This year’s activities began with a Family Holiday Club in the Gatwick woodlands near Crawley. Our guests started a fire with fire steels and produced a tasty cordial from the abundant elderflower along the woodland edge.
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| Collecting Elderflower |
Later, we learnt all about the local trees; collecting
leaves for ‘hapazome’ leaf prints and turning willow into charcoal for pencils. After
lunch, we wandered across the meadow and were lucky enough to spot a Gatwick Grass
Snake.
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| Searching for snakes |
Wet weather for Wednesday’s guided walk along the River Mole meant only the
hardiest nature enthusiasts made it along. The wildlife took cover but one sharp-eyed
girl spotted several tiny species sheltering from the rain. Among those
identified were Wandering Pond Snails, a Short-fringed Mining Bee, froghopper
larvae, soldier beetles, Glow Worms and even a Buff-tailed Bumblebee.
The exclusive invites to the Butterfly Ball and
Grasshoppers Feast, were gratefully accepted by both insect and beast
(especially of the human kind). The moth trap was a real highlight and the ever-popular
Poplar Hawk-moth stole the show by getting up-close with some of our guests.
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| Can you spot the Poplar Hawk-moth? |
We headed across the meadow, where Slow Worms, Grass Snakes and demoiselles joined the party, before putting pond nets into the
water to see if the aquatic invertebrates had received their invites. No ball
is complete without a masquerade mask and an impressive array were crafted that
afternoon.
It was back to the River Mole again on Friday evening when Martyn Cooke of the Surrey Bat Group brought his expertise (and an array of exciting equipment) to help spot some elusive winged mammals after dark. Whiskered Bats were seen emerging from their roosts on an infrared camera, Noctules were picked-up on the bat detectors calling loudly over the floodplain and Common Pipistrelles swooped on their prey directly overhead.
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| Getting ready to track some bats |
Our last day and the first day of 30 Days Wild saw our Mammal Detectives following tracks and soon sniffing out ten Longworth traps set in the Gatwick Woodlands. After freeing four innocent voles from the humane traps, the trail continued. Badgers took the bait and left their mark in their latrines and foxes posed in front of the trail cams.
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| Meeting a vole and getting a closer look at some foxes on the trail cam (below) |
Once in the woods our detectives dissected owl pellets, made some tracks of their own and carefully crafted critter shelters for our woodland mammals.
This year’s Gatwick
Goes Wild was the best yet with more people, more wildlife and even more
fun. We would like to thank everyone who came along to join in and all the
staff and volunteers who helped to put on a wild half term.
Why wait another year to ‘Go Wild’ when the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership have plenty of events running throughout the year?
https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/gatwickgreenspaceevents
Next up is the Gatwick Wildlife Discovery Day on the 22nd June – a bioblitz event for all the family where you can help us to identify and record as much wildlife as possible in 24hrs at the Gatwick Aviation Museum.
Find out more here: https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/whats-on/2019-06-22-gatwick-wildlife-discovery-day-22062019
