OWLS

Hedgelife
2025-05-19 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/London) | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Ian Metson

Tales from the Riverbank
2025-06-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Liz Huxley

Big Butterfly Count 2025
2025-07-14 - 2025-08-06

AGM and Garden Party
2025-07-21 12:00 - 16:00 | Repentance Cottage, Drapers Corner, Greensted, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LS

Alpacas
2025-09-15 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Isabel of Lough Rynn Alpacas

Wildlife of Costa Rica
2025-10-20 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with William Knuckey

History of Bee Keeping
2025-11-17 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Tricia Moxey

Wildlife Party
2025-12-15 13:45 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR

Big Garden Bird Count
2026-01-23 - 2026-01-25
Big Garden Birdwatch is the UK’s biggest citizen science wildlife survey.
In 2025, over 590,000 people took part – and you could be with them.
You will need to register on the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch page in December.
On the day of the Big Garden Birdwatch itself, taking part couldn’t be simpler!
You just spend an hour watching the birds in your garden, from your balcony or in your local park, and tell them what you’ve seen. If you see very few birds or none at all, that’s also really useful information for us, so please let us know.

National Nest Box Week
2026-02-14 - 2026-02-21
National Nest Box Week, celebrated from 14th February each year, is an initiative designed to encourage people to help provide homes for birds by putting up nest boxes in gardens, parks, and open spaces.
Please have a look at their website for all you need to know.

Dinosaurs
2026-03-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Keith Snow

International Bat Appreciation Day
2026-04-17
Each year on April 17th, International Bat Appreciation Day reminds us of the roles bats play in our daily lives.
April is also the best time of the year to observe bats, as they are now beginning to emerge from hibernation.
The observance is an excellent time to learn about the role bats play in nature.
Since bats are considered “insectivorous” creatures, they rid our world of many annoying insects.
In one hour, a bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes.

Birds of Prey Rescue
2026-04-20 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with by Stephanie Callister-Jarrold

International Dawn Chorus Day
2026-05-03
International Dawn Chorus Day is Sunday 3 May. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing – the dawn chorus is already happening around you, whether you’re in a city or the countryside, asleep or wide awake.
Across the world, people are setting their alarms a little earlier to wake up to the dawn chorus through a cracked bedroom window, catching it on the dog walk before the school run, or stepping outside after a late night to find the birds already in full voice.
This year, the RSPB challenging the nation to get up a little earlier on Sunday 3 May and share what they hear. Here’s how to get involved:

Set your alarm to 30 minutes before dawn, then step outside or open your window to let the birdsong soar over you.
Film it, record it, or simply take a moment to soak it in.

Share what you hear on social media or with your friends and family and encourage someone else to do the same.

Use the hashtag #DawnChorusClub

And

If you want to hear it echoing through the trees at first light, join one of our guided dawn chorus walks at a local RSPB reserve. Our friendly guides can help you put names to the voices filling the air around you, helping you recognise a Chiffchaff’s call from a Willow Warbler’s song.

Take time to just hear it, feel it, share it!

To find out more.. https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/the-dawn-chorus-all-you-need-to-know-about-natures-big-show

Hedgehog Awareness Week
2026-05-03 - 2026-05-09
Hedgehog Awareness Week is running 3rd – 9th May 2026 – and this year, you’re invited to take The Hedgehog Pledge !
Fay Vass, Chief Executive for BHPS, said: “Hedgehog Week highlights the problems hedgehogs face in the UK – so we’ve created The Hedgehog Pledge with seven practical options to inspire everyone to act with hedgehogs in mind.
Pledge to:

Add more Hedgehog Highways!

13cm x 13cm square gaps in boundary walls and fences ensure hedgehogs can access to vital habitat! Create more – talk to neighbours first! Once made, log them at www.bighedgehogmap.org

Create, improve or protect a wild space

Log piles, leaf heaps and wild edges attract natural food and offer shelter for hedgehogs.

Always check for hedgehogs before strimming, mowing or hedge cutting

Many hedgehogs are harmed or killed by garden machinery every year – simple checks before you start can save lives.

Go totally organic in the garden or allotment

Pesticides and chemicals can harm wildlife and destroy the food chain. Embrace the wild instead!

Be net savvy

Netting can become tangled in hedgehog spines: make sure sports nets are put away and garden netting is raised 30cm off the ground so hedgehogs can safely pass underneath.

