I have been in touch with a lady called Catherine Simmonds who runs the Shaftesbury Swift Group. As you possibly all know Swifts are very special and are becoming an increasingly rare sight in the UK as sadly they are on the endangered list. Shaftesbury is lucky enough to have an active swift colony.

Catherine has very kindly offered to hold a swift watching session for our group during Swift Awareness Week on Monday 22nd June at 7.30pm-8.30pm. It obviously is quite late for a school night but the chance of seeing lots of these wonderful birds gets higher as the evening gets later. 

Please let me know if you would be interested in coming along to this really special event.

Charlie

The Duke of Burgundy butterfly is rare and we are fortunate to have the chalk downland habitat where sightings in recent years have brought reassurance that they are surviving locally. 

We shall be learning about what this butterfly likes to have in its territory; for meeting a mate, laying eggs and finding its food source. And fingers crossed we'll see them! Please get in contact if you'd like to join the group and directions for the meet up will be given.

Young Nature Watch will be doing their very own Egg Hunt across Wallmead Farm on Saturday April 18th at 2pm.

A member of Wiltshire Ornithological Society (WOS) will help us identify some of the eggs laid by the different species of more familiar, and not so familiar birds.

​Contact us to book your place.

On Sunday March 1st at 2pm Young Nature Watch will be joining Bournemouth Oceanarium as they host a public beach clean where everyone is welcome. They will supply the litter pickers, waste bags, disposal bins, recording sheets and clipboards so simply bring yourself, a sturdy pair of shoes, adequate clothing, sun cream (depending on forecast) and any friends or family to help.

The beach clean will run from 2pm-3pm, however you do not have to stay for the full length of time. Whether you help for 2 minutes or 2 hours, it all helps reduce plastic from entering our oceans!
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Please send an email to YNW if you are interested in coming along. Hopefully the rain will have stopped by then!

Our Young Nature Watch Activity for February is an Owl Pellet dissection workshop, on Saturday February 7th in Hinton hall from 10am - 12pm.

This event will involve delving your hands into what owls eat using tweezers to pick apart their undigested pellets. Its often mucky but great fun!

Come along and see what you can find.

Friday January 23rd at 6.30pm our Young Nature Watch activity will be a stargazing evening at Dinton Park, led by Steve Tonkin FRAS, Dark Sky Advisor, Cranborne Chase National Landscape International Dark Sky Reserve.

This will be the third year in a row that we have tried to run this event. Sadly, we have had to cancel the last two because of storms and cloud cover and so it's fingers crossed for third time lucky! If you would like to come, please contact us by email. We will send you details of where to meet, what to bring and also let you know if we need to cancel, so please provide a contact telephone number as it may be a last minute phone call that saves you a wasted journey.

We had some really creative wreaths last Saturday at Tis the Season from children and parents alike. Emma and I enjoyed seeing the pleasure it brings when making your own Christmas wreath - we grabbed some time to make our own as well.

A big thank you to Debbie and Andrew Carter for kindly opening up their garden for me to fill two big bags of greenery, crab apples and cotoneaster berries. Anthony Lovell-Wood, the churchwarden at St Johns Church, also let me top up with holly berries and some cedar stems. We love the community spirit of wreath making, the chat and enjoyment it brings. 

​Julia
[Note: we always ask before including photos of children and deliberately position with faces averted for safeguarding purposes]

Head to our Instagram or Facebook for a review and pictures of our otter survey earlier today, where we found positive evidence for otters and other interesting creatures!