EnglishChildren Wildlife Page by Maureen Graham
Hello children this is a page especially for you! Every month Percy Pine Marten will tell you what animals or plants to look out for. He will select a special animal or plant to talk about and show you how to make things as well!
At this time of year, the weather starts to become colder, leaves fall from the trees, and there are fewer flowers and insects to be seen. However, Percy Pine Marten says this is a good time to watch out for squirrels and jays and even mice who are all busy collecting hazelnuts and acorns to bury as a food store for the winter months. Some animals will hibernate or semi hibernate. Semi hibernation is a lighter state of sleep. It is called torpor. Hedgehogs are an example of this. They will emerge to look for food if conditions are not too cold. Bats are hibernating in trees, lofts, in buildings, tunnels and even caves. The Horseshoe bat likes caves. They hang upside down with their wings wrapped around their bodies. They look like little umbrellas. Some insects go into a state of dormancy. For instance, the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly likes to go into cool dark sheds or houses to go to sleep The Large White Butterfly overwinters as a pupae attached to walls of houses. Ladybirds spend from October to February often in large groups in sheds, parts of plants and even in special ladybird houses.
Horse chestnuts drop their green spiky shells which contain a shiny brown nut like seed called conkers. It’s fun to walk through crunchy carpets of beech nuts at this time of year. September and October are good months to see Fungi. They often have strange appearances and fanciful names like Penny Bun, Fly Agaric, Parasol Mushroom and Wood Ear.
On 21st October Apple Day is celebrated to promote the different variety of apples and their heritage. Windfalls are apples which fall from the trees. If left to rot on the ground, they attract a lot of wildlife like woodlice, ground beetles, earwigs, thrushes, badgers, foxes and small mammals. Treecreepers love apple trees feeding on insects under the bark.
Autumn is a good time to look out for migrant species like wildfowl coming from Europe. Even our blackbirds and robins are joined by continental blackbirds and robins. Fieldfares which are a large member of the thrush family are often accompted by the smaller Redwing, also a member of the thrush family, they come from Scandinavia and spend the winter in the UK.
Spiders are wonderful creatures There are 650 types in the UK The smallest spider we have is called the Money spider It is less than 5 mm. The largest spider in the UK is the Cardinal Spider It has been known to have a leg span of 12cm. A lot of spiders are known as a Cluster or Clutter. Some people don’t like spiders A fear of spiders is called arachnophobia.
Spiders are air breathing arthropods that have 8 legs and spinnerets on their abdomens that extrude the silk they use to make webs. They don’t have teeth and therefore can’t bite but they do have fangs which injects poison into their prey. All are predators but one, a jumping spider from Latin America called Bagherra kipling, which is mainly herbivorous. Spiders are very beneficial and should not be harmed. However, if you are arachnophobia spiders hate the smell of peppermint and lavender and this might deter them from coming into your house! They are attracted to sweaty socks apparently so maybe change your socks frequently if you don’t like spiders!
What to make? A SPIDER
To make a spider you need small pom poms for the body, straws or pipe cleaners for the legs, glue, wobbly eyes and sequins for the body (if desired)
1.Cut the pipe cleaners in half. Tie them together to make bendy legs.
2 Glue the legs on to the pom pom and twist the ends at the end.
- Fix the wobbly eyes and cover the body with sequins.
4.If you want to make your spider very ferocious looking cut small triangles from stiff coloured paper to make fangs and glue these below the eyes
See you next month