It won't be long now til our Big Wild Sleepout events and I'm getting excited!
We have some fantastic evening and overnight activities planned for the weekend of 29 & 30 July - including moth trapping, bat detecting, pond dipping, star gazing and mouse hunting.
Having set a moth trap for our Meadow bioblitz at the weekend, I know that there are some beautiful moths (like this poplar hawkmoth) on the reserve right now.
Moth trapping is a fantastic way to get close-up views of these intriguing creatures, enables us to add to our reserve records, contribute data to national surveys and doesn't do the moths any harm.
A short evening walk last night following our volunteer BBQ (a thank you event for all of our wonderful volunteers) proved to be good for bats - tiny pipistrelles who were feasting on midges and the larger serotine bats who sound a bit like tap dancers when their echo-location calls are picked up on a bat detector. We also heard two tawny owl chicks calling from the tall pines on the clump.
We've still got a few places remaining on our big wild sleepout events, and if you would like even more of a taster of the reserve at night do listen to our latest RSPB podcast featuring recordings from one of our night-time safaris.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/podcasts/
If camping is simply not your thing, there are plenty of other events to help you get closer to nature this summer. We'll be going on Butterly walks, Snakehunts, Bughunts and night-time safaris. And every week in August we'll be enjoying 'Wild Wednesday!' with different nature activities for families running from 10.30 am til 12 noon.
Our summer events programmes is now out - take a look at our web page for listings or pick up a leaflet when you next pop in.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/seenature/reserves/guide/p/pulboroughbrooks/events.aspx
Hope you can join us!