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On April 2 nd 2012 I officially started my 18 month traineeship with the RSPB, at the magnificent Saltholme reserve. The traineeship is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund – they do both ecology and visitor services traineeships. I am the latter – a visitor services trainee! My job is...

Interested in volunteering at Saltholme? We are currently looking for volunteer wild-guides to facilitate weekend family activities, such as pond-dipping, trails, classroom crafts, and more! You don't have to be an expert at identifying wi ldlife, all we ask is that you have a genuine interest...

One of my favourite pond bugs, the backswimmer can be distinguished from the lesser water boatman quite easily as it is substantially larger, and has much longer hind legs. The picture above shows the 'front' of the backswimmer , and as it's name suggests, it swims the other way around...

So we’re a couple of weeks into the summer holidays, and the wild-guides have been extra busy working (in a very loose sense of the word!) with families in our Discovery Zone. We’ve done daisy chains, Olympic medal biscuits, minibeast hunting, and of course – pond-dipping! Due to...

Good morning everyone! Yes I did just bust out an Alice Cooper song for the blog post title, what of it? Moving on, what do we have in store for the summer holidays? Well this post will outline what is going on at Saltholme for the next couple of weeks... Throughout the summer holidays, our...

Another wild guide weekend goes by, and by ‘eck we even got some sunshine! Thanks to the largely dry weather, families turned up in their droves to go pond-dipping, and us wild guides were treated to a veritable smorgasbord of pond fauna... Now, firstly I’d like you to, for the moment...

This week I'm looking ahead to the summer holidays, where we will no doubt have our fair share of budding pond-dippers. Now, I enjoy getting involved in all of our wild-guide activities, but I must admit to enjoying pond-dipping the best. I have a keen interest in what families and children catch...

Stickleback spectacular! Another weekend is behind us, and we're into July already! Pond-dipping continues to be the most popular wild guide activity, and for good reason! The photo above is of a male three-spined stickleback ; note the red underbelly and the subtle blue ring around the...