Nuthatches

12 Days of Laura’s Wild Photos 2024

/ Laura Tuke / Leave a comment

Last year, was a year full of colour and vibrancy for me, a year of adventures, many firsts, and always some learning curves. This also applies to my time spent in nature and my year immersed in my wildlife photography. From sitting amongst the bluebells and chasing after butterflies, to capturing red kites and watching sunsets, it has been a spectacular year as a whole.

To continue my new tradition, over the 12 Days of Christmas of 2024, I accompanied each day on social media with one of my nature photos taken with my camera, camera trap or phone. The aim is always to share my snapshots of nature’s hidden beauty, share some yet to be seen favourite photos, and simply to put a smile on people’s faces during the tough winter months.

Here are my latest 12 Days of Laura’s Wild Photos all in one place!

The 12 Photos

Day 1 – To begin my 12 Days of Laura’s Wild Photos for 2024, I chose a photo that made me think of winter, with it being taken during the winter months. I love the soft sunshine breaking through the trees and producing a pocket of light within the greys and browns of the sleeping woodland.

Day 2 – Last year was a year of many adventures and firsts for me, including in my wildlife photography. During May, I got the opportunity to watch and try photographing damselflies for the first time, as they courted over water, and attempted to mate and lay eggs. They are such fantastic coloured jewels to behold!

Day 3 – This beautiful Small Copper butterfly was a bright spot of colour for me during an autumnal October day. It was wonderful to see these butterflies flitting around my family’s new wildflower meadow, courting on the wing. It was exciting to see these butterflies choosing to lay eggs here already, despite it only being our meadow’s very first year!

Day 4 – I have captured fantastic sunsets from Canada to Kenya, so I am always trying to find new and wonderful ways to capture their never-ending beauty. They are one of my favourite subjects to photograph, and understandably this photo fills me with such joy including from the experience of taking the photo itself.

Day 5 – For day 5 of my 12 days, I wanted to include a photo of one of my highlights of 2024, my boy Rook. I had for 9 months looked forward to my cow Raven calving for the first time, and Rook was finally born in April, a week overdue. I enjoyed watching him grow bigger and bigger, and develop a character of his own.

Day 6 – Whenever I needed a mindful moment this autumn, I would escape to our wildflower meadow with my camera. This year my family and I trialled the planting of this meadow with wildflower seeds to see how it would turn out. Well for the first year, it has done well, growing a large diversity of species and becoming a splash of colour as flowers began to pop up throughout the autumn.

Day 7 – For the last day of 2024, I posted a simple photo of a hedgehog feeding from a plate. What is special about it though, is that it marks one evening of many throughout the summer months when a hedgehog would appear before sunset to find food. This tends to signify a lack of wild food available for our hedgehogs, but it was still a great opportunity for me to get to know the hedgehogs in our local area.

Day 8 – Another of my firsts for 2024 was capturing red kites on the wing in flight. This photo comes from a collection taken during this shoot, when red kites were hunting over a field that was being cut and baled. If you look closely, you can see that this particular bird had some success!

Day 9 – 2024 was a year for me full of incredible wildlife moments and adventures in my happy place out in nature. This included sightings from my camera traps of wildlife ranging from hungry hedgehogs to inquisitive foxes. Some of the best characters though, came in the form of a family of chilled out badgers, including this badger that just needed a sit down!

Day 10 – Though I love being out in nature all year round, spring always ends up being my favourite season of the year. It’s a time of hope, new life and incredible natural beauty, which always inspires me in my capturing of the natural world. Here’s just one of the many, many photos from spring 2024, that fills me with joy for the season to come this year!

Day 11 – During 2024, I also had the pleasure of getting to observe my very first nuthatch nest of my bird ringing career. It was amazing to be able to watch as these chicks overtime grew from looking like little dinosaurs to beautifully feathered nuthatch fledglings. This all happened in the matter of a couple of short weeks!

Day 12 – I saved my favourite photo until last during my 12 Days of Laura’s Wild Photos, with this photo showing one of my favourite spring sights. There is nothing quite like a beautiful rich blue carpet of bluebells set against the lush green of new woodland growth. It fills me with joy and the motivation to enjoy another year of the natural wonders in my local area and further afield.

