Become a wildlife volunteer at Kentish Town City Farm: if you’d like to volunteer to help run our wildlife workshops and learn about wildlife at the farm please apply here:
https://forms.gle/jAKAKEGs7CWacHHt7
Learn about wildlife at our free workshops
We are running a series of wildlife workshops at the farm. Everyone is welcome to attend – the workshops are free but you need to register so we know you are coming.
All about butterflies
Sunday 16th August 2pm-3.30pm
(Children welcome accompanied by an adult)
Join Mel to learn about the amazing world of butterflies and meet caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies living here on the farm. You’ll have a chance to learn about their life-cycle and see the plants that their caterpillars rely on to eat.
- These are the butterflies we might see at the workshop:
- Red admiral, comma, cabbage white, small tortoiseshell, holly blue, brimstone, peacock, gatekeeper, speckled wood and painted lady
All ages are welcome for this workshop. It is a wonderful opportunity for children to see butterflies at the different stages of their life cycle and go exploring in the garden to see which butterflies they can spot!
The workshop is free to attend but please register using this form:
https://forms.gle/9FETQ1zVVMNdzLwS8
Come and meet some bats and learn all about them!
Wednesday 19th August 7pm-9.30pm
Fancy discovering the secret world of the night sky’s most misunderstood mammal – bats? Join us to learn all about these fascinating creatures before heading out at dusk for a guided bat walk to see (and hear!) them in action.
We’ll begin the evening with a workshop where you’ll learn about the life-cycle of bats and which bats you’ll likely see around the farm and Hampstead Heath. You’ll get some facts that demonstrate how amazing these creatures are – here are some to whet your appetite:
- A pipistrelle bat needs to eat about 3,000 mosquitos a night.
- Bats are the only mammals in the world capable of true, sustained flight (flying squirrels just glide!).
- Bats find their way using echolocation where they call out and listen for the echoes bouncing off objects around them.
Once the sun sets, we’ll head outside with bat detectors to tune into the bat’s calls (which are too high-pitched to hear without a bat detector) and watch them swoop and dive overhead as they hunt for insects.
All ages are welcome for this workshop. Last year children joined their parents to have an exciting after-dark outdoor adventure.
The workshop is free to attend but please register using this form:
https://forms.gle/4UDjW7BMmW8MgpWH8
Why we should all love moths
A meal, a talk by Tim Blackburn and then a chance to see how moth traps are set up
Wednesday 12th September 6.30pm-9.30pm
Kentish Town City Farm, NW5 4BN
This workshop is free to attend but you need to register here:
https://www.capitalgrowth.org/whats-on/apr26-moth-trapping-big-city-bug-hunt/
During the evening we will be providing an evening meal (donations towards the food will be welcome).
Moths are jewels of our natural heritage. They’re as beautiful as butterflies and as industrious as bees, yet lots of people I talk to seem to have an instinctive dislike of these insects. I will introduce you to the wonderful diversity of moths, which can be found even in the dark heart of the inner city. I will show how they can inform about how the natural world works, and explain why they are such important links in the web of life that includes you and me. Hopefully, by the end of the talk, you will have a little more appreciation of this amazing group of insects.
Register for the workshop here with Capital Growth.
Professor Tim Blackburn is a scientist with thirty years of experience studying questions about the distribution, abundance and diversity of species in ecological communities. He is currently Professor of Invasion Biology at University College London, where his research focuses on alien species, and his teaching mainly involves leading field courses. Before that he was the Director of the Institute of Zoology, the research arm of the Zoological Society of London. Tim regularly reports the findings in his moth trap in Camden on his Bluesky feed: @MothyBlackburn.bsky.social
This workshop is being organised in partnership between Kentish Town City Farm, Permablitz London and Capital Growth.