Going on a Bug Safari with The Wild Challenge from RSPB

Going on a Bug Safari with The Wild Challenge from RSPB

You all know that we love to get outdoors and explore the natural world around us.  It’s something I did a lot in my own childhood and so it was second nature (excuse the pun) to bring Monkey up the same way.  Children are like sponges, and they just soak up information.  Show them a world that’s at their finger tips and hopefully it will nurture a love of nature and their environment.  It’s something I feel strongly about, and it doesn’t need to cost you anything. Nature literally lives on your doorstep.  You can find it in your back garden, the park or even the beach.  We’ve been going on a Bug Safari with The Wild Challenge from RSPB, in our back garden.  My 7 year on Monkey son, loves nature and it’s certainly something I want to encourage.

Going on a Bug Safari with The Wild Challenge from RSPB

Looking under stones, sifting through leaves and peeking through the undergrowth, going on a Bug Safari with The Wild Challenge from RSPB is a great activity for the Easter holidays.  The RSPB has just launched their The Wild Challenge and it’s aimed at families and schools alike.  You can sign up and work towards earning their Bronze, Silver and Gold awards but undertaking various different challenge, each of which will help the local wildlife.  If you can achieve all three awards this month, you will be entered into a draw and could win the Ultimate Wild Challenge explorer kit worth over £500 which includes a selection of wildlife goodies.

We’re definitely up for The Wild Challenge and have already received our Bronze award, having completed our Bug Safari.  This one activity has also, seen us making a start towards our Silver award.  We have a few observation jars that Monkey can look at bugs through, which use a magnifying glass.  They are great for letting kids really see the details in mini beasts.

We both have a bit of a fascination with snails, so they always feature quite heavily in our garden bug safari’s.  They really are rather fascinating to watch.  But we also got to look at worms and woodlice.  Monkey even found a millipede, but I didn’t have my camera to hand at that point.

Once we’ve finished looking carefully at the animals Monkey knows to put them back where he found them, and let them continue on their way.  It’s an easy activity and one that will keep him entertained for hours, and we hadn’t even left home.  One award to print off for our kitchen wall, two more to work towards!
Going on a Bug Safari with The Wild Challenge from RSPB
Other ideas include making a bird bath, a hedgehog cafe which I think we’ll have to try out and looking out for tracks and signs.  We’re going to be planting some bedding plants in the coming weeks to try to attract more wildlife into the garden too.  Overall, there are 24 different activities to choose from, encouraging all of us to explore our gardens, woodlands, towns and cities and coastline.

It’s free to sign up for the challenge, there are lots of tips and ideas on the RSPB page and most of all, it’s fun. I’d love to hear if you do sign up, and what fun you’ve been having to complete the various activities.

disclosure:  I was approached to promote this campaign, I haven’t been given an incentive, and I willingly agreed, because it’s something I really feel passionate about and would happily have written about anyway.

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