The RSPB Give Nature a Home Discovery Day at the RSPB reserve at Sandy was a great success with lots of people coming along on a dull and windy day to see our Nature Table. Unfortunately most of the small mammals had decided to stay at home so we didn’t get find many in the traps we had set up around The Lodge.

• In the car parks we found 1 Male and 1 Female Bank Vole weighing 18g, and 1 Male weighing 14g.
• In the garden under bushes and piles of brash wood we found 1 juvenile Water Shrew weighing 12g and 1 juvenile female Bank Vole weighing 13g.
• Under the bird feeders we found 1 female Bank Vole weighing 16.5g which had at least 5 ticks on it. The mammal showed signs of weakness and ill health, and it was also not as lively as the other Bank Voles so clearly the ticks were having an impact on the vole’s health.

Bromham Mill Apple Day is an annual event and the BNHS display was one of the many stalls present and, of course, our nature table stole the show!  The Mink, as usual, was a firm favourite and many boys and girls visiting our display also enjoyed examining our many other exhibits, especially the snake skins.  The magnifying glasses were really popular – seeing things bigger and better is always good.  We were pleased to sign up 3 new YounGnats and hopefully there will be a few more filling in their forms at home.

The picture quiz was a popular challenge.  No-one scored 100% but several prizes were awarded to those who did well – some without help from parents!

There were hundreds of adults and children at the event buying varieties of apple most of us have never heard of and there were many of activities to enjoy too, such as falconry, terrier racing, bird-ringing and tight-rope walking (albeit half a metre off the ground!). Lots of stalls were selling home-made goods to eat, drink and wear, and Bedfordshire Clangers (savoury one side, sweet the other) were perfect for lunch, washed down with delicious apple juice – or cider for the adults!

Come along next year and join in the fun!

Several of us from BNHS and the Greensand Trust were at the Working Woodland Centre, in Maulden Woods, Clophill to build a Hibernation Hotel for the new Nature Discovery Area. It was a fun afternoon and several YounGnats helped us build the hotel and hunt for bugs in the discovery area.

If you want to make your own minibeast home, you can find the instructions here.

A walk over Maggots Moor looking cow pats containing dung beetles, what a wonderful way to spend a day! More information coming soon.

20 traps were set around Duck End Nature Reserve a couple of days before the event with food & bedding, and were left open so that the potential visitors would get used to them. They were activated the night before and were checked 9.00am.

4 traps were not visited but 16 were and in those we found the following:
12 Bank Voles
2 Wood Mice
2 Common Shrews

The mammals were weighed and there were several of this year’s Bank Voles in the catch, which were much lighter than the adults. They were then released where they were caught so they could go back to their usual homes.

It was a lovely day with plenty of sun for this year’s Kempston Fun Day and Julia, Wilf, Sheila and Mike arrived early to set up the BNHS gazebo, tables, photo display and the nature table before the start of play.

There was a steady stream of people at the stand. Several people were very interested in the main photographic display about the society including one long standing member, and the mink skin was the star of the nature table again.

Did you come along to the Greensand Trust Bug Lab 2014 tour? We know over 150 of you did and if not, you missed finding lots of butterflies, damselflies, moths, spiders, frogs and toads, and the chance to make your own ‘dragonfly’. It may not have been particularly scientific but the children had fun, learnt to look at nature more carefully, had the opportunity to use ID guides, talk to experts and start to record wildlife!

Check the Greensand Trust website for details of Bug Lab: 2015, plus many more activities throughout the year.