Families blog

A sea anemone writhes. Tiny fish dart into the shadows. A crab looks right at you from under a pebble. Nothing quite captures the imagination like a rock pool. Peering through the glassy water into an entire world in miniature is thrilling, and not only for young minds. Each pool is like a soap opera of activity, ever changing, and different tide and tide again.

Whether you’re a dedicated rock pool enthusiast or fancy…

I've recently become a dad, and that means rediscovering all the old baby-books regardless of whether they're charmingly retro or just mindnumbingly dull. 

One that I quite like - and my son puts up with - is Peebo! It's all about what one baby sees when sat in different situations through an ordinary day.

It's an old one, so old that the pram looks like a bucket on wheels and the mum heats her iron by the…

Recently, native English speakers have been adopting Scandinavian ideas to improve their well being. 

For example:

Hygge: a Danish word referring to a feeling of cosiness or contentment. 

Lagom: a Swedish word meaning 'just the right amount' or 'in balance'.

Just in time for spring, we've discovered gökotta. It's a Swedish word meaning 'rising at dawn to listen to birdsong'. Obviously we at…

The Big Wild Sleepout is all about connecting more families to nature in a fun way, but in order to justify doing it every year we need to find out how many people are taking part.

To do this, we've asked you to participate in our Wild Challenge, which you signed up to as part of registering for the Sleepout.

Simply complete one of these activities in your Wild Challenge before the end of August:

Sleepout acti…

This Wild Parks post comes from Sue Overfield - Family Events Officer for Newcastle and Gateshead. On this occasion she's reporting on our work at a lighthouse! 

This year has been the first that the RSPB Wild Parks team has been working in partnership with St. Mary’s Lighthouse, Whitley Bay, and we are thrilled at how many connections to nature we have been able to make so far through this wonderful new partnership…

Here's another guest post from Charly Crump. Charly is the schools and green space outreach project officer for Bristol, working to engage local schools and families in the fantastic habitats and wildlife in the heart of the city.

June has been a fantastic month so far for exciting wildlife finds! We’ve had the luxury of being invited to some of Bristol’s most rich and diverse nature reserves by teaming up with our…

We went to a school near our HQ and asked the children a couple of questions: 'what lives in your garden?' and 'what would you like to see in your garden?'. This is what they said:

https://vimeo.com/179456480

They made us smile anyway. 

You might not find many wolves in your garden - not the furry four legged kind anyway - but you may well find an eight-legged wolf spider.

Image of wolf spider (AKA…

This guest blog comes from Charly Crump. Charly is our schools and green space outreach project officer for Bristol, working to engage local schools and families in the fantastic habitats and wildlife in the heart of the city. Here she talks about one of our Wild Parks. Wild Parks is a nation wide campaign in 17 cities across Britain. 

What happens when a local artist wants to celebrate the green space on her doorstep…

This guest post comes from a Katie Eccles, a Visual Communication student whose work was inspired by our Giving Nature a Home campaign. Entirely off her own back, she has created a mini-campaign and it's wonderful to find out that its inspiration came from the RSPB. 

Since being a little girl, I have spent endless hours playing over the fields with my friends and family. We would make bird boxes and bee houses which…

Well done to everyone who took part in Wild Challenge through April.

We've loved seeing all the pictures you've sent in on your way to achieving bronze, silver and gold. Here are just a couple:

The Thompson family's hedgehog cafe in Aberdeenshire

Rockpooling with the Davies family in Pembrokeshire

While hundreds of you have taken part, reaching an award level requires a real wild explorer. 

Of those…

Many of you with young kids will be familiar with the Twirlywoos.

For those of you who don't know them, they're bird-like creatures that live in a boat, obviously! You can see them on their adventures on CBeeBies.

Now the Twirlywoos have teamed up with the RSPB to raise awareness about people's growing disconnection with nature.

To do this they carried out research into how good people in the UK are at…

This Easter we're launching the Wild Challenge to the wider world. 

Its goal is to get more kids and their families experiencing nature in a way that will lead to a life-long love of wildlife. 

It's totally free and by achieving a level of the Wild Challenge (bronze, silver or gold) in April you could also win one of 15 prizes worth over £60, or one big prize worth over £500 (courtesy of our partner …

This pancake day don't just settle for any old crepe.

