WT Wildlife watch sept 2015 (web pdf)

Photo by

Amanda

Brookes

Opticron winner congratulations!

Naomi White, aged 10, won our art competition in the spring and was awarded 8x32 binoculars worth £99 courtesy of Wildlife Trust Corporate supporters Opticron. Here is a photo of Naomi holding her winning picture.

Registered charity no: 1000412 Photo by

Bu m ble be e

Brookes

atchers!

Hello Wildlife W Photo by Am

My wildlife photos

Amanda

September

✓

Create a hedgehog home, identify trees and twigs and collect conkers.

✓ November Examine hazelnut shells and work out which animals have eaten them, spot a fieldfare flock.

✓ Designed by Jamie Bello

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Get in touch @

October

Pa int ed la dy butt e rf

Torch by BSGStudio

L o n g h o rn be et le

✉☎

Send in your letters, drawings, poems and bad jokes to us at Wildlife Watch!

FAO: Amanda Brookes, Peterborough Office Amanda Brookes and Rebecca Green The Wildlife Trust BCN, The Wildlife Watch team Bug House, Ham Lane, Orton Waterville, Peterborough, PE2 5UU Tel: 01733 687515 Email: watch@wildlifebcn.org Bedfordshire Office Priory Country Park Barkers Lane Bedford, MK41 9DJ Tel: 01234 364213

Cambridgeshire Office The Manor House Broad Street Great Cambourne Cambridge, CB23 6DH Tel: 01954 713500

Northampton Office Lings House Billing Lings Northampton, NN3 8BE Tel: 01604 405285

Sending a photograph?

Please ask your parent or guardian to signand print their name and address on the back.

Edited by Amanda Brookes and Rebecca Green

Autumn leaves by Gillian Day

Night scene by Jack Perks

Visit a woodland and hunt for fungi (but don’t touch them!) and go on a bat walk.

Did you have a go at the 30 days wild challenge during June? Lots of people pledged to do something wild every day for a whole month, whether it was going on a nature walk, building a bug hotel or learning about the wildlife that lived in their back gardens.

You can find out about what others got up to and have a go by visiting: www.wildlifebcn.org/MyWildLife

Badger by Jon Bowen

What to do in... What to do in... What to do in...

How many different types of wild plants and animals have you seen during the summer?

I was lucky enough to see lots of different types of butterfly, like ringlet, meadow brown and painted lady. I learnt about longhorn and soldier beetles in our region and was shown what early purple and pyramidal orchids look like.

During my visits to Cambourne I saw a few things for the first time ever, like marbled white butterflies on the nature reserve and a hummingbird hawk-moth in our wildlife garden.

What can you see in your garden?

anda Broo kes

I got snappy this summer and took some photos of our wonderful wildlife.

Autumn 2015 edition

In the

night garden When we are getting ready for bed some animals are just waking up for their breakfast! Many animals prowl silently in the moonlight, searching for food and raising their young. The nighttime is a world full of shy and secretive animals, so sometimes getting a look at them can be tricky. Sometimes we can spot them, but sometimes we need to look out for signs of them first, like tracks and trails. We also have special equipment to help us look for certain animals like camera traps (which take a photo when an animal passes them) and bat detectors. Take a peek inside this newsletter and discover our night time (nocturnal) friends!

www.wildlife

bcn.org

Nocturnal Nature!

Photo by Jon Hawkin

s

Photo by Clive

Nichols

Badger

Fox

Night scene by Neil Aldridge Photo by Amy Lewis

Bats Swooping silently in the night, bats are mysterious and difficult to spot. There are 17 types of bat in the UK, including common pipistrelle, brown long-eared bat and Daubenton’s bat. All UK bats feed on moths and other winged insects. UK bats hunt using ‘echolocation’, where they make a high pitched squeak and listen as the sound bounces back off objects. Different bats echolocate at different frequencies, so we can tell which bat is which by using a bat detector.

Badgers and foxes

Field vole

Bat facts! u

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•T he Daubenton’s bat hunts by ‘fishing’ bugs with their feet or tail off the water’s surface

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•B rown long-eared bats are very quiet on the bat detector.

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• The common pipistrelle weighs no more than a £1 coin llo

Photo by Margaret Holland

Not all owls are nocturnal! Short – eared owls and little owls are more active in the day whilst tawny owls, barn owls and long-eared owls are more active during the night. Owls are built to glide silently, making them excellent predators. Helping them to catch their food, they have large eyes and super hearing to enable them to spot the quick movements and hear the rustlings of rodents.

Ph o to

Jamie Be

You may recognise the badger as the creature on our very own Wildlife Trust logo! These creatures are Britain’s largest land carnivores (meat eaters) and they eat more earthworms than anything else.

They like living in woodlands near open fields and dig large tunnels called setts to live in. They even dig their own toilets called ‘latrines’ and are excellent at making their own beds, changing the grass and leaves they use as bedding often.

They have between one and five cubs, the male is called a ‘boar’ and the female a ‘sow’.

Owls

by

You are likely to catch a glimpse of a fox walking around in your garden or street as they can make their homes in most places. They tuck in to things like field voles, birds, rabbits, insects and berries but also can be found searching through rubbish bins for a tasty treat. The male fox is called a ‘dog’ and a female a ‘vixen’.

They make homes called dens and have four to six cubs in early spring.

Photo by Gillian Day

Hedgehog

Insectivores

Photo by Margaret Holland

Hedgehogs and moles are insectivores. This means that they love sucking up worms and crunching bugs. Moles are small – about 15 cm long and live underground. Moles are not blind – they have very small eyes which can detect light and movement, but they cannot see colours. Their paws are the shape of spades to help them dig tunnels and catch their food. Moles are hard to spot, but you can tell where they have been from the molehills around!

Tawny owl

Rodents Scurrying around in the undergrowth, it’s a tough life for these small creatures alright! Rodents like wood and yellow-necked mice and field voles have to stay hidden otherwise they are very likely to be eaten. Field voles are a source of food for foxes, weasels and barn owls amongst others.

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Mole Photo by Amy Lewis

Our prickly garden visitor, the hedgehog, needs our help! The numbers of hedgehogs in the UK have gone down quickly as their homes are destroyed by humans building houses and taking away hedgerows. There are some simple ways we can help our spiky friends!

1. C reate a hedgehog highway by cutting a hole the size of a CD in the bottom of your fence to connect your garden to other gardens– but ask an adult to help!

2. Leave an area wild in your garden for hedgehogs to nest in and build a hedgehog house.

3. Visit this website to find out about the national ‘Wild About Gardens’ project to find out how you can help more! www.wildlifebcn.org/wildlife-gardening