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!
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. 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. 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. 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. Calling all Young Nature Watchers!
It is competition time. Do you get a bit fed up between Christmas and New Year? The grown-ups seem to spend a lot of time snoring and you’ve enjoyed all of your presents. We may have the solution! Every year, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland has a New Year Plant Hunt. This year it will run from December 30th 2023 until January 2nd 2024. During that window of opportunity, you should go outside with your family and friends and try to find and photograph any flowers that are blooming. When you get home, try to identify your finds and send us your photos. We will collate all of the entries and submit them to the Botanical Society as a group entry. There will be prizes available for people aged under 10 and those aged 10 – 21 years so please let us know your name and age and a way to contact you or your family when you submit the photograph. We will try to display all entries on our website. Good luck and happy flower hunting! This October we are thrilled to be taking part in a nurdle hunt! Our activity will feed into the Great Global Nurdle Hunt organised by Fidra and happening everywhere in the planet between the 1st-31st October. Nurdles are also known as mermaid's tears and have very interesting stories behind them; unlike many other types of microplastics, they do not originate in domestic rubbish but they are equally very harmful to wildlife. If spending an hour on a beautiful beach learning about and taking steps against plastic pollution sounds remotely interesting, join us on the 15th of October. The time will be dependent on the tides and will be confirmed closer to the date, but it will likely be in the early afternoon. The meeting point will be at the Western Road surface car park, Poole (postcode: BH13 7BN), from where we will walk for 200m to the beach, armed with hunting equipment for nurdle searching. If you would like to take part, please get in touch so we can notify you of the exact meeting time closer to the date. On Saturday, 2nd September between 10 and 12 am we will be carrying out a survey of Sexton or Carrion beetles at a local farm. This event will be led by the knowledgeable Peter G. Thompson, who will tell us about the incredible diversity of carrion beetles and their peculiarities. We will check the carrion baits that we will have set up on the night previous. After looking at the beetles, we will release them.
If you’d be interested to take part and want more details, please get in touch. The Big Green Week runs between the 10th and the 18th of June, you can have a look at the programme of events in our area here: https://www.greatbiggreenweekshaftesbury.org/
On Tuesday the 13th June between 3.00 and 6 pm, we will be at a stall at the Nadder Centre with information about our society and a range of nature activities, including bug hotels, owl pellet dissection and small mammal bone identification and moths for admiration and identification! Other stalls will be offering food and interactive activities on a nature recovery theme. This event is FREE and is being facilitated by the South West Wiltshire Area Board and the Cranborne Chase and Chalke Partnership. Come and visit us! Our regular YNW monthly event is on Saturday the 17th June between 11 and 12 am (unless we have bad weather). We will be meeting in a flower meadow in Chicksgrove to undertake a pollinator survey (FIT Counts for the POMS, more information here: https://ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts). Joining us, you will gain a greater understanding of the types of insects that have an important role in pollinating flowers (HINT: it's not just bees!) and we will also show you how to identify typical meadow flowers. We will be providing you with training to do this very easy survey, which only takes a few minutes, in your own garden at your leisure, contributing to very important research on pollinator declines. As usual, members and under 21s come free. Non-members need to pay £2 for attending any event. Our annual membership fee is only £10 per adult. If you have not paid online beforehand, you can do so by cash on the day! If you would like to join us on this event, please get in touch so we can update you nearer the time with meeting point details. Did you know that May has the International Dawn Chorus Day?
On Saturday 13th of May, we are going on a Dawn Chorus walk around Tisbury with local birders Andrew Graham and Debbie Carter. Please meet at the Nadder Centre car park (SP3 6HJ) at 4.50 am ready to depart at 5 am prompt. We will do a round walk listening to the amazing vocal display that birds do this time of the year, and Debbie and Andrew will give you tips to identify birds through their song. We will be back on time for breakfast at your own home or at one of the great local cafes! As usual, members and under 21s come free. Non-members need to pay £2 for every event. Our annual membership fee is only £10 per adult. If you have not paid online, you can do so by cash on the day! On Saturday the 11th of March we will do a dung beetle (or beetles in dung) survey with the ecologist and Wiltshire county recorder for bats and mammals Gareth Harris. Why is this mammal specialist interested in beetles and dung? Come and find out! We will do this survey at 10 o'clock at Wallmead Farm; specific meeting point to be confirmed closer to the time and for those who book their space.
On Saturday the 25th of February at 10 am we will be making bat boxes from ready made kits that you will be able to take home to install (we will give you advice on how to improve habitats for bats and put the boxes). The boxes will be partly financed by the Tisbury and District Natural History Society, please make a £10 contribution for each box you will take with you. Please register your interest in this activity by Sunday the 12th of February so we can buy the right number of boxes for the event.
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Young Nature Watch (YNW) is a branch of the Tisbury and District Natural History Society (T&DNHS).
YNW is free for under-21s! Young people always have priority at any of our activities but accompanying adults are required for under-12s. For adults, annual membership for the T&DNHS (£10) or a £2 fee per event (for non-members) is due. Download our annual programme below!
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YNW logo design by Izzy Fry.
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