Tuesday 16 April 2013

Nature reserve activities

We went to a group that meets at a local nature reserve.  It's monthly but for some reason I forget to diary it, so we haven't been in over a year (whoops).  

It was lovely to go back.  It's a beautiful set of lakes and woods on the site of a disused chalk pit.
We saw definite signs of spring - flowers (primroses?), buds and leaves.
When we got to the barn, it was set up with microscopes and tweezers, ready for us to dissect owl pellets.  Cool!  The kids preferred me to dig through the pellets with cocktail sticks, while they picked out what they wanted to look at under the microscope.  We found skulls, jaw bones, all sorts.
Afterwards we explored outside.  We checked out the display of old farm equipment, found a stick teepee, climbed through the woods, discovered rabbit burrows.  It was a bright and breezy 'blow away the cobwebs' afternoon.

2 comments:

  1. Found your blog through another one, as you do. I thought I'd let you know I'm *here*!
    We've done owl pellets before, it was very interesting but I couldn't stop heaving! Lol

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  2. Hi Bridget! Lovely to see you here :-)

    The owl pellets were more 'eugh' than I remember from my childhood, and the smell Dettox they'd soaked in kept reminding me of clearing up vomit. Nice!

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