There’s a few days left of half term, and a great weather forecast for most of us… so once again it’s a great opportunity to enjoy nature with the younger generations.
In the current issue of Nature’s Home (Summer 2018), Nicola Chester shares some family-friendly ways to boost your nature knowledge - learning about and engaging with the wildlife that’s currently in a picturesque frenzy all around us… So gather up the young people in your life, head outside and have fun improving your field skills together.
Photo: Rosemary Despres (rspb-images.com)
1. Choose your specialist subject
Find a passion and make it an obsession! Spend the rest of the summer exploring, studying, researching and learning all about whatever captures your imagination, whether it’s butterflies or birds, dragonflies, grasses, otters or anything else. One idea is to start a logbook of their activity, but more creative ideas include making your own illustrated book, or starting a family blog or blog.
Personally I am once again obsessed with the swifts that nest every summer in my attic and along the terrace; watching them interact with each other and with other birds, learning their habits, listening out for their comings and goings (I’m wishing for a nestcam!), I feel that I’m really starting to get to know the colony.
2. Watch pond life
Study a local pond for a week, a fortnight or longer and keep a nature diary. Visit it regularly (easy if it’s in your garden, but a local park or public space is also a good bet). Spend a bit of time there, recording the different things you see, and watch what they’re doing. Take a torch and visit after dark! Perhaps you can work out the extent of a dragonfly’s territory, suss out which tiny wriggly creatures are eating what, and tell rivals from pairs.
This little froggy fella (above) has been frequenting my tiny garden pond this week. Although barely a metre long and less than a foot deep, the pond has been happily accepted by assorted amphibians, including smooth newts - and when you spot one, you can usually find more. I love going down the garden to sit and look for them.
3. Go somewhere new
With a few glorious days to go until term starts again, new experiences beckon. Why not venture into a habitat or nature reserve you haven’t visited before? Find out what specialist species might be there before you go, then see if you can spot them. Search online or using wildlife books or tourist guides - and if it’s an RSPB reserve you can just find it here and look up all the seasonal wildlife.
My family kicked off half term with a kite-flying trip to the local “white horse”, carved into the side of an ancient hill-fort on a natural chalk down. The summit was alive with skylarks, fluttering up from the ground around us in full, glorious song and parachuting down in their display flights. Incredible. And this weekend I’m hoping to visit north-east Hampshire for the first time, an area of heath and home to RSPB Hazeley Heath where we might look for woodlarks, nightjars or even a Dartford warbler if lucky.
Photo: RSPB
4. Read a wild book outdoors
Thanks Nicola for this idea… it’s a wonderfully lazy way to enjoy nature! Find a special spot – perhaps in a garden, up a tree, the grounds of a stately home or castle – and let your imagination fly with the birds. Your book could be an RSPB Spotlight guide to certain species, a novel or memoir immersed in the natural world.
Two books from the latter category I’ve recently enjoyed reading were The Salt Path by Raynor Winn - an account of walking and wild camping along the entire South-West coast path (a dream of mine); and The Outrun by Amy Liptrot, a memoir about the healing power of nature, in the remote Orkneys, at the absolute opposite end of the UK. Either of those will plunge you into a world of sea, sky and birds - and their empowering and restorative effect on human wellbeing.
Young children can join your outdoor-book session with a rug and a nature-focused storybook or colouring book. Enjoy some unplugged downtime together under the early summer sky!
Photo: Carolyn Merrett (rspb-images.com)
5. Curate your own Natural History Museum
Collect found objects such as feathers, skulls, leaves, pinecones and owl pellets. Together, as a family, you can label and display them carefully, and invite visitors to have a look. You could note down where you found them and what they are - and even set up your own gift shop!
My two kids have a growing collection of “nice found things” at home. Pebbles and feathers are popular (and or course all the conkers in autumn), but for some reason the simple stick is king.
They can find a use for sticks and twigs of any size… a knobbly twig becomes Dumbledore’s powerful Elder Wand; a gnarled bough becomes Gandalf’s wizard staff.
Other sticks become carved totems, catapults, crutches, over-shoulder swag-bag holders, swords, bows and blunderbusses, cooking utensils and mud-pens - all supporting the adventures of two dozen different characters in long-running games of make-believe.
In the next issue of Nature’s Home you can read a bit more about the role of nature (and found objects such as sticks) in children’s development, via a beautiful feature by TV’s Mike Dilger. You’ll have to wait a month or so for that. So in the meantime I hope you can use one or more of these ideas to enjoy a bit of wild time with the youngsters in your life. Have fun!
Share your wild adventures with us by emailing Nature’s Home, posting to the RSPB on Facebook or Twitter, or logging in to comment below.
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