Summer
1. Snakes alive
Early summer is a good time to find a slough (pronounced sloff).
No, we’re not talking about a big lazy animal that hangs around in
trees all day, that’s a sloth. A slough is the name for the skins shed
by snakes and lizards as they grow. Before this happens,
a milky fluid separates the old, dull skin from the new one.
With lizards the skin comes off in pieces but with snakes it peels
away in one long, inside-out strip.
2. Red alert
One of our most popular native animals is the Red Squirrel, although sadly it’s now quite rare,
with around 160,000 compared to nearly 2.5 million of its bigger American cousin, the Grey
Squirrel. But one of the best places to see them is within The Mersey Forest, at Formby.
There’s a famous book about a red squirrel called Squirrel Nutkin.
Do you know who wrote it? Tick your answer.
a) JK Rowling
b) Beatrix Potter
c) Roald Dahl
3. Stingers & docks
The hairs on a stinging nettle are hollow and full of a pressurised liquid that includes formic acid.
When the tip of the hairs is broken the acid shoots out and the rest I’m sure you know!
A plant called dock always seems to grow nearby though, and if you do get stung, rubbing a dock
leaf on it will help ease the pain.
But the best thing about stinging nettles is that butterflies love them. So why not stake out the next
patch of nettles you see, and watch out for colourful visitors like the small tortoiseshell, peacock
and painted lady.
Summer
4. Colour-coded
Can you put the colours of the rainbow in the correct order?
Blue, Green, Indigo, Orange, Red, Violet, Yellow
5. The eyes have it
The dragonfly is a pretty remarkable insect because it has
about 30,000 lenses covering its eye. That means it sees
many images when we only see one. A good place to
watch them is darting around the edges of ponds.
6. True of False?
Do you think these collective names for birds are for real or just made up?
Make your guess by circling true or false.
a) A murder of crows
true / false
b) A knobble of magpies
true / false
c) A parliament of owls
true / false
d) A pyjama of jays
true / false
e) A cockney of sparrows
true / false
f)
true / false
A gaggle of geese
g) An unkindness of ravens
true / false
h) A cast of hawks
true / false
i)
A siege of herons
true / false
j)
An exaltation of larks
true / false
Summer
7. Buzz off
They may be small but have you seen the havoc a bee or wasp can cause
if they happen to be buzzing round a crowded bus or a classroom!
The wasp’s sting is in its abdomen and it looks a bit like two swords inside a sheath.
When it’s angry the wasp will thrust one of the barbed swords into its victim. This is the anchor.
The second sword then follows and so on, in out, in out, until the poison sac has been emptied.
Perhaps the reason people dislike wasps more than bees is that wasps can sting you again and
again. A bee only has one go, because the hooks on its sting are bigger than a wasp’s so that as it
tries to fly away it leaves half its body stuck to you – which means bees are much more reluctant to
sting you.
Don’t forget – bees and wasps only sting to defend themselves from attack,
so it’s best to stay calm and don’t flap your arms around!
But while there is some good news - only females wasps and bees actually sting,
there’s bad news too - there are lots more females than males out there!
8. Breaking the mold
There are about 4000 types of fungi found in the UK, and thankfully only a few are very poisonous
but it’s best to play safe and never eat anything you find in the woods. As well as coming in many
different shapes and sizes, they also have some fantastic names too.
Which of these do you think are real? Tick your guesses.
a) Orange peel fungus
b) Brain purple-drop
c) Fairies’ bonnet
d) King Alfred’s cakes
Summer
9. Glorious wood
The wood that comes from our forests has many different uses. Ash, which is very strong, is used
to make sports equipment such as cricket stumps and oars, while beech, which is easy to work
with, is popular with furniture manufacturers. And now a company from Sweden has decided that
they’re fed up with boring grey plastic computers and have brought out a new range of wooden
monitors, keyboards and mice!
What every day objects that you use are made of wood?
10. Keep your pecker up!
Another favourite woodland bird is the woodpecker, which feeds
on insects that live on trees such as the bark beetle.
It also uses its powerful beak to ‘drill’ a hole in a tree to use as a
nest. Listen out to see if you can hear one and then try and find
out which tree it’s working on.
8. a) True; b) True; c) True; d) True;
6. a) True; b) False; c) True; d) False; e) False; f) True; g) True; h) True; i) True; j) True
4. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
2. b),
Answers: