Micro experiences and adventures, taking in the wonder and beauty of nature as a daily dose, really works for us and our health and also builds a sense of connection and active caring for our planet - the biosphere we are very much part of as the human animals we are. It takes no time to notice and to partake of nature even in small moments.

Yesterday, on my morning run, the memorable part was stopping a few seconds to watch house martins gathering mud for their nests, an image that stayed with me all day. Today, driving to work it was a family of stonechats on a hedge and last week it was the first swifts arriving. Sometimes, when home working, and especially at weekends or on days off, wherever I am, I take a bit more time and deliberately fully immerse in nature around me and always feel better afterwards.

Nature gives us a free and available mindful NHS practice 24/7. It is a free drug on the natural health service.  It is also the best addiction you can have, to feel the need as we take it in, to crave more nature in our lives. This fuels us and our collective efforts and passion to address nature loss and climate, which can start in small ways in our own lives, but which mainly depends on a positive, even loving, more indigenous type, relationship of respect with all of life itself.

So, wherever I am I let nature in. I seek it out too. Next week I’m taking my grandson to Shetland, he’s only 9, but loves birds and especially puffins and we will be seeing a lot of them there, maybe an otter or an orca,  and the wonder of hundreds of stormy petrels  whizzing around like bats in the summer evening - things we hope he may remember all his life.

But you don’t have to go anywhere special for a wildlife spectacle. I can be refuelled by nature in all my regular habitual habitats where I live and work in. I get a great taste of what nature gives me when I’m in them.

Every place can give us a taste of the good, the freedom and beauty of life on Earth. Every time I hear or see a goldfinch I recall that the best book every written on them was conceived and written in a prisoner of war camp! Titled Birds in a Cage the book really does show how elevates us wherever we are. So I’m planning, expecting and just seeing what turns up and happens as part of this years’ 30 Days Wild. The experiences amongst many others can be read below.

I intend to keep going wild for 30 days, as I always do this - hunting and gathering with all my senses as I navigate life and am constantly stimulated by the diversity and range of wildness around me. It is endless, as all of this natural magic unfolding around us and within us of course changes through the seasons too; every part of the yearly cycle has something special to offer to revitalise us and help us connect with wild nature.

In all of these, I try to adopt the five ‘elements of nature wonder’ approach which I describe more in my book, Infinite Wonder, Loving Nature Back to Health. These are seasonality, close encounters, serendipity, big picture and synergies, the qualities we can tune into and allow to happen that help us open up to experiencing nature to its full extent.

Home working and playing

I live on a sea cliff! So it’s not hard to reap many nature experiences every day from my garden or the view over sea and cliff and field, so I log everything I see constantly. It fills me up. I use it to internally energise my campaign and other efforts to try and make everywhere biodiverse and rich, so everyone can experience nature in their lives more, it’s the big motivation I have to do the work I do to persuade others to put nature first and do the right thing for wildlife.

NWT headquarters - St Nicholas Park, Gosforth

It may be in Newcastle, but our offices are set in a wildlife urban oasis. We are surrounded by grass, trees and flowers, birds and more and there are endless opportunities to look at it all, take a break, sit, walk, do tai chi in it or look into the wildlife pond. Every year it’s the first place I see frogs. All the time there are changes in this small nature park is amazing and I love to see schools and other groups and local people enjoy it too.

Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre

All our reserves and land we look after are brilliant to spend time immersing in nature and I’m a birder and mammologist so am always on the look-out. But mostly it’s taking in the whole the bigger picture of where these sites fit into the landscape as a whole and how we can make them connect more that inspires me, as with looking at all the potential for rewilding and creating nature networks at

Kielder

Kielder Wildwood and beyond are the ultimate place for me for feeling part of a massive picture of connected nature, and when I do  get up there I take time to see the micro and the macro. I like to experience the mosses and plants, the sightings of osprey, and zoom out to the scale of the lake and the forest as a whole and how it links to endless bogs and connects to Whitelee Moor and more. I will definitely be up there this June and especially be looking out for the impressive emperor moth.

Food Shopping

You wouldn’t expect much of a wildlife hit in Sainsbury’s car park, but where I live it’s near the coast and the car park links to a local wooded valley. So, even here I will tune into song thrush song and other birds, look for insects amongst the bushes and trees and just take in the big open skies beyond. Swifts and swallows also frequent the area, whatever you are doing, nature is there. Even in the food you buy.

Exercising

I have long combined exercise I do with outdoors and nature experiences. I am a big believer in the ‘green gym’ natural surroundings provide. My yoga, tai chi and chi kung are a better practiced outside in beautiful surroundings, and that goes for everything really. I’ve taken up cold water swimming in the sea too, and will be doing some of that. Water is the ultimate immersive of course and that means in terms of sound too, it is naturally meditative in its tones and flows and the wildlife is a bonus. Yes, there will no doubt be pollution too, but hopefully the worst can be avoided and my focus will be ion what great indicators there still are of a healthy environment, like grey wagtails and kingfishers.

Travelling by car and on the train

It’s all in the view and the surprises that crop up when travelling around, though obviously be careful to keep eyes on roads! Stop now and then and take it all in, a drive to and from work can be viewed as a transect through many habitats and there is much to see. Blossom, like hawthorn, is my passion.

Central Newcastle

Finally, 30 days can be as wild in the city as anywhere. Newcastle of course is a very green city bit also has the River Tyne and tributaries are full of life and sights. Kittiwakes, seals otters, the list of species here is massive and exciting, even more so because it is in such proximity to our urban lives. The Ouseburn, despite major water quality issues, is rich in wildlife and habitats and is always worth a look. There are great events there and elsewhere, in our NWT events programme which help us get better in touch with wildlife, from photography to mindfulness to bird ringing and outdoor theatre events. Pep up your 30 Days wild with a few of these.

More than anything though I will, throughout the month, be topping up on nature by simply  sitting or standing still in nature, quietly soaking it in, taking in its goodness, wonder, beauty  in my own  simple version of shinrin yoku, forest bathing, not always in woods but in every habitat I can find.

I know the more I do that the happier I will feel and the better I will be to be around and better at my job. Being more wild yourself is where it’s at, everything good flows from that!

Mike Pratt, CEO Northumberland Wildlife Trust