Wildwood Spring Courses 2017

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Training, workshops & events: Feb - Jun 2017

To book any of our workshops or events, please contact us on 01227 711 471 or email courses@wildwoodtrust.org

Living Willow Structures Saturday 4th February Tutor: Hazel Ryan Venue: Tunstall Primary School, Sittingbourne Learn how to create living garden features, such as arbours, tunnels and fedges. Techniques learnt on this course can be adapted for other types of structure designs. Includes information on site preparation and aftercare and you can also take home some cuttings. 9.45am - 4.15pm  £45 per person

Kent Mammal Identification Saturday 11th February Tutor: Suzanne Kynaston Learn how to identify our larger mammals from their tracks, signs and sightings. Includes a tour of the park to see some of the animals in the flesh and a close up examination of skins, skulls and antlers. Please note that this course does not include mice, voles or shrews, which are covered in the Small Mammal Survey Skills course. 9.45am - 4.15pm  £30 per person

An Introduction to Willow Crafts Saturday 11th March Tutor: Hazel Ryan Make small willow structures, such as colourful trays and wigwam plant supports using locally grown willow. Learn how to grow your own willow and how to prepare and store your willow rods. All materials included. Take home a few cuttings to plant in your garden. 10.00am - 4.00pm £40 per person

Introduction to Amphibian Ecology and Surveying Sunday 12th March Tutor: Mandy Apps This introduction to native British amphibians will cover the identification of Kent's frogs, toads and newts as well as their basic ecology. We will look at what makes a good amphibian pond as well as the different techniques that can be used to survey for amphibians. The day will finish with a torchlight survey of a nearby amphibian population. Min age 13 (under 18s to be accompanied by a paying adult). 2.00pm - 8.00pm £30 per person * * In partnership with Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group (KRAG). KRAG will refund course fees to those who volunteer as part of the Great Crested Newt Monitoring Project when records are contributed.

British Seahorses and How to Survey for Them Saturday 25th March Tutor: Neil Garrick-Maidment This one day course is an introduction into surveying for U.K. seahorses. The day will present the biology & ecology of British Seahorses, the methods to survey for them and the data to collect. Aimed at those with an interest in seahorses and the marine environment. 9.30am - 5.00pm £30 per person

Spring Foraging in Egerton Saturday 15th April Tutor: Steve Kirk Meet at Egerton Village Hall In the days before supermarkets and worldwide imports, wild food foraged from the local countryside traditionally formed a large part of our diet. This one day course is an introduction on how to forage safely. Discover easily recognisable plants that are good to eat and how to prepare and cook them. We will forage in a variety of local sites, where you will learn to identify some common edible species before returning to cook and sample our fare. We will also learn about foraging safety and the law. 10.00am - 4.00pm £40 per person

Seashell Identification Saturday 22nd April Tutor: Anne Riddell Learn how to identify seashells and find out about the ecology of the marine molluscs that used to occupy them. Plus a visit to a local beach to start your own reference collection. 10.30am - 4.00pm  £30 per person

Introduction to Beekeeping Saturday 22nd April onwards Tutor: John Holmes This 8 week course is designed for complete beginners who are looking for a "Hands-on" course that will give you the knowledge and confidence to manage your first colony of honey bees. Follow Wildwood's very own beekeeper and learn the skills of this ancient art. Please note that this course is weather dependent and takes place outside. Changes to course dates may need to be made to the timetable if weather conditions are unsuitable. Not suitable for people with medical conditions such as a heart condition, asthma or being allergic to bee stings. Dates: 22/4; 29/4; 6/5; 13/5; 20/5; 27/5; 3/6; 10/6 11.00am - 4.00pm £120 per person

Permaculture and Forest Gardening Course Sunday 23rd April Tutor: Jo Barker Learn about the inspiring concept of Permaculture (Permanent human culture) and applying it to create Forest Gardens. Connect to the environment through nature awareness, foraging and observing natural ecological design principles. See how we can apply these principles to transform human problems into exciting ecological solutions. 10.00am - 4.00pm £40 per person

Reptile Ecology and Surveying * Saturday 6th May Tutor: Mike Phillips A chance to get up close and personal to some of our most iconic and often misunderstood creatures. An introduction to native British reptiles covering identification, basic ecology and survey techniques. Find out how to identify the best places to look for reptiles and what habitat features they require. 10.00am - 4.00pm £15 per person * In partnership with Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group (KRAG)

Plant Identification for Beginners Saturday 13th May Tutor: Dr. Lesley Mason An introduction to Plant Identification for beginners who want to know how to start identifying flowering plants. Participants will learn to recognise the parts of plants and the useful features that will enable them to decide which family a plant belongs to and help them gain confidence in how to identify plants to the species level. The use of basic keys will be introduced. This course will also provide a basic grounding in plant identification for people interested in attending the Phase 1 Habitat Survey course. 10.00am - 4.00pm £30 per person

