Check out what's going on here.