Our ingenious Wildlife Explorer magazines team have come up with a way to take inspiration from nature while cooking up tasty treats.

Here are just a few ideas to try out, and all you need in addition to the normal ingredients are some plastic chef bottles and some cocoa powder:

https://vimeo.com/199983041

We'd love to see how yours come out so please share…

How's your bird identification knowledge?

It's a question I always answer with some trepidation, who am I being compared to? An elite twitcher or a total newbie? 

Whatever the answer, we could all learn more and with Big Garden Birdwatch approaching, it's the prefect opportunity for novices to get their eye in.

Quiz

Watch this short video of some garden birds you might see near you. How many can you identify…

How do you like your winters?

As a kid I enjoyed an overcast blustery winter as it meant I could watch more TV and play more computer games. But then again, when I was finally forced outside there was no doubt I felt better for it. It's always good to blow out the cobwebs and you never know what you might see. 

To give you a flavour of these two different winters we've made some contrasting videos of winter wildlife…

I’m not ashamed to admit that this year’s Waitrose Christmas ad got me in the festive mood. If you’ve not seen it, it features a robin braving the perils of migration from Scandinavia to get some grub in a UK garden. Obviously we’re big fans of feeding garden birds, so here’s a recipe for a mince pie that’s exclusively for feathered garden visitors. And there’s no cooking involved so little ones can take the lead! …

Fire is many things to different people: dangerous, useful, warming, destructive.

Of course all of them can be true, but humans wouldn't have survived in the British Isles without it. 

Remembering that we've gathered around outdoor fires for thousands of years puts me in a pensive mood whenever I light my own. 

Image embedded from the Times archive - Stone age man making fire.

Now we approach bonfire night…

The colder weather can make the outdoors a less appealing place to be, but the wellington boot is a vital ally in the autumn.

Here are a few imaginative uses for the humble welly...

1) Take a welly wander

OK you've probably done this one, but it's worth remembering how much freedom wellies can give you. Explore some muddy tracks and keep an eye out for footprints left by animals. 

2) Bootprint garden 

Every now and then nature can surprise you and leave you awestruck.

And it's not just the big and spectacular, like having a golden eagle soar over your head, it can be encountering a hedgehog on your walk home. It's special to you. 

Even when you’re looking for something specific, in the right spot at the right time, you can never guarantee success. And that’s what makes seeing it so special. It’s a unique moment…

As the days lengthen and the leaves fall from the trees, there's no escaping it, autumn is here. 

And with the arrival of autumn, it's time to reap the rewards of seeds sown in spring. 

Earlier in the year we sent our Family Members a pack of pumpkin seeds, hopefully these have grown into healthy plants yielding hefty orange fruit in plenty of time for Halloween! If not there's always the supermarket. 

In…

At the RSPB we've always sought to inspire young people about the natural world. It’s in our history stretching back to the Junior Bird Recorders’ Club starting in 1943. But in recent years we’ve realised that it’s not just adults that help kids get into nature, often children are the reason their parents get into nature too.

As part of our work to bring whole families closer to nature, there…

What a summer! Of course, we’ve had some rain and cooler days but hey, this is the UK and anything else would only send us into mass panic and the inevitable hosepipe ban. I’m really happy with my allocation of sunny days so far and the family and I have been doing our best to make the most of it by getting outdoors and hands-on with nature...

On our jollies
Fledging from the north of England, Norfolk is a…

Fancy getting your kids into nature? In the green spaces of Newcastle our outreach officer will be helping families do just that, with bags full of fun activities.

In August and September, park activities run from around 10:30 to around 4:30, with finishing times varying slightly dependent on weather.  

Mon 1 Aug: Saltwell

Tue 2 Aug: Jesmond Dene

Sat 6 Aug: Gosforth Central

Sun 7 Aug: Heaton

Mon 8 Aug: Saltwell

Our outreach officer in Leeds is going to be visiting lots of parks August. If you're near by on one of these days, please do drop in and say hello:

Middleton Park bandstand - 8 August 11.00-15.30

Pudsey park - 10 August 11.00-15.30

Roundhay - 11 August 12.00-17.00

Middleton Park - 15 August 11.00-15.30, 29 August 11.00-15.30

Pudsey park - 16 August 11.00-15.30

Cross Flatts - 18 August 12.00-17.00

Rodley nature reserve…