You may have heard of 30 Days Wild through social media; you may even follow the hashtag: #30DaysWild, but if you’ve yet to get involved, or you’d like some fresh ideas for how to take part this year, here’s all you need to know…
What is 30 Days Wild?
30 Days Wild is The Wildlife Trusts’ annual challenge where participants are challenged to do one wild thing a day, every day, for an entire month. It’s the UK’s biggest nature challenge, with more than a million participants to date.
People are invited to sign-up and try one ‘random act of wildness’ every day, for the entirety of June, and have the option to join a supportive online community for inspiration, practical advice and wildlife-watching tips.
When does 30 Days Wild take place?
30 Days Wild officially launches in June, but there is often a buzz of excitement and activity in the days leading up to it.
June is a great month for connecting with wildlife here in the UK; it’s one of the best month’s for bird watching, with a wealth of warblers and birds of prey making themselves known. It’s also a busy month for fledgling garden birds such as robins, starlings, blackbirds, blue tits and goldfinches.
June marks the height of the cuckoo breeding season too, as well as peak birthing time for deer (red, fallow, sika), and the first peak in the hedgehog birthing season.
Young foxes and badgers are also becoming increasingly confident in exploring above ground, and those with a keen eye may be able to spot juvenile stoats and weasels.
With all this going on around us, it’s easy to see why June is the ideal month to get outside and take part in a ‘random act of wilderness’; and visit one of the Wildlife Trusts nature reserves near you.
Many of our native plants come into bloom in June, including foxgloves, poppies, buttercups and daisies — which are an important source of food for pollinating insects, birds and small mammals. Also, shrubs such as dog rose and elder will also begin to flower, making a visit to one of these nature reserves a beautiful sight.
How can you join in?
Anyone can take part in 30 Days Wild, by simply making a pledge to do something ‘wild’ each day for a whole month — and to officially join the challenge, you can sign up on the Wildlife Trust’s website, where you will be counted as one of this year’s participants, and receive a digital pack of ideas and resources, as well as additional goodies, like wild activity flash cards and a wild word search.
There are options for schools, care homes and businesses to take part, and digital packs are also available in Welsh. There is also a choice to receive a physical pack, which includes a welcome letter, wildflower seeds and a wall chart.
Once you’ve signed up, you can also receive emails throughout June with lots of ideas to help you complete your 30 Days Wild challenge — and thousands of people share their top tips and ideas via 30 Days Wild Facebook and Twitter pages.
What do you need to do to take part in 30 Days Wild?
Taking part is easy (and fun!). You don’t need to do something big or time-consuming every day, you can simply listen to birdsong, take a walk, press a petal, sit on the grass, meditate outside, watch a bird, read a nature book, count the butterflies that visit your garden… any way at all that you think of to connect with nature.
If you’d like to make your challenge more sociable, you can join the 30 Day Wild Facebook page, or share your wild photos on social media under the hashtag #30DaysWild.
How will I (Kate on Conservation) be taking part?
I LOVE taking part in 30 Days Wild every year! June is my favourite month, not least because of the sunshine, the abundance of bright colours in nature, and my birthday!
I love having a little reminder to connect with nature everyday, because I always feel it’s great for my mental health wellbeing, it helps with changing the pace of life a little bit (making time to enjoy the small things), and it gets me in the mindset for preparing for the summer months ahead. There have been numerous additions to my garden during previous 30 Days Wild challenges, that I’ve continued to enjoy (or get the best from) with my children during their school summer holidays in late July / August.
This June I’m challenging myself to do the following things:
- Take a walk in nature every day – even if it’s only a short walk.
- Enjoy more ‘Backyard Conservation’, by helping and watching wildlife in my own garden. This means topping up bird feeders, cleaning out the bird bath and adding fresh water, and also creating a bug and butterfly feeding station.
- Do some gardening – this year’s focus is on planting more hedgehog-friendly plants.
- Visit new wild places that I’ve never been to before. This year I have my eye on Weeting Heath (for the rare chance to see Stone curlew) and the more urban Thorpe Marshes in Norfolk, and Shadwell Wood Nature Reserve and Rushy Mead Nature Reserve (for the chance to see water voles) in Essex.
- Celebrate bugs this National Insect Week (the last full week in June) by going on a bug hunt in the garden or further afield.
What was my favourite thing about 30 Days Wild last year?
Last year was my 4th year of taking part in the challenge, and as my children get older, I’m finding more and more ways to enjoy 30 Days Wild while teaching the little ones all about nature.
We love spending the weekends and the June half term making crafts, so some of our favourite ‘random act of wildness’ last year were using recycled materials to make bee hotels and bird feeders for our garden.
Overall, the 30 Days Wild challenge is an experience that makes me feel closer to the natural world, and more in tune with my surroundings. It reminds me to slow down and step outside of all the stresses of everyday life, even just for a few minutes every day.
Sign up for the UK’s biggest nature challenge here.
Learn more about British wildlife
Bringing British wildlife to schoolchildren: badgers, foxes and 30 Days Wild
Want to hear more about badgers?
- Discover the book ‘Badgered to death’ about the UK badger cull
- Meet the filmmakers behind the ‘We Unite’ badger campaign
- Read about the beginning of Labour’s first official badger cull in 2012
Want to learn more about foxes?
- See what filmmaker Gordon Buchanan had to say about urban foxes
- What happened when I joined Chris Packham at the Crush Cruelty march
- Discover what happened when I joined Brian May at the ‘Keep the ban’ protest
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