: Exploring Our Woodlands

Next week is half term and that means there will be lots going on at the T? Gwyrdd at St Fagans. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday next week, 30^th and 31^st of October, we will be celebrating Halloween by dedicating two days of activities to some of our favourite residents of the museum. We have many species of bat living at St Fagans and there will be a chance to find out much more about these fascinating creatures! What facts do you know about bats? How many of these are true and how many are myths?? 

With the help of our team of volunteers, including Anne-mie who's an artist, we will also be creating a batty art installation in the T? Gwyrdd. We are hoping to create a large willow bat which we can hang in the house and surround with many, many baby bats! We need your help so that we can make as many of these baby bats as possible! As you can see from the picture, these will all be made from recycled newspaper, elastic bands and pipe cleaners! 

Next week also sees St Fagans’ Halloween Nights events. The museum will be open after dark with many activities taking place. Again, we will be championing the bat with some crafty activities taking place each night. Halloween Nights take place between Tuesday the 30^th of October and Thursday the 1^st of November. Tickets MUST be purchased in advance. Click here for more info  

Towards the end of next week we will be leaving Halloween behind and taking a look at some of the brilliant foodstuffs that are in season at this time of year! On Friday and Saturday (2^nd & 3^rd of November) I will be cooking up a treat in the T? Gwyrdd kitchen using some traditional recipes and ingredients grown in the T? Gwyrdd garden! Come along to taste some chutneys, soup and maybe even some cakes! There will also be recipe sheets that you can take home to try out some of the recipes for yourself! 

All in all, next week promises to be very busy but lots of fun with plenty going on, so why not pop over to the T? Gwyrdd to see us!

Over the past two weeks we have been running family activities linked to the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition here at National Museum Cardiff.

Over 400 of you took part and it has been a fantastic fortnight of photographic fun! I've been busy uploading as many photos as possible to the NMC Photo Club Flickr page and I have to say they look great! When you visit the Flickr page the photos are organised into sets on the right hand side of the page so if you took part all you need to do is click on the date of your visit to the Museum and look for your name!

The photos will be going up on the screen in the Clore Discovery Centre in the Museum on Saturday the 8th of September so if you came to the workshops pop in to see your pictures on display at the National Museum!

I'd like to say a big thank you to Cat, Lauren and Catherine for all their excellent work in running the workshops and I'd like to thank everyone who came along to take part as well. Thanks!

If you are anything like me, you will have been glued to the BBC’s fantastic Springwatch programmes over the last few days. Spring is a brilliant time of year with so much going on all around us, and St Fagans Museum is a fantastic place to get up close and personal with a wide range of wildlife! 

This half term, why not come and visit us and pick up one of our family nature trails, which you can find at the main reception and in Oriel 1. The trail will take you to the best places in the museum to spot our fantastic wildlife. You can watch birds feeding from the comfort of our bird hide, visit the Tannery where you can watch our roost of Lesser Horseshoe bats on our live infra-red camera and even peer into the water pits to see newts and other creatures that have made it their home. 

Throughout the museum there are birds nesting, whether in some of the old buildings, in trees or in some of the nest boxes that we have put up. Look at the Greater Spotted woodpecker (pictured) nesting in a tree. You can even watch a family of blue tits nesting in one of our nest boxes live on our website.

Watch our family of Blue Tits on our live webcam

Hopefully the beautiful weather we’ve had recently will return as I will be spending time next week showing off some of our wildlife highlights. From Wednesday to Friday next week (June 6-8) I will in the bird hide from 11-1 with binoculars and I.D sheets and then at the Tannery from 2-4 showing off our colony of bats with the bat cam. If you get the chance, pick up a trail and come and say hi!

Video Clip, taken 30/05/2012

First of all I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! 2011 was a very busy year for the Explore Nature project here at St Fagans. The project was officially launched back in April, and we had a full calendar of events throughout the spring and summer, taking a closer look at the fascinating wildlife here at the museum.

Thank you to all who came along and took part in our events, whether it was bird spotting in the bird hide, pond dipping for a closer look at our newts or watching the lesser-horseshoe bats on our infra-red bat camera. If you missed out, many of these events will be happening again later in the year. Keep an eye on the What’s On pages for details. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?site=stfagans

The bird hide, of course, is still open to visitors. Situated along the woodland walk it is a great place to relax and watch our woodland birds at the feeding station. With the weather as cold as it is, I’m sure the birds are very appreciative of the food as it can be hard for them to find food at this time of year! If you find the bird hide a little cold, you can watch some of our birds feeding from the comfort of Nature Den in the Oriel 1 gallery, or even from home. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/woodlands/wildcams/birdfeed_cam/

This month gives you all the perfect opportunity to find out what birds visit your own gardens. The RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch takes place over the weekend 28-29^th of January. All you need to do is spend an hour watching you garden and keeping track of which birds visit. You can register and find out more by visiting the RSPB’s website. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

 This morning we took advantage of the dry, yet very windy, weather to set-up some nest boxes. We are hoping to attract Great Tits to one and Robins to the other. Both are fitted with cameras, so if they do get used, we should get some really good footage of the eggs and chicks. We will of course share any footage we do get with you!

If you are interested in our wildlife and nature events at the museum, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Nature_StFagans or send us an email at nature.stfagans@museumwales.ac.uk

Female Bullfinch spotted at our woodland feeder today. Come and see for youself in our woodland bird hide www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/woodlands or watch them in the comfort of your own home at www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/woodlands/wildcams