Day 31 Skylarks and adder's tongues...

If you go down to the woods today ........... you might just hear the wonderful song of a skylark, particularly if you are at Lower Woods in South Gloucestershire. Situated next to Inglestone Common with it's wonderful open grasslands, this area combines some very special habitats in a very small space. It's not just skylarks you may hear, but also chiff chaffs, song thrushes, willow warblers and blackcaps. Follow the links to the excellent RSPB site where you can hear the call of all these birds. If you have a smart phone, there's also a very good app called Birds UK that you can download which will help you to identify birds and their calls when you're out and about.

We recently took a class of students from Hawkesbury Upton primary school on an adventure here to discover the delights of the Common. Pupils learnt about the history of the common, identified some of the wildflowers, made tiny nature collages and learnt some native bird song, you can find some of the activities and games we played here.

Inglestone Common is one of only two places in the whole country where you can find the rare Adder's-tongue spearwort plant which grows on the edge of the seasonal pond.It is part of the buttercup family and particularly favours ponds that dry out and are trampled by livestock around the edge. The other known site is also in Gloucestershire.

Lower woods is also a lovely place to explore but bring your wellies as the woodlands rise out of damp, clay soil so can get very muddy, perfect for spotting animal tracks and trails. See if you can find deer, badger or hedgehog tracks.

Day 19 Willsbridge Mill

Willsbridge Mill is a beautiful wooded river valley situated between Bristol and Bath. It's a great place for a walk, take some paper and a thick crayon so you can do some brass rubbings along the heritage trail which takes you around the valley.

Before you go though 'Unlock the Mystery of Willsbridge Mill' on our interactive website and find out about it's industrial past and take a look at Mike Dimery's wildlife diary to get a taste of what you might see on your visit. If you have a close look around the wildlife pond you might even be able to find some empty skin cases of the dragonfly nymphs that have crawled up the iris's before climbing out of their skin, spreading their wings and flying off as adults.

Dragonfly nymphs are predators of the pond, eating many of the small invertebrates that also inhabit this aquatic environment. Some species spend up to five years living in the water, shredding their skin several times as they grow. They are pretty ugly looking creatures too. take a look here.