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Discovering the wildside of the North Pennine Dales - a weekend
This weekend involves lots of hands on activities
discovering the wildlife and plants that live in the North Pennines Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty. This will involve you in exploring the places we
visit and developing new skills in identifying the things you find including some
use of wild flower and minibeast keys. Well be using sweep nets, beating trays,
pond dipping nets and binoculars to find out what’s around and about.
Saturday morning
On Saturday morning we’ll start by taking a look at wild
flowers in general; a helping hand to get started making sense of the wonderful
variety to be seen in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and
elswhere. We’ll cover a range of useful topics including:
- Key parts of the plant to look out for to help identify them
- How best to use a wild flower book to help your
identification
We’ll then do some pond dipping to discover the wild life of this fascinating underwater world. We'll also have a look to
see what we can find living in amongst the rocks and pebbles in a burn.
Saturday afternoon
In the afternoon we’ll use sweep nets and beating trays to
find the wildlife hidden in amongst the grasses and taller vegetation and also
in the branches of trees and bushes.
We’ll then move on to an ancient woodland where we’ll do a
spot of bird watching before setting out the live mammal traps which we’ll
check in the morning.
Likely birds, depending on time of year, will include great
spotted woodpecker, pied flycatcher, wood warbler, willow warbler, chiff chaff,
gold crest, several members of the tit family, song thrush and if we’re very
lucky there’s the chance of a goshawk.
If the weather is suitable we’ll do a badger watch and some
bat detection in the evening.
Sunday morning
We’ll check the live traps and release whatever we’ve caught
and then explore the woodland looking for the tracks, trails and signs of the
animals that live there. We’ll also use a few different methods to look at the
minibeasts that live in ancient woodlands.
Sunday afternoon
We’ll move on to have lunch up on the moors where we’ll do a
spot of bird watching and also identify some of the plants that make up this
distinctive habitat.
Likely birds, depending on time of year, will include red
grouse, curlew, golden plover, lapwing, oyster catcher, common sandpiper,
snipe, wheatear, stonechat, meadow pipit and possibilities of black grouse,
short-eared owl and merlin amongst many others.
Duration: 2 days: 6 to 7 hours per day
Cost: £200 for two people (£100 each); £40 per additional
group member.
Individual one-to-one booking available at £200. Accommodation not included;
see booking information.
Further information: Minimum group size two; maximum 12.
Participants should be 16 or over. We’ll lift share to get from one place to
another. You may need to use your own transport. Bring a packed lunch each day.
Activity leaders are CRB checked.
Location: North Pennines
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