Join us for our celebration of urban wildlife in the colder months. We will be online on Wednesday November 29th from 7-8pm exploring the nature in and around the Museum and our curator of birds, Prof Daniel Field, will be answering your questions about our feathered friends. Then on Saturday December 2nd you can join us in person in the Museum for poetry workshops, hands on activities and more.

Want to receive the link to the livestream direct to your email inbox, and a reminder on the day to tune in? Sign up on TicketTailor and we will send them both to you:

No need to book for our activities on December 2nd, just visit the Museum between 10am and 4.30pm and there will be lots to get involved with.

Wild Words for Winter Wildlife

We are excited to be joined by poet Hannah Walker for drop-in poetry workshops inspired by winter wildlife during our family day on December 2nd. There will be no need to book. Activities will run throughout the day, with a break for lunch (around 1pm). Come in and be inspired to add your wild words to support winter wildlife. You can get a flavour of this with during our livestream on November 29th, when members of the Museum’s Young Zoologists Club will share verses they have written in workshops with Hannah.

What do our animals do in the winter?

This is a key question we will be exploring during our Winter Wildlife events. Keep checking back to this blog post over the next couple of weeks as we add more fun facts and nature you can watch on your doorstep. For example, have you noticed a large, pinky-buff coloured bird flying around and on the ground? You have spotted a jay, a colourful member of the crow family. At this time of year jays are hiding away acorns and other nuts in the ground so they have food to eat over the winter. This, combined with the leaves falling from the trees, makes this a really good time of year to watch jays – they tend to stay hidden much more the rest of the year.

Inspired by jays, squirrels and other animals that cahce food in this way, we have a Wildlife Food Cache Memory Game you can come and play during out family event December 2nd, or download here to play at home:

What can we do to support winter wildlife?

There are lots of ways we can help our local wildlife in winter. Make sure they have access to water. Keep messy areas for shelter. And you could even provide them with food to help them through the harshest winter conditions. Find out about winter garden birds and how you can make fat balls to keep them fed in the winter on our blog post here: https://museumofzoologyblog.com/2020/12/02/12-days-of-winter-wildlife-garden-birds/

Make a Pledge for Nature

We can all do something to help nature. At the Winter Wildlife family day, we will have a pledge station with some simple promises you can make to help local wildlife or reduce your negative impact on the environment. Here are just a few of the pledges you can make. Which of these would you be able to do? Add your pledge to the pledge station and take home a bookmark to remind you of your promise.