After months of not being able to run our popular Wildlife Watch events due to the pandemic, we are excited that many of our groups are now back up and running once again.
One of these groups is our Leighton-Linslade Watch (previously Stockgrove Watch). Due to the break in events, many of our previous Watch members are now all grown up! It has been great to get the group going again, looking for new members to join us in some fun wildlife activities to learn about their local wildlife.
In October we held a ‘Creatures of the Night’ event, where we went for a night hike around Tiddenfoot Waterside Park, exploring the site to see if we could spot any nocturnal creatures and learn about wildlife after dark. We had a great time looking for animals, and we were lucky enough to hear a Tawny Owl calling as we stood by the lake, whilst also detecting many bats! At this time of year spotting bats can be unpredictable, as often they will start to go into hibernation around this time if the weather is particularly cold. However, we were very lucky with the weather and managed to see plenty of bats darting over the lake looking for yummy insects, using our bat detectors to figure out what species of bats they were. This was a great experience for our new Wildlife Watch members, as it is always an incredible moment when you hear the array of ‘clicks’ and ‘smacks’ through the detector as a bat flies overhead. As well as spotting wildlife we also played a variety of night-time games to learn a little about how our senses adapt in the dark, and what the animals might be experiencing. We spent some time listening to sounds by the lake, drawing what we can see without using a light, and playing a game of hide and seek- looking for others while they made a noise for us to hear!
