Wildlife Watch - Alver Valley

This weekend Wildlife Watch was at Wildgrounds Nature Reserve, Alver Valley, Gosport. It was another new group for us and was such a good experience. The group was really friendly, the children were as old or older than Hannah which was a nice change for her as she is often one of the oldest in a group. The leaders were friendly and really knowledgeable and took lots of time to talk to Hannah, listen to her and answer her questions - I was really pleased and impressed.

When we arrived the leader talked to the children about the event, which was 'Tracks and Signs', and asked them to think about what they might look for to discover what kinds of wildlife live in the area. She talked about the tracks they might find and gave them all safety advice before leaving the hall.

The walk took us past ponds, across meadows and through wooded areas to the River Alver and then back through the 1642 living history village Little Woodham.

Our first wildlife was a fox - he watched us from the reed beds.
We found tracks,
(we think this one is a heron)

and snuffle holes made by badgers.


On the meadow one of the girls in the group spotted an owl pellet! Very exciting! She is going to disect it and show everyone what she discover next time.

We passed by a badger sett which showed lots of activity around it. It had been raining so the tracks weren't clear enough to photograph though.
We finished at the lookout down by the river.

On the way back we discovered deer tracks, and learned that they are called slots,

and strolled through the 17th Century Village,
back to the hall. In the hall the leaders showed the children some local wildlife skulls and plaster casts of prints.
There was even a badger foot!

Each month the children draw or write a page to put in the group diary. Hannah drew the badger sett under the trees.

The hall walls are painted with flora and fauna and nature poems and Hannah and Melissa really liked the bluebells!

It was such a lovely morning, even the pouring rain stopped when we arrived! We will definitely be going to the group again!