Day 30 - Wildlife in the City with wagtails, toxic plants, eco homes and common mouse-ear

You may think that Bristol city is generally full of noisy traffic, man made buildings and lots of people but use our wildlife walk around the city to explore a different side to urban life. Discover hemlock water dropwort along the old dock walls, it's the most toxic plant in Britain and is also known scarily as Dead Man's fingers. See if you can find the hart's tongue fern, named after the old English name for a deer (hart) and said to represent the deer's tongue which hangs out after death. Look too, for the pellitory-of-the-wall, not a particularly distinctive plant but an important food source for the red admiral butterfly. Away from the river, lurking amongst the grass, you can find the wonderfully named mouse-ear hawkweed, which looks a bit like a dandelion and extracts of which are said to have anti bacterial qualities. See if you can also find bird's foot trefoil, with it's pretty yellow and orange flower and another very important food source for butterflies.

It's not only amazing plants that you can discover on this walk, look out for otter footprints, butterflies, slow worms and a whole range of invertebrates, such as shield bugs, grasshoppers and crickets in the grasslands too.The river is also an important habitat for bird life and if you're lucky you may well spot a cormorant or heron, the black and white pied wagtail, ducks, swans and lesser black baked gulls.

If you fancy a break from all this wildlife spotting, why not visit the Create centre on route. They have a great eco home for you to look round, full of suggestions on how to make your own house more environmentally friendly and a lovely wildlife garden too. There is currently an architecture exhibition on called Retrofit City, looking at the green use of buildings around Bristol, plus an exhibition examining Bristol's green history

If all this wildlife has inspired you then download Bristol's Big Wildlife Map to discover more wonderful places to explore nature around the city centre and beyond. You could write your own blog to let your friends and family know what you've been up to on your adventures (and if you do, be sure to let us know about it too!).

Day 18 Street art, old castles, flower barges and picnics

Wow, there's so much going on today in Bristol that you'll need a whole day out to explore it all. So, pack a picnic and head on down to Bristol city centre. First stop should be Castle Park, original site of Bristol castle before it was demolished by Oliver Cromwell. Look for remains of the keep and curtain wall of the C11 Bristol Castle at the north east end of the park. There are also seven Silver Birch trees in memory of the seven beaches of the D-Day landings - see if you can find them all. Much of the park was bombed during the blitz of November 1940 and all that remained was the ruins of the churches of St Peter and St Mary le Port.

Today, Castle park is a great refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city centre and a great place to watch the river. Look out for the 'Ballast Seed garden', a fantastic art project created by Brazillian artist Maria Thereza Alves. Seeds that had been contained in the ballast of boats and had travelled from all over the world, were dumped in the river from 1680 to early 1900's. Maria has managed to collect and sow these seeds to create a magnificent floating garden. 
Whilst you enjoy this original art project use this river birds spotter guide to see how many different birds you can find and then search for a quiet spot to enjoy your picnic. 

Once you've had a good look round head down to Nelson Street and be amazed by the See No Evil street art project. This weekend sees a selection of the world’s best street artists creating a huge outdoor gallery. In addition, science students from Bristol University will be adding their own creations, creating artworks that depict their research topics.