I was always under the impression that damsels are the skinny ones and dragonflies the heavier set flying machines. I don't know where I picked this information up - probably from my parents - but I passed it onto my daughter.

Anyway, after she asked me I thought it wise to check up and discovered that I was (kind of) right. But up until recently I didn't know my chasers from my hawkers...

Long-tailed tits were the first I noticed nesting, but the magpies soon put paid to their attempts at raising a family. The blackbirds were successful and starlings too in neighbouring trees. Robins made a home at the third attempt in our carport and now we have a wood pigeon sitting on two eggs, in the vine, just above the back door... but what do you do with an abandoned juvenile?

There is just about any natural creature you could desire to learn about in this museum but we limited ourselves to a handful of different areas - no sense in trying to the whole thing in my opinion, at least not with small children. Emma was largely interested in creepy crawlies (green zone) and the earthquake experience in the Kobe supermarket...

It's the half way point in June and we are still going strong. After yesterday's slacking, we were back outside today in the searing Cambridgeshire heat, Making a totally original TV show. 

WATCH THE VIDEO!

A few weeks ago we noticed quite a few black ants roaming around the house. Having resisted the urge to start wiping them out I am glad to say that, as the weather has improved, they seem to have disappeared. But where did they go? 

I am afraid that we robbed them of one habitat last year when we had the patio relaid and removed and old mat from in front of the French windows. So today Emma and I went in search of these creepy crawlies elsewhere in the garden...

Well, I mean, what did you think we were going to do for "X"? I don't have a xylophone or an x-ray machine!

For the second day in a row we decided to make a bee census in the garden. And a sorry site it was, again. Below is all we have seen, including one recently 'xpired bumblebee...

Day 11 of 30 Days Wild was a highly academic affair. It saw us planting some flowers with the express intention of trying to attract more bees. In fact our random act of wildness today was going to be all about bees, but we only saw one... which in itself may be indicative of something.

So instead we rooted around in the dirt as Emma was dying to show off her worm-handling skills...

Friday afternoon. The end of the week also usually coincides with the end of Emma’s tether. She is spent after a week of school and a week of full-throttle excitement and competitive chit-chat with equally excited friends.

Friday nights frequently have moments of tears as this tiredness spills into a sort of emotional release accentuated by the diminished energy levels. 

Sulkily she sat in the back seat of the car. The weekend really never comes too soon! It was with some trepidation that I whisked her off, straight from the school run, to the woods for a walk...  

Our resident robins flew the nest today. I spotted one little chick on the road after I reversed my car and saw that it had been sheltering underneath it. A close shave!

Mr and Mrs robin have been fretting all evening, catching food and flying to the nest (possibly as a decoy flight for any predators) and then off to find their littluns amongst the shrubs or hiding behind a plant pot in the neighbour's garden...

Having failed to spot any on yesterday's mini-adventure (P is for Paddling) we popped down to Godmanchester Nature Reserve after school today to have a root around and see if we could find some snakes.

Its been a chillier day today so I hoped the warmth of the mats they like to lie under would mean that one or two were there. We were in luck. Emma was delighted to see a small grass snake, which wasn't all that delighted to see us so after a quick picture, we left it alone.

The beauty of spending time outside in nature, whether on a grand scale or in your own backyard is that it throws up an endless supply of interesting things to look at, think about and learn about. It is also often the case that you go out with intention of doing one thing and you end up doing another and it was no different this afternoon. We went out in search of mini-beasts and ended up sitting and watching baby blackbirds flapping about clumsily and attempting to hide from us in the bushes. We also heard, for the first time, the tiny tell-tale squeaks from the robin's nest behind the light in the car port... but more on that another day...

Hello. Quick introduction here; my name is Tom, and this is Emma.

We are in the Lake District for a couple of nights on a 30 Days Wild brainstorming session. Today we have been rowing on Lake Grasmere, watching the Canada geese grazing in the valley and yesterday, whilst having a mini "wild" swim in the lake we were joined by a mallard and her ducklings which you can see in the video below (thank you to mummy for that shot).