Challenge 3: February – March 2009
What you need to do:
Change your World: Record what’s happening to wildlife in your area.
For this challenge you need to do four weeks of recording for the Woodland Trust Springwatch project.
During this time we will ask you to look out for specific wildlife and you will have to tell us where and when you saw it.
You will be joining 50,000 other recorders and helping us build a picture of how the seasons are changing.
Why you need to do it:
- It is really important that we notice what is happening to wildlife around us as it can tell us a lot about how the flora and fauna is reacting to changes in the climate.
- The first records of seasonal events were by Robert Marsham in 1736 so there is now lots of data available.
- You can look here to find out what scientists have found out from information already gathered by Springwatch here
How to do it:
Find out what ‘phenology’ means: 30 minutes
You will need:
- Information about phenology
- Computer with internet
- Encyclopedia/dictionary
- Pens
- Paper
Read through the material and find out what ‘phenology’ means. Work in small groups and come up with your own definition that is easy to understand, compare your definition to others in your pack. Make a poster to illustrate this and put it up in your meeting room.
Discover who Robert Marsham was: 45 minutes
You will need:
- Paper
- Pens
- Clothes for dressing up
- Props for a play
Robert Marsham was really important in the ‘phenology’ world, can you find out why and create a 5 minute play, poem or story about him to present to the rest of the group. There is some information here but you may like to go and search the internet to see if you can find out more about this enigmatic character.
Find out what species to look for: 30 minutes
You will need:
The Springwatch species that you look for vary on what the weather is like. For example this year in May participants were looking for: bumblebee; hawthorn; oak; swift; red admiral; dog rose
You need to log on to your Springwatch account (using the same details as you registered with initially) to find out what to look for.
You may like to copy the pictures and paste them onto card so that you know what you are looking for. Or you may like to divide the species between you.
If you are doing this maybe you could find out a bit more about your species and tell the rest of the group e.g. you could investigate where it lives, what it eats, what eats it, what seeds it has, how long it lives for etc.
You could even have a species quiz at one of your meetings.
Species spotting: 15 minutes
Each week go for a 15 minute walk around your local green area seeing what you can spot, even if you live in an urban area there are still often street trees you can record. Using your registration details, log onto the Nature Calendars website, you could do this as individuals or as a group. The Springwatch booklet can help you understand why we are doing this and gives more detail instructions on what to do!
