Nick Baker nature Q&A - plus win a copy of The Complete Naturalist!

durhamjen

I homeschool my grandson, too. He can recognise lots of birds when they stay still enough. Is there a simple way you know of to record birdsong so we can listen at home and compare to DVDs that we have?
He is 13 and autistic, and does not often have enough of an attention span to wait until the bird shows itself, although he did think last week that he heard a goldfinch, and sure enough, there it was.

Also, do you know of a good book on ecology that gives information in easy chunks, but without being too simple that his eight year old sister will take over?

There are loads of smart phone apps that are useful in this respect - omsk are field guides with sound incorporated and there are others such as ‘Chirp’ it’s bas but has a sound quiz so you can test yourself. There is also a sound pen - which works by running a sensor over a picture of the bird and it makes it’s song - the one I’ve used is called BirdMIKE.

GrannyGlyn

We recently went back to caravanning after a gap of about 15 years. Our daughters were never very interested in flora and fauna but now we have two grandchildren and a bigger caravan we are keen to show them what beauty there is all around them. Last weekend we stayed on a sheep farm and they loved it.

We love forests and would like to ask Nick if there is somewhere he would recommend to visit?

There are some lovely woodland campsites in the New Forest - you’ll have to explore caravanning is not an area I’m too familiar with i’ll be honest.

LyndaW

I was wondering, how do you suggest getting little people interested in nature? My DGD is 3.5 and she hates bugs and spiders. We (and her parents) have tried showing her how beautiful cobwebs are, we've planted things together, showed her worms, held bugs so she can see they won't hurt her, but still she shudders and runs inside? Any ideas?

Start gently, find something she does like - it might be a hedgehog, badger or song thrush and even if she doesn’t like the little invertebrates she has to appreciate that without them the creatures she does like simply wouldn’t be around. Either that or try butterflies and then maybe rearing some from caterpillars.

Grannyknot

(pippa - not so odd, I love bats too!)

I also love nature and was inspired also by Gerald Durrell. As a kid growing up in South Africa, we would all be down on the beach as a family during the annual "sardine run" which sometimes comes close inshore - one of my memories is of my usually very sedate grandmother running into the water and scooping them up an apronful. So I am absolutely thrilled to see that it has become a recognised phenomenon and is featured on many of the television shows about the oceans. Even as children we knew it was a "big deal" - people skipped work, all the fishermen would be on alert because of the game fish that follow the shoals of sardines and there'd be birds diving, it was all very exciting and celebratory. Now modern technology and photography brings it right into our homes, more close up than ever. Fascinating!

What's your favourite piece of techie equipment?

I love a trail camera - it’s like leaving your eyes and ears out in the woods. I’m also a big fan of night vision it allows us to peak into a mysterious world that we’re usually blind to.

pipparj

Hi Nick, I have a bit of a thing about bats - I love them. Having moved from deepest countryside to a city though, I never see them any more. Any ideas where I can get my bat fix?! (I appreciate this is a very odd question!)

Cities and bats don’t always go together that well, less insect food and of course more to the point light pollution and a tidying up of their habitats has seen to that - however they are present in nearly all cities. I suggest you get in touch with the Bat Conservation trust and they’ll point you in the right direction

granin

hello Nick, I was just wondering if there are any animals you wish you hadn't set eyes on? I kno0w you've encountered some weird and wonderful ones over the years, but are there any that truly made you shudder? Thank you.

No, not at all - beauty is to simply do a job well and just because an animal doesn’t meet what we consider beautiful in our own species doesn’t mean it’s not stunningly designed to do its job well. The only truly ugly animals in my view are those that have been moulded by human design to satisfy a human fashion or product.

TinyTwo

Hi Nick
We've had loads of wood lice come into our house recently. Even found some in the upstairs bathroom?! Any idea what's enticing them indoors?

It’ll be damp or simply a damp connection to the outdoors - if they stay living then you’ve got a damp problem, if you’re finding them curled up dead they are simply getting in somehow and then once inside trapped until they dehydrate.

grannyactivist

My garden is a haven for mini beasts and abounds in bees and butterflies - great for my two young grandsons who are avid bug watchers. Unfortunately my attempts at attracting garden birds have had to be abandoned because of my neighbours' marauding cats - three or four of them at least think that my bird feeders are there to attract a tasty tit for lunch or a robin for tea. Do you have any suggestions for (humane) ways of deterring cats? I should say that I have tried many of the usual deterrents without success.

I have a water sprinkling device called a ‘scarecrow’ it’s permanently rigged to the mains water supply by a hose and it is basically a water pistol attached to a PIR sensor as soon as it detects a warm body, moving it’s triggered. The only downside is that it doesn’t differentiate between cats and foes, hedgehogs, Badgers or indeed my wife hanging up the washing!!

joannapiano

We used to hear cuckoos,( one of the few bird calls I recognise!) quite regularly near the local canal, but haven't heard them at all for several years.
Are they getting rarer?

Yes! Since the early 1980s Cuckoo numbers have dropped by 65%. Nobody real knows why - it could be declines in host species, something happening on migration or in their wintering grounds. It may be something to do with a mismatch of timings between them and their host species nesting calendar which in turn could be caused by other environmental effects such as global warming! It’s a mystery but one that the BTO are doing their best to understand.

Lapwing

Hello Nick, My father and grandfather encouraged a love of nature in me from a very early age. I would love to pass that passion on to my grandchildren but so far they do not seem very interested. Have you any suggestions as to how I could encourage them.

Find out what it is that they’re into - if it’s drama, robots, mechanics, war, violence or poisons! Then shoe it to them in nature - failing that forget the details - simply take ‘em on mini-adventures - fishing, camping, diving, snorkelling, kayaking - time spent in the outdoors will eventually connect them to other experiences and they’ll get the love you know so well.

oznan

My 2 youngest grandsons would love this book!They are home-schooled and their mom is often to be found with them in the woods up to their knees in mud!Or on a beach,inspecting the rockpools.
I would like to ask you Nick if you have any tips for home-schoolers about lessons in fields rather than in classrooms?

Sounds like they’re on the right track - I’m not a qualified teacher. However the logic is to find examples of all the disciplines from Maths, chemistry, Physics, Art and literature in nature - for example I use this a lot. Simple counting the visits of parent birds to a nest box full of chicks - is the sorts of the maths lesson I would have responded well to. You can explore provisioning rates and how this change with time - you can then get advanced and even have a go at counting each beakfulls contents - using cameras - you can even use a perch attached to scales to monitor the weight change or even look into the calorific value of each beak full - it goes on!

rosesarered

Hello Nick,
My grandson is besotted with all things insect-y, so your book sounds just the thing! he keeps all sorts of things in his room, courtesy of a very understanding Mother, the latest is a jar of larve that will soon be butterflies for him to release, and there are dishes of water with tadpoles in them all over the garden.Did you start off with these humble beginnings into nature as a child?

Start off!! I’m still doing it these humble beginnings never leave you and remain just as fascinating, eventually your grandson will be passing on these same simple joys to his own offspring. lovely to hear.