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Superb Scavenger hunt from one of our Elderbank Nature Hunters. Look at the amazing objects that were found. Can you name them?

We've been busy exploring! We've been taking part in some of the challenges in our little 'family' team, Flowers and Pebbles Childminding. We have taken some time to learn a bit about John Muir and what he did. We have explored new parts of the forests around our house and gone away from our usual tracks to see what we could find. A favourite was spongey moss in the woods. We played explorers and camped out in the living room! 🤣 We took rucksacks and did a scavenger hunt for conkers and acorns etc which we made sculptures with when we got home. We splashed in puddles and used the trees as swings. We've tried to conserve the wild life in our garden by putting out a new bird box and bug hotel. We went on a night time walk to see if we could spot some bats. We fed the ducks. We explored different senses in the garden when it was cold and raining.

We've been out exploring the local area and talking about how the colours and textures have changed now it's autumn. We went on our own scavenger hunt to find different textures and patterns. We went on a mini beast hunt in the woods and discussed the habitats that minibeasts live in.

In the last few weeks we've been spending lots of time outdoors discovering and exploring the forests in Callander Crags, Glen Finglas, Little Drum Wood and around Loch Katrine. As well as going for walks and cycles and exploring through climbing trees and jumping in puddles we've also been collecting leaves and seeds for tree ID and crafting and have been practising our photography and ID skills on all the fungi out at the moment. Robin's been learning about different tree species, how trees grow, the symbiosis between fungi and trees and all about the local landscape and history. We've been lucky to spot red squirrels a few times and have watched them racing through the trees and collecting nuts. We've also taken the time to sit quietly and listen to the birds and other forest noises.

Fantastic bird feeder for our little garden visitors.

One of the leaves we collected was an oak leaf which had a collection of small galls on it. We looked them up and discovered these were the beginnings of the oak wasp larvae, something which can destroy these mighty trees.

We also spent awhile taking photos of anything we liked the look of, from close ups of leaves to landscapes. The colours were really vivid as it had just rained. We're going to do some art projects with the photos over the next few weeks.

We gathered a number of leaves and flowers we found on our walk and took them home to sort and identify. We also tried to do a mushroom spore print from a fly agaric which we found knocked over. It didn't turn out too dark but you could see the lines from the gills. We also pressed some of the flowers and leaves in a book and have left them to see what they look like in a few weeks.