Wildflower explorers

 Last week we made the most of the sunshine and got out and about to see the Spring flowers in all their glory.

We took a magnifying glass, a spotter guide and a couple of sandwich bags for samples.

We passes swathes of yellow celandine and then passed into the main woods, with their mingled smell of bluebells and wild garlic.

 The boys carefully looked at the flowers and learned to use the spotter book to look them up.  They then took samples of the commonest varieties that are not protected, smelled everything and enjoyed the riotous singing of the birds and the warmth of the sunshine.  Flowers that appeared in the spotting book were duly awarded a 'seen it' sticker, the time of year ticked, and other observations noted down.

They also compared bare trees with those just starting to come into leaf, and described the differences in leaf shapes and colours.  We all enjoyed watching the tiny caterpillars dangling from silk suspended high above in the newly greening oak trees (this is a defence mechanism to escape predators above I believe).  We even saw a few early butterflies - a male Brimstone, a Speckled Wood and a Peacock butterfly.


For preserving flowers it isn't necessary to buy a flower press.  When we got home we simply laid out a sheet of newspaper each, put a sheet of white paper on this and laid out our flowers so that they didn't touch.  Another sheet of white paper was laid on top, and then another sheet of newspaper.  Finally all was entombed beneath a random selection of books grabbed by the boys based on merit of weightiness.  This was left for two days and then deconstructed to reveal the neatly pressed flowers.

The boys were really excited about their successfully pressed flowers.  Any that had a page in the spotter book were taped in with scotch tape (it doesn't brown and peel with age like regular tape).  Extras were taped into exercise books with the name of the flower and other details noted down. There was a disappointment when the webpage given on each page of the book in order to report sightings kept crashing so it was unusable, but all of the non techy elements of the project went really well,

This is definitely an activity we'll come back to time and time again as both boys have requested it since, and there is a whole world of plants out there to keep them interested.









Book list:  We used 'Wildflower detectives' handbook' from Miles Kelly and The Wildlife Trusts, ISBN 9781848102491 (a pound shop bargain)
plus my old friend the Wildflower Key by Francis Rose, which is excellent for more experienced botanisers


Safety bit: usual precautions and common sense when out and about, for example not picking anything if you don't know exactly what it is - firstly because it could be harmful (the anemone pictured above has a poison warning for example, which I assessed to be safe for our purposes as the kids are old enough to take the warning not to eat it), and secondly because it could be rare and protected (such as the temptingly numerous bluebells which are both protected and poisonous, so not the best candidates for picking).  It's good practice to get kids into the habit of checking with you if it's ok to pick something, and if so how much - the dandelions and daisies can be picked in abundance, but you may only want one specimen of something like a buttercup, the sap of which can cause skin irritation in some folks.  Picking cautiously in places where dogs visit is also advised, dog mess and broken glass are constant things to be vigilant for on our local walks.  I usually take hand wipes and sanitizer with me on any walks, along with a basic first aid kit, sun hats etc...

Simple pleasures

We can spend huge amounts of time and money in pursuit of the perfect day out, but it's trumped every time by the simple things because kids see right through to the joy to be had from walking in the woods with Grandparents who love them and being part of a family who encourage them to go and enjoy the biggest puddles, because there's nothing better than a good big puddle in the afternoon sunshine after sitting still on a long rainy car journey.

Exploring in the rain

 A drizzly day a couple of weeks ago near the New Forest on the Dorset/Hampshire border in Southern England.  But just because the sun is not sunny, it does not mean that the fun is not funny.

So we went off on an adventure in the rain, with sticks for antlers, for making trails and for poking things.

 A frond of bracken newly emerging after
 a heath fire gets a gentle poke, as does an interesting rock.

 Poking the sun dews is discouraged, although it is tempting with their lovely sticky fly catching goo.  The recent heath fire followed by rain seems to have made this normally rare plant spring into action and it was amazing to see so many.

Someone who came along before us had indulged in a little white rock on burnt post sculpture.

Interesting tunnel making spiders were spotted and tickled into making an appearance by gently wiggling a blade of grass on their webs (we're in the UK, I don't think I'd do this anywhere with scarier spiders).

Beautiful blue butterflies were also spotted - I think it was possibly the vulnerable species the silver studded blue as the habitat and time of year was correct and the top side of the wings had a dark band around them.  I've only seen the more common holly blue and common blue before though so I can't be sure.  The conditions were certainly right - strongest populations occur where the ground has been recently disturbed e.g. by fire.

Lots of exciting natural history observations were made and habitats explored.  Of all the things discovered however, the most funny fun (as far as two small boys and their mother were concerned) was when Daddy fell into a boggy puddle while trying to lift a heavy and wriggling Toby over it.  There's our common denominator of humour right there 'don't step in the bog boys, don't step in the bog boys, oops, fell in the bog'.

 

 

 

Disclaimer: our adventure was in our well known stomping grounds near where we used to live, spiders and other wildlife were not harmed during the making of this adventure and they were known to be reasonably harmless.  Bog navigated was actually a soggy bit on a path, as opposed to the disappear up to your neck never to be seen again kind of bog.  Usual common sense applies during your own adventures.