Hello everyone,
How are you?
I wanted to tell you about the RSPB's Wild Challenge - it's a free, fun family activity that you can do outside (a home or at Rainham Marshes!) and get close to nature.
There are loads of different challenges for you and your whole family to take part in - what you choose is up to you! Wild Challenge is your chance to answer that call. Help wildlife, explore nature, and work towards awards by making your way through a heap of wild family activities. What will your wild challenge be?
Children birdwatching picture by Rahul Thanki rspb-images.com
You can do as many challenges as you want, you can work your way from a bronze level all the way to gold.
The challenges are separated into two categories:
1. Help Nature - making our gardens brilliant homes for nature and our outdoor spaces wonderfully wildlife-friendly!
2. Experience Nature - getting up close and personal with wildlife and exploring the world of amazing nature right under our noses!
Rainham Marshes picture by Tony O'Brein
There are lots of opportunities if you wanted to do your experience nature activities here at Rainham Marshes! You could:
* Go birdwatching - did you know we have a monthly Kids Birdwatching Club, we explore the reserve discovering the amazing wildlife at Rainham Marshes! The next clubs are on Saturday 18 November and Saturday 9 December.
* Be a detective and discover tracks and signs
* The woodland area (just past the adventure playground) is a good place to look for trees, leaves and seeds
* In spring and summer we have lots of lovely plants that will be good for your wild flower foray
* From spring you can discover the amazing creatures living under the waters surface with our fabulous pond dipping events - between April-October we run lots of family activities over the school holidays. The favorite activities are definitely pond dipping and minibeasting!
* You can always be a wildlife explorer yourselves, rather than joining us during the holidays, you can explore the reserve on your very own bug-safari! Head out onto the reserve and see if you can discover some of the reserves smaller creatures! You can look all year round, but it's best from spring and summer!
* In July you can join us at a wild sleepout, where you can camp out on the reserve! We camp out on the reserve and have a fun evening looking for night time creatures, going pond dipping and more! Look out for our Big Wild Sleepout which will be at the end of July 2018!
* From July- September we run bat and moth nights! You can discover amazing moths as we set up our special moth traps (they don't hurt the moths, its a clever light box that means we get to see these fascinating creatures)
Child investigating by Eleanor Bentall rspb-images.com
There's lots of fun activities that you can do at home too - like making a hedgehog cafe, or feeding the birds, you could do a wildlife survey or let it grow... it's up to you!
More that 7600 challenges have been completed so far - grab your family, get wild and get closer to nature today!