The Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group’s annual Wanstead Wildlife Weekend returns this month with a diverse programme of free nature activities. James Heal reports
WWW stands for the Wanstead Wildlife Weekend (apparently, also something about the world wide web, but this is much more enjoyable). The Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group has been organising this set of activities almost annually for a few years now. A midsummer weekend of nature-themed, family-friendly and free activities in Wanstead Park and on Wanstead Flats.
This year, the weekend will run from the evening of Friday 20 June to the afternoon of Sunday 22 June. At the time of writing, we are still finalising the exact running order of events, but it will include things like bat detecting, revealing moths from a light trap, invertebrate recording, studying bees and wasps, a spider survey, pond dipping, a lichen walk and butterfly transect showcase, as well as a couple of stalls, some child-friendly mini beast stories and a wildflower walk.
Some of the activities, such as the pond dipping, will be well suited to families with children and others, such as the spider surveying, will, perhaps, appeal more to those who would like to get more involved with invertebrate recording.
With the continued advances in phone cameras, AI identification tools and accessible and high-quality identification guides in books and online, wildlife recording is becoming increasingly accessible to the interested amateur and we are keen to promote and celebrate this.
It is a great way to get to know the wild places in your local area a little better and dip your toe into the incredible diversity of life that can be found on our doorstep. For example, did you know that inside the small holes on dusty pathways live solitary bees and wasps? Did you know we have rare spiders hiding in amongst the oak leaves and grasses all around us? And did you know that it is possible to catch the nymphs of some of our most beautiful dragonflies in the ponds in our park?
In the years that I have been regularly recording wildlife locally, I have never ceased to be amazed by the diversity we have here and how I can still be shocked and surprised by some of the animals that show up: finding a Siberian migrant (a Yellow-browed Warbler) calling on Wanstead Flats, watching an Osprey fly over my house, watching and photographing a pair of otters in the River Roding, regularly finding a species of spider in my garden that is considered nationally rare. These are just a tiny handful of over 1,000 different species – from mammals to mites – that I have recorded in our local area.
If you would like to find out more about the wildlife around us, please come and join us this month for the WWW.
For more information on Wanstead Wildlife Weekend events, visit wnstd.com/wren
