With the weather being as lovely as it has been, today was certainly a day for spending out in the sunshine. One quick google later to see what was going on near us and we headed out to the RHS gardens in Stillingfleet for their wildlife day. Here they had loads of stalls on, teaching about bumblebees, spiders, bats and so on. There was even one on composting.
We headed over for the start and got parked. First thing to do was to have a little explore and find out what was going on. There was loads, in fact, there was a full day of different things to do. Lots to keep us all entertained.
The first stall we came across was one on moths. One of the gentlemen running the stall had spent the night collecting different moths with a light box. There were easily over a dozen different types to look at. Now, I know that moths can be colourful, but some of these rivalled butterflies. They were truly stunning.
After we had seen the moths, we were just in time for the spider safari. This started off exploring some of the plants. Here we were shown how the spiders rolled leaves and then secured them with silk. Once this was pointed out, it made them a lot easier to find, or at least find the traces of where the spiders had been. This was the difficult part of the spider safari.
The next part of the safari introduced us to one of the most interesting things I have seen for a long time and it involved an electric toothbrush. Yes you did read that right, an electric toothbrush. It turns out that an electric toothbrush vibrates at the same frequency as a fly. This means if you touch it against a web and the spider is at home and hungry, KAPOW. It was so much fun finding webs and placing the toothbrush against it only to see a spider dart out at lightening speed and give it what for. Once we had been shown this trick, finding spiders became so much easier. Even Miss Apprehensive of Spiders got into it, with much shrieking.
Once we had had our fill of spiders, it was time for the pond dipping. By the time we got the pond, the dipping had already been done. Not that this mattered as there were boxes full of insects from the pond. Most impressive though were the newts, including a greater crested one. Now, the gentleman doing the dipping did not have a licence to disturb them but he had found it whilst dipping which is fine and had checked with the relevant authorities and they had said it was ok for him to keep it in the box as it was for education reasons.
After the pond insects, it was onto the snakes. There was a slow worm, ok a lizard not a snake, and a grass snake. The slow worm was very cute and was amazingly smooth to touch. James really enjoyed stroking it. Then, out came the grass snake. Much to my amazement, two little hands shot out and James asked if he could hold it.
What a brave little boy. Lyns was silently quaking behind me as James beamed at the snake crawling over his hands and arms. Of course then James challenged Mummy to hold it and what could she say. Slightly less bravely she held her hands out. Turned out, it was not as bad as she was expecting.
After the pond dipping there was a little break between the bats and the bumblebee walk. James had a play on the climbing frame and we went for an explore of the gardens. They are relatively small but with lots of different areas. If it had not been for the event going on, I do not think it would have interested James for that long, but with everything that was happening, it was a cracking day out and it meant the half an hour or so we spent exploring, he found really exciting.
After James had shown us all the cool areas of the gardens, it was time to see the bat. To be honest, James was not that interested in it. I suppose compared to the other things, it was not that interesting, very cute though.
After the bat, we went on a bumblebee walk. Unlike the spiders that were sometime hard to find, there were bees absolutely everywhere and lots of different varieties. We saw White Tailed Bumblebees, Tree Bumblebees, Red Tailed Bumblebees, Cuckoo Bumblebees as well as several other different types. The lady doing the walk even managed to catch a couple of queen bees. It was amazing to see them up close and we learnt absolutely loads. She was catching them in a little pot which then let everyone have a good look at them.
After walking round, there was just time to colour in a bumblebee postcard. This was a team effort between Lyns and James. Whilst they were doing this, I went to break open some owl pellets. This was really interesting as there were whole rodent skulls in them and, if you were careful, you could prise the skulls out whole. It was amazing to see what was in the pellets. I managed to find the remains of three different rodents in one pellet. Must have been a good nights hunting that night.
After we had finished, we headed to the nursery to pick up a couple of plants to take home as a souvenir. For a chance find for something to do, it had been a lovely day out. We were there for almost five hours and the time flew. We will definitely be going back next year.