Now that summer is truly underway, there is a magnificent variety of wildlife to be seen all over the Berkeley Vale area.  Wildflowers and insects, birds and trees, grasses and snails, and more.  

You may even spot furry mammals if you are really still, quiet and patient, especially at dawn or dusk.  Hairy ape like animals otherwise known as humans do not count though – they are way too easy to spot!

The creatures above are all Berkness ‘locals’ captured on a phone camera.  The beautiful emerald green insect is known as a Swollen-thighed Beetle – we can tell it is a fella since only the males have those bulging thighs!  Can you identify the wildflowers, the ladybird and the butterfly species?

Now is a great time to create your very own nature journal.  Start recording – like a real scientist, writer or artist – whatever you find out there in nature that interests you.

We are lucky to live in an area with great access to wildlife but even built up areas can have loads of different wild flowers and insects when you look closely.  Car park botany is a real thing!

To inspire and help you to start and keep your project going, the Natural History Museum has a produced a short video plus written instructions with pictures.

Just follow this link:

How to make and use a nature journal to record your wildlife observations

Remember to come back and continue browsing Berkness.

If you don’t like drawing or just don’t have the time, use photo prints or make a digital album e.g. Google Photos has an album feature which allows the addition of notes, sharing (optional), and comments (optional).

The Berkness website will always be interested to hear how you get on with your journal.  (See the Contact page.)