Provide water for wildlife all year round!

Make it part of your routine to check, clean & refill water sources for hedgehogs in your garden or outside your workplace. Add a few pebbles so bees and butterflies can perch and safely drink too.

Become an NHMP volunteer spotter!

In partnership with People’s Trust for Endangered Species, BHPS leads the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme, surveying hedgehogs across the UK. Help classify images taken on specialist trail cameras from the comfort of home! Become a ‘spotter’!

Find out more here… https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/take-the-hedgehog-pledge-this-spring-sign-up-form/

A Wild Year at Fingringhoe Wick
2026-05-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Liz Huxley

Fingringhoe Wick was Essex Wildlife Trust’s first nature reserve (1961), some years later it was where the Trust opened their first visitor centre. Sixty years on visitors are still coming to see this magical place. Set in a spectacular position overlooking the Colne Estuary the reserve offers a sense of real peace and quiet and a chance to escape from it all.

World Bee Day
2026-05-20
World Bee Day is a chance to celebrate bees, their crucial role as pollinators, and their importance to our ecosystems.
Yet, they’re increasingly at risk from factory farming, land clearing, and the use of pesticides, so World Bee Day is also an opportunity to highlight the plight of bees around the world.
Let’s use this day to protect the bees and, in turn, protect our planet.

Ready for some interesting facts about bees? Let’s go:

Bees have five eyes, two large ones and three smaller ones in the centre of their heads.
Bees and flowers are interdependent, as bees need pollen and nectar for food, while plants need bees to enable their reproduction.
Bees carrying pollen look like they have two orange sacks stuck to their hairy legs.
A third of the world’s food production depends on bees, as they pollinate three quaters of the most popular global crops.
Factory farming and pesticides are hurting bees. Though designed to kill pests, these chemicals are incredibly harmful to bees.
Bees are losing their natural habitat to farming, as trees, meadows, and other plants are being cleared to make way for livestock and crops to produce animal feed.
Bees don’t want to sting you. They’re more docile than hornets and wasps and only sting when they feel threatened.

Stag Beetles Need You!!
2026-06-01 - 2026-06-30
June marks Stag Beetle Month in the UK, a period when these impressive insects emerge from their underground pupal chambers to fly at dusk in search of mates.
This annual event raises awareness of their life cycle, habitat needs, and conservation status, encouraging people to spot, record, and protect them.
If you see one send in the details to The Essex Field Club.
5 Interesting Facts
Antler-like Mandibles: Male stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) can measure up to 7.5 cm from the tip of their jaws to the end of their bodies. Their enlarged mandibles resemble deer antlers and are used in non-injurious “wrestling” contests to flip rival males off logs or branches.
Remarkably Long Larval Stage: After eggs are laid in decaying wood, larvae feed on rotting stumps and fallen logs for 3–7 years, growing slowly through several instars. Only after this lengthy development do they pupate and emerge as adults.
Short Adult Lifespan: Once they transform, adult stag beetles live for just a few weeks. They typically fly on warm, humid evenings from late May through July, relying on energy reserves built up as larvae and sometimes feeding on tree sap, nectar, or overripe fruit.
Dependence on Deadwood: Ideal habitats include deciduous woodlands, hedgerows, parklands, and gardens with ample deadwood—old stumps, fallen branches, and log piles. Without suitable rotting wood, larvae cannot develop, making even small piles of decaying timber crucial.
Protected but Declining: Stag beetles are a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species and are legally protected from sale or harm. However, numbers have declined by nearly half since the 1960s due to loss of deadwood, urbanisation, and light pollution.
By leaving logs to rot naturally, creating “log piles” in gardens, and recording sightings during June and July, you can help ensure that future generations continue to enjoy one of Britain’s most fascinating beetles.
If you see one you can take part in the Great Stag Hunt…

Beasts of Borneo by Peter Merrett
2026-06-15 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Peter Merrett

AGM
2026-07-20 14:00 - 16:00 | Repentance Cottage, Drapers Corner, Greensted, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LS

Amazing Fungi
2026-09-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoone with Tricia Moxey

Predators of South Africa
2026-10-19 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with Peter Hogarth

What a Wonderful World
2026-11-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Toot Hill Village Hall, 2 Toot Hill Road, Toot Hill, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9LR
An afternoon with John Watkins

Christmas Party
2026-12-14 14:00 - 16:00
