WildSquare

Make a sweep net this Bank Holiday

Fay Williams — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:31:32 GMT

Make an insect sweep net 

Equipment list: 

2 wire coat hangers 
A wooden pole (broom handle or a cane) 
An old pillowcase (preferably white) 
A needle and some thread or a stapler 
2 jubilee clips 

Instructions: 

You may need an adult to help you when you are shaping the coat hangers 

1 Unfold the coat hangers, and then twist them round each other. Once this is done, 
shape the wire into a circle and twist the ends together. Leave at least 4 inches of wire 
at the end untwisted, so this can be attached to your pole. 

2 Cut the pillowcase in half. Then turn the edge of the pillowcase over the wire hoop. 
You can either staple or sew this in place.


3 Attach the surplus wire to the wooden pole and attach firmly with the jubilee clips. 

Go out into your Wildsquare with your newly made sweep net. You will need to sweep the 
net slowly through long grass. When you have done this, carefully look into your net to see 
what you have caught. 

Always remember to release the animals where you found them.

Where is spring?

Fay Williams — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:31:24 GMT

We had a lovely weekend here with sunshine and blue skies. The flowers have started to bloom due to the warmer weather. Have you seen more flowers in your Wildsquare?

The official first day of spring was not spring like at all, but had mist, fog, snow and freezing temperatures. This has meant alot of flowers and trees were late to bud and some animals have not come out of hibernation.

Hopefully you will have been able to see some signs of spring on your survey. You have till the 30^th April to go out into your Wildsquare to see the wildlife on your survey sheets.

New Wildsquare survey begins - 1st March

Fay Williams — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:01:03 GMT

Spring is a wonderful time of year to be getting outside. All around you nature is coming back to life after slowing down for the winter. Leaves are appearing, insects are hatching or coming out of hibernation, flowers are coming up and all sorts of animals are having babies. A lot of animals have babies in the spring when there is plenty of food for them to eat.

This is the time of year when the trees and bushes produce new leaves. They start off very tiny and pale green but quickly grow into new leaves. Different trees grow leaves at different times. Some trees blossom in the spring too.

In this Wildsquare survey we will be asking you to look for the first signs of spring. It is a great time to be out doing your survey and learning about the new life all around us.

Birds and their song survey

Fay Williams — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:33:39 GMT

How many of these birds have you seen?

You often see more birds in the winter than the summer, there isn’t much food around and the days are shorter so they have to spend more time finding things to eat. There are also fewer leaves in the trees for them to hide behind.

Can you hear any of these birds singing?

This is a good time of year to listen to bird song, you can hear each bird singing individually rather than in the summer when all the birds are competing with each other to sing as loudly as they can.

All the birds in the list have very distinctive song, if you don’t know what it sounds like have a listen at http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/a/ before you go out to do your survey.

Are there any of these things around when you do your survey?

Getting outdoors when it’s really cold is very rewarding, especially when all the plants are covered in a layer of silvery frost.

a) Spiders webs

b) Icicles

c) Frost crystals

d) Snow

e) Crunchy frozen grass

f) Piles of dead leaves

How does your Wildsquare look in the snow?

Fay Williams — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:51:31 GMT

We have all had plenty of snow over the last few weeks and it has probably made alot of the wildlife you are looking for hide away.

Let us know what you have seen and how the snow has affected your survey.

Have you still been out in the snow to try to see the birds on your latest Wildsquare survey

Birds and their song

Fay Williams — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:48:53 GMT

Some people recognise birds by their songs rather than by their appearance. Many birds are small and can be hidden by the leaves on trees, this means it is very helpful to be able to know the bird from its song. Our Wildsquare survey asks you not only to look for the birds but to listen for them too.

Birds will communicate for different reasons, they may be trying to impress or attract a mate, declare territorial boundaries, identify family members, make known the presence of a predator or pass on information about the location of food.

Most birds use a variety of sounds to send these messages. Typical sounds fall into two main groups: relatively long and intricate songs, used to attract a mate or declare territorial boundaries; and shorter calls, used to identify family members or show the presence of a predator.

One of the best ways to learn about birds and their song is to go outside and stand with your eyes closed and just listen to the calls. It is amazing how your hearing becomes much more aware of the noises, when that is the only sense you are using.

Merry Christmas

Fay Williams — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:07:56 GMT

Merry Christmas to everyone who has taken part in Wildsquare during 2012.

Don't forget to do your next Wildsquare survey from the 2nd January 2013, its all about Birds and their song.

Christmas activity- robin pencils

Fay Williams — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:36:03 GMT

You will need:

2 brown pompoms

Yellow, red and brown card

Black beads

pencils

Use strong glue to fix two small brown pompoms together. Glue on a tiny triangle of yellow card for the beak and small black beads for the eyes. Cut out circles of red card for the red breast and two brown oval shapes for the wings. When the robin is complete stick the end of a pencil. For a different idea, you could do a similar thing, but use white pompoms for a snowman.

Get baking!

Fay Williams — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:21:07 GMT

As it gets colder outside, you may want an activity to do indoors. This Gingerbread bird recipe is perfect for a winters' afternoon at home. You can make all sorts of different animals, they don't just have to be birds.

