We’ve just released a podcast of the recent “Monsters” event at Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
Thanks again for everyone’s support and we hope you enjoy listening to these young people tell you about this very successful day.
There are more “Monsters” events planned later this year, and again, we welcome teachers and youth group leaders along with an interest in learning more about the natural world.
Thanks to everyone who came along to this event at Shropshire Wildlife Trust today. There were over 100 people bug hunting, 200 cups of coffee made and several thousand “monsters” caught, including worms, centipedes, millipedes, spiders and slimy slugs!
See you in the Easter Holidays for more wildlife activities.
Look out on this blog for photos and a podcast of the day- coming soon…..
In the meantime, play this amazing online game from Yorkshire Museums, and make your own SUPERBUG!
Here’s another event you can get involved with at half term.
National Nest Box Week is an annual event, designed to get you and your garden birds ready for spring.
Come along to Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s HQ at Abbey Foregate in Shrewsbury, on Wednesday 13th February for workshops at 10.30am and 11.30am, and make your own nest box.
Booking is essential (as we don’t have hundreds of boxes), but you are more than welcome to come along at any time between 10am and 4.30pm and meet Wildlife Trust staff, plus the famous sparrows in our wildlife garden!
We’ve found some interesting resources, free to download -Click here for a free information pack from the British Trust for Ornithology
If you would like to make a bird box, it will cost just £5 for the whole family, and we’ll give you all the advice you’ll
need on putting it up, watching birds and maintaining your nest boxes all year round.
If you would like any more information, please call Kate in reception, on 01743 284280,
or Sara (Education) on 01743 284284.
We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
On Friday 15th February, Shropshire Wildlife Trust will be throwing open their garden gates at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury and inviting you into a “miniature world”.
Between 10am and 4pm, you can take part in workshops designed to help you identify and celebrate the minibeasts in your back garden.
The event is suitable for all ages, and we of course welcome teachers who’d like to learn more about the wildlife in their school grounds
There will be a chance to go on a bug hunt with an expert, look at monsters under the microscope and even create your very own little creature from clay. Ask our wildlife experts about gardening for insects and learn about Charles Darwin’s encounters with strange creatures, as well as hearing about some strange creatures right here in Shropshire!
Entrance on the day is free- but there may be a small charge for some of the activities, plus a chance to stock up on bug friendly items in our wildlife shop.
This event is being run as part of the Darwin Festival celebrations, 2008: an annual celebration of the life and works of the great scientist, who spent his formative years exploring the wildlife of Shropshire.
We want to find and encourage a new generation of inspired and hopefully inspirational naturalists, which is why this event is taking place. So if you know of a young wildlife enthusiast in your class or at home, please make sure you let them know, and bring them along this half term.
Booking is essential for the workshops and bug hunt- please call Kate on 01743 284280.
If you’d like more information about the life and works of Charles Darwin and plans for the Darwin 200 festival in 2009, please click here.
The photo is a real monster, called a Lunar Hornet Moth, found in my back garden in Shrewsbury!
Outside in your grounds, are thousands of little crustaceans; tiny descendants of crabs, shrimp and lobsters. They are Woodlice, also known as Sowbugs, Chiggypigs or Cheeselogs.
Woodlice belong to a dark and damp nocturnal world, where they feed on rotting plant material. They are incredibly useful as nature’s recyclers- beginning the process of decomposition that bacteria and fungi complete.
You can find woodlice in your grounds at any time of the year; to catch some, all you’ll need is a pot, a pair of tweezers and an identification chart.
Once you’ve collected a few woodlice, you may notice that there are different shapes, sizes and markings. Did you know there are 46 different species of woodlouse in Britain? You may have at least 3 or 4 of them in your pot.
Each species of woodlouse prefers a slightly different habitat, with a slightly different niche (or “job” if you like).
If you have woodlice you’d like to identify with your class, click on Woodlouse for a really nice online key from the Natural History Museum’s “Walking with Woodlice” project.
The NHM woodlouse survey was last carried out in 2004, but it still contains some very useful information and ideas on working with woodlice in your school grounds. Click here for the results of their national survey, which may inspire you to carry out your own?
A Simple Woodlouse Experiment.
Try this simple experiment to discover a woodlouse’s preference to living in darkness (if you would like to sound clever, this preference is called “negative phototropism”).
This activity is suitable for Key Stage 2-4 pupils.
Collect a minimum of 20 woodlice, preferably of the same species, and put them all into a pot at the centre of a large tray, the sides of which should be high enough to prevent any escapees.
Using cardboard, or any other suitable material, divide your tray into four “choice chambers”, or rooms, leaving enough space under your dividers for the woodlice to move about freely.
Create different conditions in each chamber - for instance, at Key Stage 2, it could be that you have two rooms covered (dark), and two rooms uncovered (light).
With older groups you could add damp vegetation to a light and dark chamber as an extra variable or “choice”.
Release the woodlice into the chambered tray and watch where they go.
At intervals of 1 minute, count how many woodlice there are in each chamber and note down the results on a recording sheet. This is harder than it sounds and is a nice problem-solving activity if you have the time!
At the end of the experiment (we suggest 5 minutes minimum), count up your results and discuss any patterns of behaviour. If all goes well, you should find that most woodlice prefer the dark, damp conditions to light and dry.
It is thought that the ancestors of woodlice came from the sea. Modern woodlice dry out very quickly if they’re out in the open, and if they dry out, they die. Woodlice even have primitive gills on their undersides, which absorb oxygen in damp and wet conditions.
These 14-legged friends are worthy members of our Monsters section. Let us know if you carry out this woodlouse experiment, and please share your results, pictures and photographs.
Members of our education team can set up and lead a woodlouse workshop for you, in school or at our HQ in Shrewsbury. This introduces and builds upon pupils knowledge of habitats, keys, adaptations and life cycles.
We also have bugpots, tweezers, hand lenses and fold out woodlouse keys for sale in our shop.
Please call us on 01743 284284, or leave an email request here.
Anyone for Extra Protein?
Incidentally, I have found a website from Key Stage 4 students in New Zealand, which explores a whole new use of woodlice- as ingredients in scones and sushi! Click here if you dare!
