July; Let the school holidays begin!

Stick man made in Forest School

This moth has seen the introduction of our new forest school programme, with the feedback so far being extremely positive. Forest school is an idea that children learn through play and through interactions with the great outdoors. We aim to encourage learning through play in a safe and secure environment, whilst also developing individuals’ social interactions.

Forest School Arts and Crafts

So far on the programme, we’ve made forest crafts such as beautiful 5 - point stars, and learnt about tool use and knots. We’ve also learnt how to tell the difference between tree species by looking at leaves, shapes and bark patterns and lots more! Very much looking forward to the next few sessions and we’re hopeful that this is something we can roll out on a regular basis as an after school event.

Learning through play

At the start of the month we also conducted a plant survey of the edges of the nature reserve. Some fantastic plants were recorded, including a Wild Service tree (which has fruit called chequers, previously used to flavour beer!), Wild Honeysuckle, Betony, wild strawberries and lots more! Some of these species we are looking to re-seed into the centre of the reserve, so a project our conservation volunteers have been working on this month is preparing a plant nursery for these species.

A house for a Twiggle

July also saw us run our 2^nd bat walk of the year (with our final one being on August 20^th). Once again this was a very popular event, with lots of bats being spotted on the walk, along with some other animals including some deer and rabbits! It’s not just bats we’re focusing on this month but also our bees! They’ve been hard at work since they were installed in April and we are already taking off honey! Just in time for our bee weekend at the end of the month, which is where we also hope to launch our own honey for sale in the shops and reserve. Can’t wait to try it all!

Smiling!

As most of you will have noticed, July also saw the start of the school holidays (aaaah!!) Luckily, the weather has been reasonable too, which has encouraged our visitor numbers to grow, especially during the week. Lots of people using the reserve and learning through activities such as pond dipping and bug hunting is a lovely sight to see! Great to see young explorers earning all about the natural world!

We’ve spotted lots of wildlife on our camera traps too! This months’ top spots include a Doe with two fawns trailing after her and a pair of foxes too! We’ve also had our visitors spotting the fox cubs frequently throughout this month and it is probably about time the cubs move out of their dens and away from their parents if they’ve not done so already!

Fox caught on a camera trap in July