Ingredients Decorations

450g plain flour Currents

1 teaspoon of ground mixed spice Nuts (almonds are good for beaks)

2 teaspoons of ground ginger 2 tablespoons of icing sugar with a small amount of water

8 tablespoons of golden syrup Smarties

90g butter Chocolate buttons

1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda Hundreds and thousands

90g soft brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

Method

1 Pre heat oven to 170C/Gas 5.

2 Sift the flour and spices.

3 Put the syrup, butter and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolved.

4 Dissolve the bicarb in the 2 tablespoons of water and add to the flour and spices. Add the syrup mix, egg and egg yolk.

5 Mix this all together in a large bowl to make a dough. Knead it and roll it out on a well floured surface until about 5mm thick. Keep plenty of flour on the rolling pin too.

6 Cut out bird shapes, such as a duck or an owl. Press currents or nuts into the shapes to decorate if using.

7 Using a spatula to lift the bird shape onto a tray, which has a well greased sheet of greaseproof paper. Bake on the second shelf down in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

8 When the birds have cooled, mix icing sugar with a small amount of water to stick the chocolate buttons, Smarties or hundreds and thousands onto the birds.

You call this cold?

Fay Williams — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:49:00 GMT

Robins from as far away as Russia come to the UK for the winter. We may have started to complain about the cold, but these robins probably think it is quite warm as where they have come from it can be as cold as -20 degrees.

Most of 'our' robins mainly stay at home and don't travel. A few females may be more adventurous and head off for a winter holiday in southern Spain or Portugal.

Look out for flocking birds

Fay Williams — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:08:38 GMT

Forget wildebeest migrations or the northern lights. Right now, right here in the UK starlings, geese, ducks, wagtails, rooks, waders and other birds are performing a natural spectacle above our heads. Winter is a brilliant time to watch flocking birds. The pulse, swell and grace of a flock of birds all moving together is almost hypnotic. Starlings are one of the most common bird species you are likely to see flocking, they are the small dark ones that do the full acrobatic display. Look out for them at dusk, they’ll begin to gather in small groups ready to fly to their roosts (the place where the birds sleep) together and then the groups will get larger and larger as they all merge. Flocks of starlings can number in the tens of thousands of individual birds, blackening the sky and swirling and twisting almost like a single animal.

Pied wagtails are also well known for flocking, they tend to come together in dribs and drabs and aren’t quite as majestic as starlings. If you see a group of large black birds these are probably rooks, distinctive by a cacophony of cawing.

If you live near the coast you’re likely to see large flocks of geese at dawn and dusk as they fly between their roosting and feeding sites.

Get batty this Halloween

Fay Williams — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:49:54 GMT

Bats are warm blooded mammals with hairy bodies and wings that have bones very similar to our hands. These bones support stretched skin to form a wing, which allows them to fly. They are the only mammals that can fly.

There are 17 different types of bat in the UK. The smallest is the Pipistrelle, which is only 4 cm long, and the largest is the Noctule bat measuring nearly 8cm. This however, is still small compared to the largest bat in the world, the Javanese flying fox which has an enormous 2 metre wing span. Native bats will eat insects and often catch them in mid-air. The pipistrelle can eat up to 3,000 insects per night to maintain energy levels for flying.

As bats fly in the dark, they use echolocation to find things. They make sounds as they fly which then echo off objects to let them know where they are. This is essential when trying to catch insects.

A really leafy Activity

Fay Williams — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:52:03 GMT

A lot of the comments on the Wildsquare website say that you found lots of fallen leaves when you were out doing your survey. You also said that they were some fantastic colours. Why don’t you collect these leaves and make a display at home or in your classroom.

How to make leaf bunting:

Leaves (Either use real leaves or if you can’t find any, then cut the shapes out of card and colour them in).

Ribbon

Glue

Hole punch

Lay your ribbon out on a table
Put some glue onto the tip of the leaf and stick down onto the ribbon.
If the glue isn’t effective, punch a hole in the top of the leaf and thread the ribbon through. You may need to tie a knot in the ribbon above each leaf so they do not all slip along into one place.
Display your leaf bunting and admire the amazing colours.

Whats' that under the rock........is it a monster?

Fay Williams — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:58:08 GMT

As part of the Wildsquare survey we are asking you to look under rocks, stones and logs to see what is there. Here are a few fascinating facts about some of the creatures you might get to see.

Woodlice have 14 legs and they need moisture, as they breathe through gills. There are 37 different species in the UK.

Worms have existed for about 600 million years and can live for up to 10 years.

A Centipede does not have 100 legs as most people think, but 15-30 pairs of legs.

There are 22,000 species of ant and they can be many different colours including red, black, yellow and green.

Have fun looking for the creepy crawly creatures

Fun fungi facts

Fay Williams — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:44:22 GMT

From the Wildsquare survey results page on the website it shows that the most found fungi is the 'shelf type' fungus. With the cap with gills, cap with pores and frilly types coming in together as the second most found.

Fly Agaric

This fungus is poisonous. It can cause hallucinations, stomach upsets and could be fatal.

It was used as a fly killer, where small pieces of the fungi were added to milk. Flies would come to feed from the milk and were killed.

Candle snuff fungus

This is sometimes called the 'stags horn fungus'. It is a rubbery fungus, and can be bent without breaking. It is black at the bottom, grey in the centre and white at the top. Like a snuffed candlewick.

Plums and custard

The cap is covered with plum coloured scales, while the gills are a bright custard yellow. It can also be called the 'strawberry mushroom'. This fungus is poisonous.

Did You Know?
The name 'Toadstool' (toad-stuhl) is a German name, which means seat of death!