30 DAYS WILD : DAY 14 - FINDING A FEATHER

One of the things we are invited to do for '30 Days Wild in June' is to create a nature table. We are even provided with a squared chart to print out so we can place our treasures in order. The first square is 'Rocks, stones, fossils and bones'. I put a badger skull on my virtual table on the third day. You can read about it here.

The third square is 'Feathers and Fur'. The second is 'Pinecones and Seeds' but there's no obligation to 'do' them in order so I'll fill that in another day. For this morning I went for a fantastic walk down a very steep hill into a secluded, wooded valley with a stream at the bottom and on the way back I found a feather. It was seven inches long, black, with a little white bit near the tip. I don't know what bird dropped it but I'll place it on the virtual table.

It was the kind of walk which would take a book to describe so I am likely to come back to it over a few posts. And I was more than usually aware of everything I was seeing because this weekend we are also invited to take part in the Great Yorkshire Creature Count. How many creature-observations can we record during any period we set ourselves during the twenty-four hours? I'm not doing this but knowing it is happening induced a sort of 'counting mode'.

I saw one ant,

two buzzards (they may have been buzzards) 

three horses / ponies,

a young deer out on its own

a flock of yellow birds (finches?)

a flock of brown birds with an orange tinge (don't know what they were)

starlings

and innumerable (buff-tailed?) bees 

The count is only of creatures but there were lots of buttercups and clover flowers, lichens and masses of grasses that I'd not seen before. The contrast between the top of the walk and the foot of the hill was immense. It started with a huge landscape. The dot in the middle of the photograph is a man - that should give you a sense of scale!

And on the way down, on the top of a very steep slope, was this tree. One of the most characterful of trees I've seen in ages. Further down was a little grove of oak and silver birch. This struck me as an unusual combination. What do you think?

And right at the bottom, I stood on a bridge and looked at a stream - before having to go all the way up again. Thunder and storms had been forecast; rain damage and power outages. I was wearing a woolly hat, a jumper, jeans and a donkey jacket. Did it rain? No. Instead it was blazing hot sunshine, just as one should expect in June! Because of the stem cell transplant I am especially vulnerable to different kinds of cancer so I am supposed to wear high factor suncream and sunglasses when I go out in the sun. I wasn't expecting sun. I was expecting to be rained on. 

30 DAYS WILD
Today's Random Act of
Wildness is to
find a feather!

Another day I will return, better prepared and more appropriately dressed. Suncream instead of winter-wear. Dark glasses. A flask of coffee and a picnic. If you see anyone sinister roaming the Yorkshire hills and valleys over the next few weeks, it may well turn out to be me.

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