Animal Skeletons Saturday 20th May Tutor: Anne Riddell Discover the amazing world of animal bones and put together a real animal skeleton. Find out how animals' bones help them to run, fly and jump. Decipher the clues that help you to identify mammal skulls from their shape and teeth, find out what skulls can tell us about their original owners' ages, gender and their causes of death and see how you can put together your own reference collection. 10.30am - 4.00pm £30 per person

Introduction to Birdsong Sunday 21st May Tutor: Simon Ginnaw Learn how to identify birds by their songs and calls. Find out how they make such a variety of sounds, what they mean, and some tips and tricks as to how to identify the birds by the sound. 9.30am - 3.00pm £30 per person

Introduction to Phase 1 Habitat Survey Saturday 27th May (Day 1) & Sunday 25th June (Day 2) Tutor: Dr. Lesley Mason Day 1: An introduction to Phase 1 Habitat Surveys; how they are conducted & recorded. You will learn how to identify key indicator plant species, distinguish broad habitats and how to write target notes to complete a Phase 1 Habitat Survey. This day is divided between classroom and field. Plant identification for beginners is an ideal precursor to this day. Day 2: Ideal for people who are already familiar with Phase 1 Habitat Survey basics (as covered in day 1), but want to increase their confidence and/or learn more about indicator plant species for different habitat types. Day 2 is a whole day out in the field looking at a variety of habitats including chalk grassland, neutral grassland types and other habitats to allow for a range of habitat types and their indicator plants to be experienced. This course will take place at various sites across Kent – own transport required. 10.00am - 4.00pm £55 per person per day (£100 for both days)

Important Information: * Minimum age for all courses is 18yrs unless specified. All under 18s must be accompanied by a paying adult. * All courses are held at Wildwood Trust, unless otherwise specified, and include Wildwood entry fees and materials. Wildwood does not provide transport. * All courses are booked directly with Wildwood unless otherwise stated, please check listing for details. * All courses must be paid for at the time of booking and are non-refundable unless cancelled by Wildwood. * Lunch is not provided. Participants are welcome to bring a packed lunch or purchase lunch in the Wildwood Cafe.

Download a pdf version of this leaflet here

Wildwood Trust Herne Common Herne Bay Kent CT6 7LQ Registered Charity No: 1093702 Wildwood: 01227 711 471 courses@wildwoodtrust.org

How good was 2016!

News Letter January 2016

Welcome to 2017 and may we wish you all a prosperous and healthy New Year! With the start of another year, we wanted to take this opportunity to review our favourite happenings at Wildwood Kent and Wildwood Devon in 2016, and also look forward to what is shaping up to be a fantastic 2017. We'll be focussing on the animals of course, but also letting you know some of our staff's personal highlights as well as a taster of what's happening as the year goes on. Thank you all for your continued support!

Lynx at Wildwood Escot Coming from Highland Wildlife Park, our lynx arrived at Wildwood Escot in March 2016. This was an incredibly exciting moment for us, as they are a wonderful addition to the collection and are a great representation of what Wildwood would like to achieve. These animals were once key predators that would roam the English countryside, and we were very proud to be able to have them on site.

Hedgehog release Two beautiful hedgehogs rescued by our staff in September were released back into the wild by the keepers at Wildwood Escot. After their rehabilitation and once at optimum health, it was fantastic to be able to release them into the wild. Find out more

Our new Arctic Foxes  We were very excited to see the long awaited return of the arctic foxes to Wildwood this year. Initially they served an isolation period and then moved to a newly refurbished enclosure which is designed to care for the needs of an arctic species in a southern woodland. It includes a refridgeration unit so that our animals don't get too hot! As you can see from the picture and if visiting, they're loving their new enclosure.

Bear update Our two male brown bears are fully settled after being at Wildwood for the last two years. At the beginning of the year they sorted out who was in charge after a small wrestle, and the younger and smaller bear became the dominant male. This lasted less than four months as in late June an unseen scuffle took place when the larger and older bear took over. They still get on very well, although they can be a handful at mealtimes!

Opening of our bear bridge Our exciting bear bridge opened up in the summer, allowing a bird's eye view of the bear shenanigans and play. Not only could you get unparalled access to the bears, but going across the swaying and bouncy bridge is pretty fun!

Wolf update If you're a regular visitor to our Kent park, you may have spotted two new wolves in the enclosure located behind Mischka - our 16 year-old hand reared wolf. The male from Sweden and female from Switzerland are young and very energetic. After serving an isolation period, they are now acclimatising to their new surroundings, keepers and routines and should shortly be integrated into the large wolf enclosure with our existing wolves - Amber and Akela.

