THIS summer at Kailzie I thought I would try something a bit different to bring kids and families out to see us. I decided to run short family friendly, free events in the mornings with a focus on having some sort of encounter with wildlife.

With this in mind I called this series of events "Animal Introductions".

There are lots and lots of things for kids and families to do here in the Scottish Borders during the school holidays and at weekends. It is hard to compete with all the other things that are on and to offer people something different that tempts them to come out to Kailzie.

However, I think these Wednesday morning sessions have been a success with kids of all ages coming for an "Animal Introduction". The fact that these have also been free of charge has definitely helped! I thought I would share with you some of animals we have been introduced to on these Wednesday morning sessions.

Each session was named using one of my favourite things - alliteration! So we had "Meet a Mammal", "Befriend a Bird", and "Introducing Insects" (I also had planned in a session of pond dipping called "Peer into the Pond" which my family pointed out sounded like something else entirely as the "r" in "peer" was not always picked up when I was talking about it).

In Meet a Mammal we were able to investigate the differences between voles and mice through collection of the inhabitants of live mammal traps (Longworth traps). While miCe and voles are not exactly exotic or in short supply it is amazing how many of us never actually get the chance to see one up close without creating panic!

Children in particular were delighted to get to meet these wee rodents face to face through the safety of the giant collecting tubs and one child was so fond of a certain timid vole that he named it Chucky. By capturing both a mouse and vole we were able to compare the differences in ear size (voles have smaller ears), face shape (voles have more stubby faces), tail length (voles have shorter tails) and physique (voles are pretty tubby).

Befriend a Bird was one of those hit or miss events where a big portion of luck was needed!

Local bird ringer Stuart Craig came along to ring birds outside the Osprey and Nature Centre and on a windy day in July it did not look too hopeful that my group of children and their parents would get to see any birds being ringed.

While we waited for the birds to comply we headed off for a spot of twitching and in just a short walk up to the car park we had seen sparrows, swallows and pied wagtails. Thankfully, we were rewarded on our return as Stuart had a lovely little nuthatch waiting to be ringed and we were all fascinated to learn how this highly skilled procedure was carried out.

Introducing Insects was a chance for us to become bug hunters and armed with magnifying pots we set off on a miniature safari around Kailzie. We lifted logs and found millipedes, woodlouse and beetles, we chased after moths on grasses, we used spoons to dig holes and see what we could find, and we rather unsuccessfully attempted the traditional bug survey method of "beating" in the nearby trees and bushes.

In all our events we got up close and personal with a mammal, bird or insect. These sorts of encounters are vital to our understanding and appreciation of the natural world as there is only so much we can learn from TV and books.

Rachel McAleese KLAWED Project Officer Kailzie kailzieofficer@gmail.com