30 Days Wild, day 1

It's the first day of 30 Days Wild and I'm really happy to be taking part. This is my second year of doing Random Acts of Wildness, so having done it before, I'm looking forward to spending even more time with and in nature.

You can find out more about 30 Days Wild by clicking on this link: wildlifetrusts.org/30DaysWild

One of the suggested acts of Wildness on the site is "Show off your nature table", so I thought I'd start with that as I've already collected quite a lot. So,

Here's a small selection
of things in my collection,
the feathers and things I've found
as I was walking around.

(A little bit of poetry for you there. Yes, I know, I'm not a poet! 😉 )

This first photo is of some twigs I found in the garden, some pine cones (which I sometimes use to tell the weather. As you can see, they're open today because it's sunny), woodpigeon feathers and some shells from a local beach.

I find woodpigeon and collared dove feathers in the garden quite often as the birds are always around and come to eat the food I put out. I love finding shells on the beach, the variety you can see is amazing.

This picture includes various feathers from a Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre. Quite a few years ago when I was doing an art course, I needed feathers for reference for patterns and colours, so I went to the centre to see what I could find. There was a big selection, as you can see. Many of them were on the path, having fallen from the birds. I wish I knew exactly what feathers belong to which bird. I think I need to do some research to learn the markings! 😊

These feathers are also from the centre. The pink one you can see is from a flamingo, which I'm particularly pleased with. 😃 I couldn't quite reach the feather as it was inside the boundary of the enclosure, so my mother, who was with me, reached right over, stretching as far as she could. I thought I'd have to catch her feet to stop her falling in. 😄 She managed to pluck it out - not from the flamingo, they were on the other side of the enclosure, so no birds were harmed in the process 😁 but from the bush it was in. It's the only pink feather I have, so I keep it safe.

Here I have a couple of feathers from a blackbird, a jackdaw (I think) and one from a gull, along with my woodpigeon ones. I found the gull feather while in town one day, again with my mother. There are lots of gulls and pigeons around there. I saw it laying on the ground and couldn't resist it, so picked it up and put it in my bag, at which point my mother walked on pretending not to know me. 😃 (She pretends to get exasperated at my habit of picking things up but she's not really.)

So, there's my nature collection and my first post for 30 Days Wild. What will I do tomorrow? I'll let you know in a couple of days.