Meadowland and Woodland Nature Study: Week 1

This year our nature studies will be focused on nearby meadowland and woodland.  We have just begun to go for daily walks once again and so often find ourselves in the glorious countryside which surrounds the area in which we live.  I’m going to enjoy this study.  It will, I think, be focused much more on plant life than our pond study, most of which was animal life.  That said we saw a bird of prey on our first walk!

This is the view of the meadow land from a height:

Once we walk across the meadowland we come to a crossroads.  Here are the photos taken of the land surrounding the crossroads.  This will be the land, alongside the meadow, that we will be exploring during our nature studies.  We will have the choices here of:

• Going deeper into the wooded area:

• Going for the walk which runs parellel to the Meadow:

• Or spending more time at the Meadow.  This path takes us back to the meadow, across a small river (the children are playing poo sticks!):

Here is a picture of the river, which of course opens up the possibility of a lot more wildlife:

We have already chosen the tree we wish to study.  I’ll not give too much away, but I will say it is a huge, 100 year old oak, which is fairly well known around these parts.  I’ll share our first study month’s tree study next week.

We have decided to bring Oscar our dog with us.  He is struggling to come to terms with the death of his partners in crime, George and Lucy, and I think an extra walk with us will help enormously:

Here we all are, ready and enthusiastic:

This week was all about choosing a tree, getting familiar with the area and generally having fun…..

• Collecting treasures:

And then organising them:

Again and again, with excited claims from A7 about becoming a scientist when she grows up:

They even created a little nature table display:

Playing around with shadow pictures….how cool is this?

As well taking a few selfies:

This was a fantastic and hugely fun start to our nature studies.  Oh, and we went back via the pond to capture a photo one year on:

It’s looking good, isn’t it?  Happy, happy memories!