Did you know it was International Owl Awareness Day on Tuesday 4 August? To celebrate this week, here are some of the owls you might be lucky enough to see in the UK. These are truly fascinating animals, with some amazing adaptations for their way of life. So let’s go explore these night-time wonders… Silent Flight Have you every listened to the sound of a … Continue reading Owls
We love a good butterfly in the Museum. Find out how to take part in our Summer Butterfly Challenge to feature in our online gallery and enter the prize draw for a Wildlife Explorer Kit. Continue reading Summer Butterfly Challenge
Roz Wade, Learning Officer at the Museum, writes: It is always fun watching the birds coming to the bird feeders in the garden. We find the fat blocks prove particularly popular. It is lovely to see the robins and blue tits taking a morsel of food, particularly now with new fledglings come to feed, but I get particularly excited when a nuthatch comes to visit. … Continue reading Nuthatch, Sitta europaea
Sara Steele, Museum learning assistant says: With 400,000 named species of beetle found across the world and over 4,000 species in the British Isles, beetles are a diverse bunch even among invertebrates. They come in all shapes and sizes, from long and thin soldier beetles to rounded ladybirds. This diversity points in part to their distribution; being found in every habitat except the sea and … Continue reading Basking Beetles
This is the final Nature Classroom post before the summer holidays. We hope you have been enjoying exploring the natural world with us this term. We thought we would finish the term with some fun activities engaging with the wildlife on your doorstep. There is information about a fantastic citizen science project from Butterfly Conservation, as well as wildlife-watching activities as part of Summer at … Continue reading Watching Summer Wildlife
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Zoology Live iRecord challenge. We asked you to send in wildlife sightings from where you live and we received over 100 entries, which included 86 different species. Our involvement with national insect week clearly struck a chord as 79 of these species were minibeasts and the most common sightings were hoverflies. We also had sightings of … Continue reading Zoology Live: your sightings on iRecord
Kate Howlett, NERC-funded PhD student says: Back at the end of May, I set myself the challenge of taking part in the Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild initiative, so for every day in June I chose a ‘random act of wildness’ to complete. In a nutshell, I’m happy to report that all the hype and positive effects are true. I’ve spent a beautiful month, over … Continue reading Reflections: Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild
Join our Curator of Insects, Dr Ed Turner, as he explores the wildlife in his garden after the sun has set. Want to find out more about nighttime wildlife? Watch our Zoology Live broadcast with moth expert Annette Shelford and bat expert Henry Stanier: And find more activities related to nighttime wildlife on our post about Day 5 of Zoology Live. Observe the moths in … Continue reading Garden Wildlife After Dark
Prof Bill Amos of the Department of Zoology continues his insect photo diary with a beautiful longhorn beetle, a selection of fascinating flies, and a wonderfully camouflaged caterpillar. You can see more of Bill’s photographs on the blog: An Insect A Day for bee fly, orange tip buttefly and parasitic wasp. An Insect A Day continues for scorpion fly, shield bug and click beetle. An … Continue reading An Insect a Day Part 8
Prof Bill Amos of the Department of Zoology continues his insect photo diary with a portrait of a beautiful pearly lacewing, butterflies, damselflies, hoverflies and more. You can see more of Bill’s photographs on the blog: An Insect A Day for bee fly, orange tip buttefly and parasitic wasp. An Insect A Day continues for scorpion fly, shield bug and click beetle. An Insect A … Continue reading An Insect A Day Part 7
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Zoology Live! last week. Your questions for our experts were wonderful, and we all really enjoyed sharing our love of wildlife with you. We would love to know what you thought of the event. Please do complete our online survey: Please note that the survey prize draw for a Wildlife Explorer Kit has already taken place. The … Continue reading Zoology Live! A Wonderful Week of Wildlife
Welcome back for day 5 of our online Zoology Live festival. So far we have been exploring the wildlife you might see around you during the day, but today it is the turn of noctural wildlife. We were live on YouTube at 4pm on Friday 26 June, where we delved into the world of moths and bats, with LIVE interview with moth expert Annette Shelford. … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 5: Nighttime Wildlife
Welcome back to our online Zoology Live festival. Today we will be exploring the wildlife living in ponds. Join us TODAY at 4pm for pond-dipping advice and tips of filming wildlife on a budget, and LIVE interviews with your chance to ask Dr Frances Dipper your questions about aqautic wildlife, and quiz Ellie Bladon on wildlife filmaking. Find Out More About Pondlife The Museum team … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 3: Pondlife and Wildlife Films
Welcome back to our online Zoology Live festival. Continuing our celebration of all things insects and invertebrate, today we will be exploring insects on the wing. Join us TODAY at 4pm when we will have new films and LIVE interviews with Museum Research Assistant Matthew Hayes, who will he sharing butterfly-spotting tips with us, and dragonfly expert Duncan Mackay, here to answer you questions about … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 2: Minibeasts part 2
Welcome to our online Zoology Live festival. To celebrate National Insect Week, we are starting our Zoology Live online festival with a two-day celebration of minibeasts. Joins us at TODAY at 4pm for tips on finding minibeasts on the ground and in the trees, and LIVE interviews with Dr Ed Turner, Dr Richard Preece and Kate Howlett from the Museum. Zoology Live Wildlife Challenge! Take … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 1: Minibeasts part 1
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