Nature Detectives

A few 'nature' things I have learnt...

Say the next time you walk outside with your Miss or Master you both notice a butterfly landing on your arm. It has eerie blue/white/yellow eye-like circles symmetrically placed on each of its blood-red wings. Could you name the butterfly?

A fellow blogger recently tipped me off about the Woodland Trust who offer an amazing annual membership deal that provides ideas and tools to entertain and educate your Miss or Master, plus plenty of inspiration to make the most of our fabulous British outdoor spaces, regardless of where you live (city, suburb or country), and regardless of the weather. I figured it sounded to good to be true, but for £12 I was willing to take the chance and find out. After all, Woodland Trust is a charity, so the money would not be completely wasted.

After our first month of Nature Detectives membership, what have we learnt? We collected fallen leaves and matched them to our tree chart, we scanned the sky for clouds - identifying some and drawing the rest and we examined a local pond and it's inhabitants. When we stayed in doors we played 'minibeast dominos' and identified which flowers are loved by bees and butterflies, and why. When we stayed out of doors we 'looked up' and took stock of what was up there - and then looked up again and again through the day to see what changed. All in all, it is not just Miss and Master that has had lots of fresh air and fun while learning.

And the name of butterfly with blood-red wings? It is the Peacock, Inachis io