Start your day the wild way on Tuesday 1st June with butterflies, bagels, worms, waffles, toads and toast for the UK’s biggest nature challenge – 30 Days Wild!
The Wildlife Trusts invite the nation to join the Big Wild Breakfast, a new, outdoor, celebration to kickstart the UK’s most popular nature extravaganza – 30 Days Wild.
‘Random act of wildness’ every day for 30 days
The 30 Days Wild annual challenge from The Wildlife Trusts has had more than a million participants to date – a record 650,000 people took part in 2020 alone.
Every year, people sign up to do a ‘random act of wildness’ every day for 30 days in June. Popular activities include listening to birdsong, taking wildlife photographs and planting seeds. 30 Days Wild is proven to boost your health, happiness and sense of connection to nature.
The Big Wild Breakfast
New for 2021! The Wildlife Trusts – a movement of 46 nature charities across the UK including your local Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust – is asking everyone to kick-start their own challenge with a Big Wild Breakfast outdoors on 1st June and then keep life wild for the whole month.
The Wildlife Trusts invite everyone to see how much wildlife they can spot in just 30 minutes – it’s a breakfast bio-blitz!
Register to take part in 30 Days Wild and get a FREE:
- Big Wild Breakfast nature ‘bingo’ placemat to download
- Bundle of educational and fun resources
- Top technical tips from wildlife webcam experts
- Details on how to record your breakfast bio-blitz nature spots
- Wildlife guides, how-to guides, a fun quiz event and much more.
Free activities
Sign up for 30 Days Wild and get free activities to try at hiwwt.org.uk/30-days-wild. There’s a pack of wild ideas with options for schools, care homes and businesses to take part too.
Thousands of people share their own top tips and inspiration via the 30 Days Wild Facebook and Twitter communities. Sign up to the 30 Days Wild email journey and follow Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust on social media to join your local Wildlife Trust in all the festivities!
People felt happier and healthier from taking part
In 2020, a five-year review of 30 Days Wild participants, run in conjunction with the University of Derby, found that people reported they felt happier and healthier from taking part, with positive effects lasting for up to two months afterwards.
Marianne Lotter-Jones, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s Wilder campaigns and events officer, says,
“Here at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, we love taking part in 30 Days Wild. It’s a wonderful time of year for allthe Wildlife Trusts to get together and it’s an amazing opportunity for us to see what local people are doing for nature and wildlife all across the country.
“Last year we had over 20,000 people across our two counties taking on the challenge and we cannot wait to see what they and any 30 Days Wild newbies all get up to this year.
“As a local Trust, we’ll be putting our own twist on the Random Acts of Wildness being promoted to make them local to you. Plus, we’ve a few exciting activities planned for our local celebrations of the Big Wild Weekend, so stay tuned.
“30 Days Wild is fun, free and easy – and after such a challenging year, we’ve never needed nature more!”
Find 30 new ways to be inspired by the beauty of the outdoors
Mya-Rose Craig, the ornithologist and campaigner known as Birdgirl, says,
“I’m a big fan of 30 Days Wild– I love being part of the surge of enthusiasm that emanates from everyone involved! Get creative and find 30 new ways to be inspired by the beauty of the outdoors and nature or be entertained by trying out new nature activities.
“It is especially important if you live in the city as nature is all around, just waiting to be found. I really want to try sketching a bird this year and I can’t wait to kick-off my wild June with the Big Wild Breakfast.
“I plan to take out my bowl of Shreddies, alongside my binoculars which are always by my side, and enjoy a bit of garden birding while I munch.”
Bennett: An inspirational reminder to explore nature
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says,
“We’ll be getting outdoors for a Big Wild Breakfast in the garden on 1 June, to kickstart our family’s own 30 Days Wild. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that people need more nature in their lives and much more of it on their own doorstep.
“At The Wildlife Trusts, we know there’s a huge public appetite for more contact with nature. We want to see neighbourhood nature everywhere for people to enjoy – from wilder community spaces and urban meadows alive with wildflowers and native grasses to healthier hedgerows, hedgehog superhighways and glorious nature-friendly gardens.
“30 Days Wild is an inspirational reminder to explore nature in June, to value what we’ve got, and to demand more action to restore our natural world. We need to give people easier access to the kind of vibrant, life-affirming wildness that they deserve. That’s why The Wildlife Trusts have launched our 30 by 30 appeal – to raise £30m to help protect 30% of land and sea for nature’s recovery by 2030.”
News shared by Claire on behalf of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. Ed
Image: © Pond dipping by Matthew Roberts
