10th August 2024 Owl pellet dissection marathon - Hinton Hall, Tisbury

Do you know what is an owl pellet? Join aficionados to owl pellet dissection to find out (in practice!) about barn owls diets, how to identify small mammals and help discover if we have a new species of shrew in Wiltshire.


12th October 2024 Harvest mouse nest survey - field near Tisbury

Did you know that the harvest mouse is the smallest rodent and also the only rodent with a prehensile tail in the UK? Help us find out more about the distribution of this possibly endangered mammal, and find out about its habits, how to find the nests where it sleeps and breeds in summer, and how to tell their nests from those of other animals.

On Saturday, Tisbury Young Naturalists enjoyed a visit to Oysters Coppice, Gutch Common to meet the newts that live there and find out about the three different sorts of newts we have in the UK.

In the pond, we found palmate newts and smooth newts. The youngsters were also shown how to search for (without disturbing!) newt eggs. The female newts, very cleverly, lay eggs individually on leaves just above the water line and then fold the leaf over and stick it down to provide a safe home until the newt hatches.

We learned that some newts can live for up to twenty years and that newts have a unique pattern of spots and so they can be identified.
After thanking the newts for allowing us to visit, we tiptoed away to let them get on with their watery but fascinating lives.

Emma Procter

In May, we will have a newt session, planned for 5pm on Saturday May 4th. This session will be in Semley and numbers will be limited to a maximum of 12 people, so it’s a first come, first served basis.

If you are interested in joining, please get in touch and we will email you back to confirm the details.

Our activity in April is a leaf identification competition. This will be on Saturday 6 April between 11am-12.30 pm at the Tisbury Community field.

Participants will be sent on a hunt for tree and shrub leaves within a piece of land, learning about our native flora - and their special relationship with butterflies and moths - with our in-house expert Peter Shallcross.

There will be a reward for the fastest participant that completes the leaf challenge!

So far the weather forecast for the day looks good, crossing fingers it stays that way.

If you would like to join, please get in touch!

Unfortunately, due to the stormy weather we need to cancel this event. We shall let you know if we are able to put it on at another time.

The Young Nature Watch event for March is Stargazing with Steve Tonkin,  an expert in astronomy from Cranborne Chase National Landscape on Thursday March 28th, at 7.45pm at Dinton Park. The sun will set at 18.28 that night, however it will not be truly dark until after 8pm and the stars will be best seen after then but it is the night before Good Friday and so you could have a lie in the following morning if this is past your usual bedtime!
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Wrap up warmly and bring a torch as the car park will be dark (there will not be a moon shining to guide your way!) and the surface is uneven. If you have binoculars or a telescope, bring those along too. The What3Words location is hoofs.funds.branched, the postcode is SP3 5HH. We will meet in the car park and then walk onto Dinton Park to get a good view of the night sky.
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If you would like to come, please book a place by letting us know your name and a contact number by March 14th on the Young Nature Watch email or via the main contact form, to enable us to make sure that we have enough expert volunteers and that we can contact you in case of bad weather. 
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This event is free for anyone under 21 years of age and anyone aged under 12 years will need an adult to accompany them. 
Let's hope for a starry, starry night.

We had a great time building boxes for birds, which our participants took home to hang up, we hope their garden birds are already inspecting them for using them soon!

Have a look at our social media for pictures: Facebook and Instagram.

Registrations for our bird box workshop this month are now closed and we have ordered the materials for those who have expressed an interest. We are looking forward to this event on Saturday the 17th.

Following our AGM yesterday, our new programme for the remainder of the year and early next year is now published. You can download it as a PDF.

​In January 2024, our Young Nature Watch activity took on a different guise: we set a competition for our members, to photograph a flower, au naturel between 30th December and 2nd January. This was in conjunction with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s annual flower hunt.
 
We were delighted to receive several entries from around the area. These were collated and submitted to BSBI as a group entry.
 
The winner of the under 10’s competition was Rose McLean for her super photo of some catkins, trembling in the breeze and shedding their pollen. Well done, Rose, we shall be in contact soon to hand over your prize, and thank you to all those who entered.

​Emma Procter

Our next event is a make your own garden bird box workshop, at 10 am on Saturday the 17th of February, Hinton Hall. There are three different models of boxes from which you can choose: small hole (25mm), medium hole (32 mm) and square opening, all of which are chosen by different types of birds to nest in.

You will build your own bird box (or boxes) during the day, and find out which is the best location where you can place it to observe birds safely. You will be able to take your box home and decorate as you wish before placing it in your favourite outside space. As in previous occasions, the society will subsidise half the cost of the materials, so you will be asked for a donation of £7 per nest box to cover the remainder. 

If you would like to join, please get in touch by the 4th of February, indicating how many people will be attending in your group and how many boxes you would like to build, and if you have any preference as to the type of hole, so we can order the necessary number of kits.