Day 1 – #30DaysWild

“Discover urban wildness”

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Hello!  I’m baaack! 😀  And so is Random Acts of Wildness!

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I had work today at 7AM and finished around 2.30PM.  Due to that and wanting to blog about what I’d do today, I needed something easy for my Act of Wildness.  So of course, I was very pleased that I changed my usual route to work (as I needed to grab breakfast), because I ended up walking passed the Mini-Meadows in the video below!

I ran back after realising what I had saw!  And then stood there watching a couple of bees (unsure which ones now) buzzing about the various flowers for a minute – whilst listening to a Blackcap singing in the background! 😃  When I got phone out to film, the bees had flown off, naturally!  They must have been camera-shy 🐝  Unfortunately the sound didn’t record (I have a new phone and have sorted out the problem now), but luckily YouTube have provided a lovely soundtrack.

I believe the flowers that are featured most prominently in this video, are Red Campion, Meadow Buttercups and Oxeye Daisies.  Correct me if I’m wrong! 👍🏻 🌺

I’m off to somewhere quite special tomorrow, I’ll give you a clue: a Nature Reserve (I’ve never been there before).  I best go and pack! 😉

See you tomorrow, for Day 2!

Thanks.

First LIVE Studio Interview

I should hopefully be making a series of short videos very soon, for Big Centre TV.  The series will be entitled Wild West (Midlands) and it will showcase the greenspaces, wildlife and naturalists that are in and around the West Midlands.

To introduce me to their audience they asked me to come in on the 24th for a live studio interview, to discuss what families in the West Midlands can get up to this Easter Holiday, surveys and seasonal wildlife.

This is my first ever live studio interview:

Thanks.  😅

Video

Realised Recently

I had a realisation recently, regarding the invertebrates I blogged about back in June… I’ll bee honest 😉  I didn’t think about what the Ruby-tailed Wasp may have been up to, but I was reminded in the September Issue of BBC Wildlife magazine – that they’re a kind of Cuckoo!  This jewel-like wasp, happened to be close to where the Mason Wasp was coming and going from!

I only have this poor photo of these amazing Apocrita:

Ruby-tailed Wasp – blue top and red bottom

These weeny wasps (with metallic blue/turquoise tops and ruby red bottoms) lay their eggs in the nests of other Solitary Wasps, like the Mason Wasp!

When lava of the Ruby-tailed Wasp hatches, it eats the egg or grub of the host’s nest – which makes these sort of Wasps parasitoid (because they don’t live inside the host, they kill them instead).  September’s issue of BBC Wildlife also features “7 WAYS TO SAVE SOLITARY BEES”.

Thanks 🙂