Friday 7th March 2025

Nature club was on a Friday this week, as we did not want to be doing it in our world book day costumes!  We continued with our observation of the badgers- looking for paths, guard hairs and prints.  We won’t see any cubs if more have been born until April .  We learnt the word altricial meaning that the cubs are completely reliant on the parents for food and life in general. They are defenceless and blind- in fact they don’t even get their black and white markings until a few weeks.  Animals like horses, which can stand up and have their eyes open are precocial.  The children also noticed strange little dips all over the woodchip in the pond area and we discussed what animals might have made them and why-birds, rodents or rabbits, looking for food.  It wouldn’t have been badgers because their dips are triangular in shape, not oval.  They also noticed the new wildflowers that were growing and were a yellow colour- so not snowdrops.  It is tuberous comfrey and it is very good for compost when its leaves are soaked in water.  One of the children had brought a fossil which I photographed and will send in to the Natural History Museum for identification, but it looks very like a trilobite- so more on that when we get a formal identification.  Whilst all this was going on the air was full of birdsong and we saw blue tits, a robin and a great tit.  Finally, I showed the children the things you see in the photo for them to identify- they managed the oyster shell and the seaweed (and an empty dogfish eggsac known as a mermaid’s purse).  They all relate to the guided meditation we started last week where we travelled back in time to understand the earth’s history.  We got back to 200 million years ago, which is when these living things: plants and molluscs, evolved in the sea.  We ran out of time, so we soaked the seaweed for fertiliser and will carry on with the meditation next time.