For now it is time to make the most of the last of our winter months, and to look forward to new wild adventures to come!

26 Years of the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch: Getting Involved During Lockdown

/ Laura Tuke / Leave a comment

As winter creeps into the landscape and a second lockdown keeps us close to home, our gardens are once again coming alive. Wrens creep through the undergrowth catching insects, Robins sing to defend small territories, and Long-Tailed Tits flit between hedgerows foraging in family groups. It’s not just the birds though, other species are settling down to see out the winter in our gardens too, from butterflies and toads to hedgehogs and ladybirds.

With this year being a bit different, I have found it a great time to take part in the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch, to further connect with nature, boost my mental health, and do my bit. Gardens are very important homes for wildlife, not just at this time of year, so now is an important time for us to understand how we can better help the wildlife that share our gardens with us. If you have a bit of time on your hands, want to do something a bit different, or are interested in the wildlife on your doorstep, then this survey could be just what you need!

The BTO and the Garden BirdWatch

So, what is the BTO? Well, the BTO stands for the British Trust for Ornithology, where ornithology refers to the study of birds. Started in Oxford in 1933, this now Norfolk-based charity aims to engage people with science whilst advancing the understanding of birds and now other wildlife species. With over 60,000 dedicated volunteers, and projects ranging from bird ringing and Cuckoo tracking to urban gull and bat surveys, the BTO has gone from strength-to-strength.

Set up in 1995, one popular BTO project has been the Garden Birdwatch, a project aiming to understand the relationship between wildlife species and our gardens, and how and why some of these species populations may be undergoing change. In a nutshell, the Garden BirdWatch is about participants recording the birds they see in their garden, along with mammals, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies, bumblebees, and dragonflies. As vital habitat for wildlife continues to decrease, whilst the importance of gardens as substitute habitat increases, the information we can provide now can be used to better tailor help to support wildlife in the future.

So why should you take part? Well, the Garden BirdWatch is a great way to enjoy the wildlife in your garden, improve your knowledge, and allow you to follow the annual cycle of life. Taking part is also easy! All you need is a garden, a minimum of 20 minutes a week, and a way to identify the species you see. You do not need to have a big or elaborate garden, put food out, or be an expert. With the Garden BirdWatch currently being free for a year, signing up is easy. Provide a few details about your garden, and get started recording the garden birds and other wildlife that visit you.

Why not join thousands of other volunteers today, and do something new from the comfort of your own home!

Examples of Results

Last year marked the 25th year of the Garden BirdWatch, and so the BTO have now been able to use 25 years of weekly garden observations to begin analysing the relationship between our gardens and wildlife. For example:

  • Goldfinches, Woodpigeons, Nuthatches, and Jackdaws have become an increasingly common sight in our gardens, relying on our gardens for vital foraging habitat
  • Song Thrushes, Greenfinches, Starlings, and House Sparrows have become a less common sight in our gardens since 1995, due to a range of factors from disease to loss of habitat

I have now been taking part in the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch for the last 21 weeks. This time has gone past so fast, but has opened my mind to the diversity and abundance of species that visit my garden through the seasons. To sum up my time so far, here are some of my results:

  • I have observed 26 different bird species in my garden, with the most abundant species being Starlings (50 on 28th July) and House Sparrows (40 on 28th July), followed by Goldfinches (30 on 1st October)
  • Every week Blue Tits, Great Tits, Collared Doves, Pheasants, Goldfinches, and House Sparrows have been consistently recorded
  • As summer has moved into autumn and winter, Coal Tits, Jackdaws, and flocks of Goldfinches have become newly reliant on my garden, whereas Great-Spotted Woodpeckers, flocks of House Sparrows, Pheasants, flocks of Starlings, and Sparrowhawks have decreased their visits
  • No week or month has been the same, with summer highlights including Greenfinches, Siskins, Chiffchaffs, and Garden Warblers!

So, why not see what wildlife you can encounter this winter?