Saturday 4 June 2016

#30DaysWild Day 4: Oxford Festival of Nature

Written by Bug Mad Girl...

Today we went to the Wild Fair at the Natural History Museum in Oxford.

The Wild Fair was the start of the Oxford Festival of Nature.
When we arrived the first thing we saw was a stand showing all the winners and runners up for the Oxford Festival of Nature photo competition. Mum's two brilliant pictures were there and somebody told us that the photo of our wellies dangling over the stream was very popular.

Looking at the pictures.
We went inside the Museum to look at all the insects and I got to hold lots of cool bugs (but for some reason Mum didn't want to hold any of them!)

Naughty Stick Insect crawling down someone's back.
Hissing Cockroach on my hand.



Stick Insect on my arm.
We found slow-worms and a grass snake hanging out under the T-Rex and I was lucky enough to hold the grass snake, until it tried to disappear up my sleeve! Mum definitely didn't want to hold a snake!!


A brilliant grass snake
 
We had a look at the microsculpture exhibit, which takes insects from the museums collection and magnifies them so that they look like huge pieces of art. They were really cool because you could see all the detail that you wouldn't normally be able to make out.
Jewel longhorn beetle - about 8mm long in real life
After that, we went back outside to look at the Wolves and were surprised at how much they looked like normal dogs!
 
We see a few buzzards near our house, usually sat on a fence post as we drive past, so it was nice to stand so close to one at the birds of prey stand. 

I even got a kiss from a gorgeous barn owl.


They also had a peregrine falcon, which was brilliant because we'd seen them in the wild a few days ago in Aylesbury market square. That time they were up on the top of a tall building, so we just saw distant dots. Now I could really see what they looked like. We even saw them being fed, which some people thought was a bit gruesome, but I thought it was great.


We looked at badgers, hedgehogs and even tasted some honey! But soon it was time for lunch!


Mmm, Delicious!
After a delicious wrap, we went over and looked at some moths, and their caterpillars.
 
 
Last of all, I made a bird box that I took home to put up in our garden!
 

What an AWESOME day!

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