More wonderful tiny discoveries

Early September 2014

Its always great to get back to the Discovery Garden after a school holiday and see what has developed and changed in the time we've been away.  Early September feels like a wonderful time with rich sun and that feeling of warmth with a hint of autumn in the air!  We've been working on various parts of the Discovery Garden and construction is underway of a stand for the instruments made by the children.   We were delighted yesterday to find a tiny newt under a log as we worked - such an exciting resident of the garden!  Its a young newt - and maybe there are more of them about.   We love our wildlife friendly pond and being so close to the canal really helps with all the wetland creatures that we find in the Discovery Garden.   There is some really useful information about newts and wetland habitats on the Froglife website here and also the website of the Freshwater Habitats Trust here.

There are so many grasshoppers and crickets about at the moment too - and such a variety of colours and sizes.   You can hear them constantly - but to see them you have to be very quiet and patient - then suddenly you can see many of them hopping about or basking in the sun.   Bees, butterflies and many other insects are very busy and we have lots of flowers grown to be available for pollinating insects now.   Several kinds of dragonflies are easily visible flying about the pond and over the whole garden as they hunt for food.   Lots of information and images about UK bugs and mini beasts are found on this wonderful website here at Buglife.

There are lots of wonderful berries around too - raspberries, blackberries and elderberries especially.   Birds are busy there too - a jay was flying in and out of the hedgerow yesterday whilst we worked, mistle thrushes and starlings are busy there and a sparrowhawk is seen most days.

If you would like ideas for further autumnal ways to discover nature the Woodland Trust Nature Detectives website is PACKED with free downloads, ideas and activities - its really worth a browse through their website for ideas, identification sheets, links to other places and suggestions for things to do.