I’ve written previously about using The Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild challenge – to connect with nature each day in June as a ‘reset’ Once again I found it a real tonic and I now hope to keep on connecting with nature all summer.
Things got off to a great start – observing insects, and a lovely afternoon visit to a friend’s wildlife garden. I took close-up photos of stunning ox-eye daisies; spent time cloud gazing and did a spot of urban bat watching whilst walking the dog.
Sharing my experiences via social media is usually part of the fun, but things took an unplanned turn this year when left my phone behind when I headed off on holiday! Without access to Insta or Facebook for half of June, I missed seeing what others were up to. Whilst unable to share updates and photos, the upside of my enforced ‘digital detox’ was having even more opportunity to simply enjoy watching, listening to and marvelling at nature – without the added complication of engaging with tech to share.
It was lovely having more time to just sit and relax and to absorb what was going on around me without the urge to resort to my phone to either look something up or to share. However, I was drawn back into a more balanced use of tech as a result of news from back home. A friend who was kindly checking my allotment whilst I was away shared a screencap with my wife showing a list of various birds she’d recorded using the Merlin bird song App. This tempted me back in and I downloaded the app on my wife’s phone. My hat goes off to our friends for having the energy to be ID’ing anything whilst fighting an uphill battle to keep someone else’s veg plants alive during a heatwave – but their interest certainly sparked mine.
I’d been meaning to dabble with the app for ages and thoroughly enjoyed trying to pick out the different birds as it made suggestions based on song and calls. After the first few goes, I convinced myself I can now add chaffinch to the small number of bird songs I can recognise. I’ll definitely be using it now I’m reunited with my phone. Hopefully I can keep things a little more balanced – using my phone to enhance my experience of nature rather than as something that just gets in the way.
For me, the beauty of 30 Days Wild is that it has been shown to have a beneficial impact on people well beyond the end of June – long into the summer. In early July I headed off to track down an urban orchid colony I’d not seen for years, and I hope to keep exploring wild spots all summer long – and I’d urge you to do the same.
Whether you were among the thousands who took part in 30 Days Wild or not – there’s no excuse not to get out and about to see, hear and enjoy wildlife this summer. For details of what to see – from butterflies and bats to lizards and nightjars – as well as details of nature reserves to visit locally and across the UK go to www.wildlifetrusts.org/visit.
Image: Jon Hawkins