Earthquake in the Channel

Hi all

I am back in England now. The strangest thing happened today - we had an earthquake in the English Channel and you could feel it on my local beach at Shoreham.

As you know I found out about earthquakes when I was in the USA and I even sat on a post above the San Andreas Fault where two of the earths plates meet. That all sounds a bit complicated, so you can find out more on the link below.

http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

The earthquake in the English Channel was very small and just caused some very minor shaking - most people did not even notice it. Luckily we are a long way from a major fault line because that is where big earthquakes can happen.

Bye for now

Ed the Bear

School Visit to teach about Oceans

Hi all

Today I had a really fun and interesting day teaching children at Peter Gladwin Primary School all about the amazing oceans. The children found out about my special beach with rare vegetated shingle and fascinating animal visitors. They also learned a lot about the ocean and about the dangers marine animals face from pollution and plastic debris.

Some of the children learned about the plight of the Laysan albatross that I met in the Hawaiian Islands. They found out that the parents accidentally feed plastic litter to their chicks as well as food because they can't tell the difference.

The children really enjoyed my visit and had their photograph taken with me. They were very concerned about the threats to ocean wildlife and came up with loads of ideas about how they could help.

Two of the children made me and my buddy Steve (school children call him Mr Savage) a special thank you card which they gave us at the end of the day on behalf of all the children. 

It was really nice.

They also made us both badges. I am wearing mine. It says 'Fantastic Bear Well Done'.

I hope I get the chance to visit them again another time.

I'm off to America again tomorrow to visit the NABS Youth Summit. I think I had better finish packing and have an early night.

Bye for now, Ed the Bear

Adur World Oceans Day

Hi all

I am the Adur World Oceans Day Event. This year it has joined with the Environment Festival so there are displays about the environment and also stands where people are selling environmentally friendly products.

My buddy Steve brought his dolphin display and pictures showing dolphins and seals that have been seen locally.

We also brought along a display about my travels and global conservation issue.

There were lots of children visiting the exhibition and they enjoyed finding out about my travels and many were concerned to find out about marine debris, pollution and many other ocean problems.

This included the ocean acidification demonstration which created a lot of interest, especially with adult visitors.

The Friends of Shoreham Beach had a wonderful display about Shoreham Beach, the plants and also did some great art activities with the children.

I had a quick look around at the displays. I saw interesting fish in this tank.

I thought this girl was very brave touching the edible crab - look at the size of its pincers.

It was a very busy day but lots of fun.

Bye for now

Ed the Bear 

Happy World Oceans Day

Hi Everyone

Today is World Oceans Day, a day to celebrate the oceans. I will be at the Adur World Oceans Day event again this year, on Saturday

Happy World Oceans Day

Ed the Bear

Spring Watch Festival Brighton

Hi

I am here with my buddy Steve at the Spring Watch Festival in Stanmar Park Brighton.

We have brought along a display about my adventures and a display about local dolphin and seal sightings.

My display tells the story of my adventures so far, why I have been travelling, amazing wildlife and people I have meet and how we can all help the oceans.

My display also included a strandline object quiz and a demonstration explaining ocean acidification.

We were in a special area of the festival called the marine zone. We were inside a special tent, which was good as it soon started to rain.

On one side of us was a display by the Sussex Wildlife Trust.

Their display told people lots of things about marine wildlife around our coasts and included an actual beach

Above the beach was a cliff with model seabirds.

To the other side of us was a display by Planet Whale. They had an inflatable pilot whale.

The people running the stand had really cool whale hats. I wish I had one of those.

We spoke to lots of people. Even though it was raining, lots of people still came to the festival. I thought I would have a look around to see what else was going on at the festival.

I checked the map to see where I needed to go. I thought I would go and have a look at the birds of prey.

The birds of prey were amazing and looked beautiful and also a bit dangerous for a little bear like me.

This is a barn owl

and this is a hawk

This is a baby hawk which the man was hand rearing.

I thought I would watch the demonstration where they allow the birds to fly. I watched the hawks first and they were really fast.

Then this big bird was brought out into the arena.

The bird then flew and pounced on a lure - a pretend rabbit which is its natural food.

I thought the rabbit looked a bit too much like me and I was worried the bird might mistake me for its dinner so I went to look at some of the other exhibits.

Next I saw the llamas

They were very cute and looked a bit like camels without a hump.

We have lots of bees on Shoreham Beach because of the shingle plants, so I wanted to find out more about honey bees.The Brighton Bee Keepers were doing a demonstration.

This is a hive, you can see the honeycomb

Here are lots of honey bees in a special hive with a glass window where you can see all the bees inside.

I then went back to our displays and found they were very busy with lots of people asking about ocean acidification, having a go at my quiz, looking at the pictures of where I had travelled and also looking at my buddy Steve's dolphin model.

Wow! what an amazing day. I meet lots of people and I also met one of the children who came to my course back in January. You can see the course on the link below

http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/2011/01/teaching-children-about-oceans.html

I am feeling rather tired now and a bit hungry. I should have asked the bees for some honey.

Bye for now, Ed the Bear

5 year Celebration of the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve

Hi all

Well, I can't believe that the nature reserve has been proetcting Shoreham Beach for 5 years now. As you know there is a display all about Shoreham Beach, including my adventures, in the Marlipins Museum in Shoreham.

The Friends of Shoreham Beach organised a special 5 year celebration of the Nature Reserve and I was lucky enought to be invited. Everyone who has helped to set up and support the nature reserve was intited, including my buddy Steve. The celebration was held in teh same room that where we had our display set up.

It was a very joyous evening and great for everyone involved to get together for a celebration.

Bye for now, Ed the Bear

Teaching children about the vegetated shingle on Shoreham Beach

Hi all


While I have been here in the UK I have been helping out on the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve.

As you know, my local beach is part of the nature reserve. One of my favourite plants, Sea Kale, is now in flower.

This plant is called bitter sweet. This is a small plant, they grow much bigger. This plant is also called woody nightshade, related to deadly night shade.

The berries are poisonous.

Today we worked with a school group who were learning about the nature reserve. They did a transect survey of the shingle plant communities.

This means they measured a straight line from the top of the beach down to the high tide mark. They then divided this straight line into 1 metre squares and recorded the different plants they found.

They used special identification sheets so that they could recognise the different plants.

Later we recorded the different animals that we could see.

I saw this herring gull trying to break open a seashell. It kept flying up into the sky and then dropping the seashell to break it so the gull could eat the animal inside.

We saw birds visiting the plants as well. We also saw lots of lizards that were enjoying the sunshine.

My buddy Steve has been studying the bees that visit the special vegetated shingle plants. The bees pollinate the flowers so they are very important. The children helped to record the bees we saw.

This is a two banded bumble bee on the sea kale flowers.

This is a honey bee on the sea kale

This is a red tailed bumble bee visiting a yellow horned poppy flower.

This red tailed bumble bee is visiting the thrift

There many other insects on the plants

This woolly caterpillar will grow into a beautiful garden tiger moth

We saw these two beetles as well.

There were also many spiders, some in webs others like this zebra spider runs along the ground. It is a type of jumping spider which can also jump from plant to plant.

We saw lots of different animals and of course the most important thing about the vegetated shingle is that it is a rare habitat both in the UK and worldwide. I am really lucky to live near such as special beach.

Bye for now

Ed the Bear