Gosforth’s Wild Web encourages everyone to notice nature near them, find out how you could get involved and make your very own A-Z
As part of Gosforth’s Wild Web, everyone is encouraged to share their finds and sightings on iNaturalist and iRecord to reveal how nature used our urban spaces. Now, you can share your favourite nature finds and be as creative as you’d like in setting up your very own A-Z of nature. You can draw, paint, photograph, collage, the possibilities are endless!
An A-Z of nature is a way of recording what you see by naming species which correlate to all letters of the alphabet. This can help you improve your ID skills, be creative and understand more of what wildlife surrounds you while you are out enjoying nature. Nature A-Zs will change over the seasons and the habitat you record them in and can be created for all species you find or just one.
You have already been creating some fantastic A-Zs such as the Rambling Rosy’s A-Z of Spring Nature, by volunteer of Friends of Rising Sun Country Park, Claire Partleton, which follows Rosy the Lego figure on her adventure through the country park.
Recently, Dick Gillespie, a member of the Natural History Society of Northumbria, created a hand sketched A-Z and kindly donated it to be displayed at next year’s summer exhibition as well as accessioned in the archive for people to enjoy for years to come. Another one of our long-standing volunteers, Neil Pont, created a photographed A-Z book of nature found at Gosforth Nature Reserve, featuring an array of fascinating wildlife sighted in all habitats across the reserve.
Summer 2025 will host the Nature A-Z Exhibition, held in the Field Studies Room at Gosforth Nature Reserve. A-Zs created over the two years of Gosforth’s Wild Web, will be displayed in an exhibition, featuring A-Zs from locals, members, volunteers, community groups and schools. Everyone can get involved and we would love to see what you could create.
If you would like to make your own A-Z, share it with us via email at nhsn@ncl.ac.uk . We would love to see what you can create!
“We are so excited to be working with local community groups like the Women’s Institute, to produce crafted A-Zs for next year’s summer exhibition. We are looking forward to seeing what everyone can create.”
Emily Anderson, Assistant Naturalist
