Exploring wildlife habitats at Mile End

Primary schools in East London took part in a project encouraging children to explore wildlife habitats

170 children from four primary schools in East London visited Mile End Park over two weeks in April and June to explore the contrasting wildlife habitats of the park and the Regent’s Canal. The children were surprised by the wide variety of water creatures they found whilst dipping in the pond in the park including snails, damselfly nymphs, mayfly nymphs and water lice. They also contributed to the BW Wildlife Survey by identifying the water birds that live along the Regent’s Canal including coots, moorhens, swans and Canada geese. The highlight of their trip was hunting for worms. This was part of a project by the Open Air Laboratory Network (OPAL) encouraging children to take part in an on-line survey about soil and earthworms in different UK locations. The children quickly became experts in spotting the difference between adult and young worms and identifying which of 12 earthworm species they had found.