Day 29 Salty towers....

If you're planning a trip to the seaside then squeeze in a visit Walborough nature reserve and the adjacent Uphill Nature reserve, just south of the village of Uphill, near Weston Super Mare, for incredible views across the Severn Estuary. Climb up the winding stairs of the wonderful, small folly on top of the hill for panoramic views across the landscape of limestone grassland and salt marsh, a rich habitat containing nationally scarce plants such as sea barley, slender hare's-ear and sea clover. The grasslands are full of butterflies on a nice sunny day, including brown argus, grizzled and dingy skipper and grayling, so see how many different ones you can find!

Take a wander around the old Norman church, overlooking the sea, dating from AD1080 and choose one of the many walks available to really explore the site. Make a pack of wildcards to play whilst you have a picnic and enjoy the sounds of wildlife all around. After your walk you could visit the little sandy beach near to the boatyard in Uphill. See what treasures you can find that have been washed up from the sea and see if you can make a beautiful castle in the sand.

Day 25 Be a ladybird detective

Take a trip to your local park, or even just go out into your garden and see how many types of ladybird you can find. Use our spotter sheet to help you identify the different species and discover the variety of colours and markings on ladybirds that can be found in your neighbourhood. There are 46 different species of ladybird living in Britain, you can find out more and even play some ladybird themed games here

However, watch out for the Harlequin ladybird. This is an invasive species and is a danger to our native ladybirds, out competing them for food and spreading across the country rapidly. You can learn more about all the ladybirds to be found in the UK and how the Harlequin ladybird came to be here in this short video. You can also do your bit to help by participating in the Harlequin ladybird survey.

happy hunting!

Day 23 Go batty and have a great night out

Have you experienced the magic out walking through a wood at dusk and coming across a bat as it darts around the twilight sky in search of its supper? Did you know that if you live in South Gloucestershire, you can visit your local library and pick up a bat audio trail pack with a bat detector and all the information you need to go out exploring one of the bat audio trails created by South Gloucestershire Council's Wild Roots and Wildways Projects.

There are four award winning trails in Hanham, Warmley, Wick and Willsbridge and you can download guides to the trails here and a trail pack, with information about how to use the bat detector and more information about bats in general, here.

If you love all things batty, then take a look at our Bats for Bath website, this contains a podcast for our Browns Folly nature reserve which has a series of old mines, providing a fantastic winter roosting spot for several species of bat. Take a walk around the site and discover what makes it a valuable home to bats, learn about the importance of the species rich grasslands that provide so much food for the 12 species of bat that live here.

Finally, did you know....... that if we had ears as big as the long eared bat, they would reach down to our waists! 

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.

Day 17 Geocaching

Now this is something that I enjoy doing with my own children, you do need a smart phone and it's best if you have the geocaching app but it is so much fun. If you've never tried it, imagine a treasure hunt that covers the whole world but has little gifts everywhere, quite possibly within walking distance from your house. All you need to do is to go to the website, put in your postcode and a map will show you where to look for the nearest geocache.

The idea is that you find the cache (often a small plastic tub), sign in the book, take a little gift and leave a small treasure of your own for the next person. Once you get started you will be hooked! There's lots of variations too, such as 'trackers', these travel from cache to cache and their journey gets logged online so that you can see how far they go.

Try it out, there's loads just in Bristol and Bath city centres so you can make a whole day out of it and get to see some great sites too.

A successful find!

Day 16 - Snail hunt

Did you know there are around 90 different species of land snail in the UK? There are hairy ones, flat ones, stripey ones and tiny ones. Download this spotter sheet and see how many different ones you can find in your garden, local park or even in your street. They like to hide in cool, damp places so you may have to look hard. If the weather is too hot and dry they can stay in their shells for months and often camouflage themselves in gaps in walls. 

Snails have four tentacles; two are eyes and two are for feeling, they only have one foot and a tongue known as a radula that is covered in tiny 'teeth' . As you probably know they love to eat plants, particularly nice soft ones like lettuce and spinach. But beware, studies have shown that snails have a homing instinct, so the next time you throw one over the garden fence to stop it eating your plants - watch out because it may just come back! 

  

The reason that there are so many is probably because they lay about 100 eggs in an underground nest and most snails are hermaphrodite (both mail and female) so nearly all can lay eggs.

Happy snail hunting!

And if you are still a fan of snails you can download this poster from the Woodland Trust.

Day 10 - WildAbout play scheme

If you're aged 8-12 don't forget to book a place on next week's forest school play scheme in association with Bristol Zoo, so that you can properly get out into the wilds and have some fun. WildAbout hosts summer holiday activities in a beautiful, secluded, private woodland on the outskirts of Bristol. Get creative with nature and make clay creatures, musical instruments and dream catchers. Learn woodland skills such as firecraft and spoon whittling, build a den and then cook your lunch over an open fire.

The play scheme runs all week, starting from August 13 and booking is essential. For more info email Jackie Roby or call 0117 974 7354.

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