Wild boar movements Our expert ranger team refurbished the old boar pens and added some new shelters and a race for easier movement in future. The previous boar pen is now being left to regenerate until the boars need to be moved again. Pru has been doing some housework on the shelters and will often pad out her home with non-edible bits. Sydney of course just eats!

Bird watch This year has seen some movement amongst our birdlife. The corvids have moved to one of the aviaries at the badger building and the jay has moved to a refurbished aviary opposite. Our three female tawny owls have been put together in the refurbished aviary that the corvids were in, the tawny owls are getting on very well. Some turtle doves came in from another collection and are housed in the now refurbished old Jay aviary at the rat barn.The Ken West aviary had some little egrets moved on to other collections and has been adjusted to house some chough with a view to establishing a breeding program.

Births at Wildwood The spring was full of new life with our wildcats having kittens and allowing us to have a leading role in research and conservation of this magnificent animal. April saw the first time that Wildwood had ever recorded the birth of pine martens. Wildwood is at the forefront of pine marten research and the rare film of the whole birthing process is already enabling better research, conservation of habitat and possible re-introduction work. The park continues to breed red squirrels and hazel dormice. We've been very successful this year with two broods of red squirrels and fourteen of the dormice being born. We've also seen the birth of a wallaby in the Autumn and a female fawn for the red deer. Watch our pine marten babies

Conservation highlights In June our fourteen young dormice, captive bred at Wildwood, were reintroduced into a woodland in Yorkshire in partnership with the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. This is part of our work to establish dormice populations in counties where they had become extinct due to habitat loss, fragmentation or degradation. The conservation team has had water voles coming in from different contacts which will be held and released later next spring. Three of our Konik ponies have stayed at Stodmarsh Nature Reserve over winter for the first time since 2013, and it is hoped that this will continue in the future. We recently undertook the mammoth task of moving them into a new parcel of land on the reserve, which you can find out about through the button link below. Konik horse wrangling

Some staff highlights Jen Riley:  A personal highlight for me was being asked to become part of the red-billed chough conservation project. As part of this I worked at Paradise Park, Cornwall, for a week where I shadowed their keepers and learnt about chough husbandry and management. I then took on responsibility for the care of two female chough who joined our collection.  Another highlight for me was presenting my research on red-billed chough social behaviour at the BIAZA research symposium held at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in June. Myself, Vicki, Sally and Angus represented Wildwood, along with Lawrence, a PhD student from DICE at the University of Kent. It was a great way to network and hear from other keepers and academics current ongoing research in both zoo's and in the in situ environment.  Maggie Underwood: I was lucky enough to be involved with the Bear Experiences, and the highlight of the year for me was being so close to an animal so beautiful, friendly and awe-inspiring. Eileen Bartlett: I thoroughly enjoyed my regular chats with Caramel the elk. It's difficult to understand exactly what she is talking about, but it's not too hard to get a rough idea. (see video in link below)   Caramel chat

Christmas What better way to finish our review of the year with Christmas. We had a hand-built grotto at both our Kent and Devon parks which provided a warm and magical environment for all the children that visited. We were fully booked and have to give our volunteers, ranger team and shop staff a massive pat on the back for making the experience so amazing. You lovely people also continue to contribute to the welfare of our animals by taking out more adoptions than ever. Thank you!

Upcoming in 2017   We have so many things happening this year. Our main activities and events at both parks will be occuring in the February and November half-term breaks,during the Easter holiday and for the six week Summer holiday period. We'll have plenty to do for the kiddies! This doesn't mean there is nothing happening for the rest of the year. We'll be having daily talks, pop-up events and of course the animals will always be out and doing their thing. We have some exciting plans to increase our animal family which we will be letting you know about as they are confirmed on our website and social media pages. We'll also be continuing with our conservation objectives through captive breeding programs, combined research with leading institutions and our efforts to reintroduce species back into the U.K. Once again in 2017, you'll be able to get involved with some exciting experiences at Wildwood. At our Kent park we'll be starting up our Bear Experiences in March and have just introduced our new Arctic Fox Experiences. We also have our informative Photo Days with our resident photographer and animal expert, Dave Butcher. We have regular Night Tours to see our animals in a different light, literally. And if that isn't enough, we have our Zoo Keeper and Junior Zoo Keeper days for those who really want to bond with the animals. Find out more by clicking the button below. Our Devon park will be hosting events throughout the year, including a number of cinema extravaganzas and food festivals. Find out more at the website or on the Wildwood Devon FB page. As always, we'll be updating you as the year goes on and can't wait to see you all. Feel free to get in touch to talk with us about anything Wildwood. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!   Things to do at Wildwood Kent

Wildwood Trust Herne Common Herne Bay Kent CT6 7LQ Registered Charity No: 1093702 Wildwood Kent: 01227 712 111 Wildwood Devon: 01404 822 188 info@wildwoodtrust.org