Water
wings  | Our
waterways offer great opportunities for wildlife watching. Why not take a few
tips from the 'Hands on Nature' team as we get closer to wildlife with activities
that you can participate in near your home. Or why not travel and find new wildlife
locations! | | The Wye valley |
These
are some of the many activities that you can try out for yourselves throughout
the year in waterway locations: Watching Dragonflies Some
of the best places to see Dragonflies are canal sides such as Pocklington canal
in Yorkshire.
'Hands on Nature' provides a few tips on the best places
to find them.
Top tips
* Look for vegetation like lilies -
Damselflies can often be seen resting on leaves which they use a launch pads.
*
Dragonflies thrive in the sun so warm days are best - they are also most active
from about 10.30 am into the early afternoon. * Don't get your shadow on
them - Dragonflies get easily spooked. * Dragonflies move in a really erratic
manner so it can be tricky to get a good photograph. - We suggest that you
set out your own perch for them - put out a dead stick for several days in a place
where you know Dragonflies hangout so they can get used to landing on it. -
Watch where they hunt - you might even get shots of them munching their prey.
-
Set the camera to fast action mode if you want to get great shot of a Dragonfly
in the air. Otherwise, capture macro-style portraits when they're at rest. Pond
dipping One
thing that appeals to the child in us all is a bit of pond-dipping.
Here's
our guide on how to get started. Top tips* They say best way to
get dipping is to use a very fine net - one good idea is to use an old tennis
racquet with pair of tights stretched over it. Alternatively buy a professional
net. * Sweep net around in a backwards and forwards motion so that you're
not throwing stuff out. * Is a jam jar all you need? Another alternative
is to get a white cat litter tray and fill it with clean canal water and then
dump the contents in there and wait for the animals to emerge. * To identify
what you've caught, grab a good book, consult field studies charts (keep them
laminated so they don't get wet) and the internet. * What about where to
look? Many experts say that the area around canal lock gates is good because it's
the one place on a canal where you get a lot of water movement (i.e. lots of oxygen). Brent
Geese spotting There
are several places in the British Isles where Brent Geese spend the winter They
are a winter visitor to our coasts and estuaries.
Strangford Lough in Northern
Ireland is a great place to watch these birds in the Autumn. When the birds
arrive on their marathon journey, many of them will have lost half their body
weight which means that they are pretty easy to spot because they're doing just
one thing - eating!
Top tips * You can tell Brent Geese apart
from other geese because of their size - they're small like a mallard. Their colour
is dark with dark necks making them easily distinguishable from Canada Geese who
have white faces. * Strangford Lough and the reserve at Castle Espie is
a great place to see them because they feed on eel grass which grows on the inland
mudflats of the Lough. The eel grass is so called so because it looks like little
eels- and it's packed with protein to bulk these birds up again. * You can
log onto the web to check out the progress of half a dozen individuals that are
currently wintering at Strangford Lough.
* Brent Geese are easily observed
from the hides on the reserve - but also from vantage points across the whole
inland edge of Strangford Lough.
*The autumn is an important time for
bird movement - and you can find out exactly what's coming in and what's leaving
by checking out phone lines like birdline or you can check out the websites of
groups like the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust or the RSPB. * You can also
keep your own log too - if you've got a place near you where birds migrate - keep
a record of first sightings and numbers, and check it year on year. And if you
get something amazing landing - or spectacular numbers… then tell someone.
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