Join a nature walk or workshop and help us discover, identify and record the wonderful wild animals and plants of the Garden.
There will also be plenty of drop in activities for families too, including minibeast hunts, pond dipping, crafts and more. Plus we will be running a wildlife in the Garden photography competition. Please submit your photographs to iRecord or to wildlife@botanic.cam.ac.uk with your name, date of the sighting and location within the Garden.
We will again be using iRecord to collate all the wildlife records for the event. You can already start submitting your sightings in the Garden, as well as see what others have already spotted this year, by visiting our iRecord CU Wildlife Recording activity. You can learn about how to submit records to iRecord here.
Visit our Wildlife pages to find out more about the wildlife in the Garden, and to find out about the 2020 Bioblitz event.
Book your nature walk or workshop using the links below
Friday 24 June
Nature Walk with Prof Bill Sutherland 17.00-18:00 Join Bill Sutherland, Professor of Conservation Biology, for a natural history walk around the garden spotting wildlife as you go. Ages 12+, Pre-book, max 15 places
Beginner Birds 17:30-18:30 Explore the garden on a guided walk, looking for garden birds as you go and learning the songs of some of the more common species. This walk is designed for birding beginners. Binoculars recommended if you have them. Ages 8+, Pre-book, max 12 places
An evening mammal survey 19:00-20:30 Join the Cambridgeshire Mammal Group to explore how to survey for some of the mammals making their home at the Botanic Garden. The session will include setting small mammal traps and hedgehog footprint tunnels which will all be checked the next morning. Ages 12+, Pre-book, max 10 places
Introduction to moth trapping 20:00-21:00 Join the CUBG moth trapping team and learn all about moths and how to survey for them. Ages 12+, Pre-book, max 6 places
Bat Walk (2 sessions in parallel) FULLY BOOKED 21:00-22:30 Join our bat experts as they explore the diversity of bat species in the Garden after dark, and learn how bats use sound to see. Ages 8+, Prebook, max 15 places per session
Natural History Walk 18.00-19:00 Join Kevin Hand, Course Director ACE Foundation and Vice President of the Cambridge Natural History Society for a walk around the garden spotting wildlife as you go. Ages 12+, Pre-book, max 15 places
Saturday 25 June
Bird ringing demo Join our bird ringing experts to learn how the BTO monitors birds through this important research project, and get a rare opportunity to see some bird species up close in the hand. Session 1 7-7:45am and Session 2 8:30-9:15am Ages: 12+, max 6 places
Introduction to moth trapping (2 session run in parallel) 7:30-8:30 Join the CUBG moth trapping team and learn all about moths and how to survey for them. Ages 8+, Pre-book, max 6 places
Small mammal survey trap check Join the Cambridgeshire Mammal Group to find out which small mammals were caught in the traps set around the Garden and watch them being released back into the wild. Session 1 8:00-8:45, Session 2 13.15-14:00 Ages 8+, Prebook, max 10 places
BTO Garden BirdWatch – Why record the common species Watch the wildlife in the garden with Rob Jaques from the British Trust for Ornithology, and find out about adding data to the BTO Garden BirdWatch survey, a fantastic long-running citizen science project telling us about our local bird species. Session 1 9:30-10:30, Session 2 14:00-15:00, Session 3 15:30-16:30 Age 12+, pre-book, max 6 places
Owl pellet dissection Owls swallow their prey whole and ‘sick-up’ a pellet. Sounds gross but it’s only fur and bones (no squishy stuff) and looking at the bones tells us what the owl had for dinner. Join in some real forensic science and learn about the mammals available in the owl’s feeding area. With Ian Harvey and Amanda Burton. Session 1 10.00-11.00, Session 2 11:30-12:30, Session 3 13:30-14:30 Ages 6+, Pre-book, max 10 places
Nature Walk with Prof Bill Sutherland Join Bill Sutherland, Professor of Conservation Biology, for a natural history walk around the garden spotting wildlife as you go. Session 1 11:00-12:00, Session 2 13:30-14:30 Ages 12+, Pre-book, max 15 places
Natural History Walk 10:30-11:30 Join Kevin Hand, Course Director ACE Foundation and Vice President of the Cambridge Natural History Society for a walk around the garden spotting wildlife as you go. Ages 12+, Pre-book, max 15 places
Pond dipping Join our family friendly discovery of the minibeasts that live in water. Session 1 10:15- 11:00, Session 2 11:30-12:15, Session 3 13:45-14:30, Session 4 15:00-15:45 Ages 6+, Pre-book, max 10 places
Minibeast hunts Join our family friendly hunt for minibeasts living in the long grass and under logs. Session 1 10.30-11.15, Session 2 11.45-12.30, Session 3 13.15-14.00, Session 4 14.30-15.15 and Session 5 15.45-16.30 Ages 6+, Pre-book, max 12 places
Dragonfly and damselfly spotting 12:30-13:30 FULLY BOOKED Take a stroll around the Garden looking for dragonflies and damselflies and learn how to identify them. Ages 6+, Pre-book, max 12 places
Guided Bee Walk Take a guided walk around the Garden and discover the different types of bees and wasps that live there. Session 1 11:00-12:00, Session 2 13:00–14:00 Ages 8+, Pre-book, max 10 places
Introduction to Hoverflies 10:45–11:45 Uncover some of the diversity of British hoverflies and learn how to identify some of the common species. Ages 8+, pre-book, max 10 places
