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Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s New Jam-Packed Programme Of Events Promises Wild Experiences For All

Puffin festival Photo: © Bren O'Hara

Ever spotted a glow worm doing its evening courtship dance? What about catching sight of a whizzing pipistrelle bat or hunting for shark eggs? Have you headed out for a night-time rockpool adventure or done a crafting course using seagrass or marine plastic? Now’s your chance!

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have released this year’s programme of wild events designed to get everyone – no matter where they live or how much experience they have with our natural world – out into nature. Join their experienced and expert leaders who can help everyone discover the best of Yorkshire’s wildlife and how to enjoy it.

Spring is announced with the cacophony of the dawn chorus, an orchestra of birds singing in the warmer season and quite an experience if you take time for a woodland wander. Butterflies and dragonflies begin to emerge, fluttering amongst increasingly colourful patches of wildflowers, and by late summer bats and swifts whizz overhead, puffins and seabirds return to our cliffs and otters bask in the sun.

Spring and summer are a fantastic time of year to get out and about in Yorkshire – the sun is out more often than it isn’t, and the best of our wild experiences are starting to burst into life. Yorkshire is an incredible county for wildlife, with so many different and amazing experiences – from colourful puffins perched on the white cliffs of Flamborough to seals, shark eggs and bats at very own Land’s End at Spurn Point, wetland and pond wildlife at Potteric Carr in Doncaster, glow worms in Leeds and everything in between.

We’ve been running an events programme for 40 years, and are always excited to welcome new people along - whatever their experience with the natural world. Whether you’re a wildlife expert, a crafter, entirely new to our wilder world or just want a fun new adventure, come along and experience our truly wild Yorkshire, and all the wildlife that calls it home.

Kat Woolley, Inspiring People Manager at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s events guide takes place across a number of the Trust’s nature reserves, offering a range of activities and experiences from free and low-cost drop-in events right up to bespoke expert guided tours, and is packed full of wild fun to see you through until September 2024, including:

Glow Worm Wanders - join our expert guide for an illuminating nighttime adventure on the search for glow-worms. With adult glow-worms active for only a few weeks in the summer, it’s a wildlife wonder not to be missed!
Brilliant Bat Walks across the county, from Doncaster to Spurn to Leeds to Castle Howard and everywhere in between – join us after dark with bat detectors to see what you can listen out for, and catch a glimpse of a pipistrelle whizzing past!
Bug hunts for the intrepid creepy crawly enthusiast, whether it’s at windswept Spurn, reedy North Cave Wetlands or refined Castle Howard.
Yorkshire Puffin Festival in early June at Flamborough Head – come along for a full calendar of events and spot our colourful parrots of the sea nestling into the cliffs, and meet Cliff our Puffin mascot!
Creative crafting workshops: whether it’s charcoal making and sketching, or painting with a brew, at Potteric Carr in Doncaster, seaglass crafts and jewellery making or seaweed soap making at the Living Seas Centre near Flamborough, or marine litter art at Spurn.
Enjoy a rockpool ramble or seashore safari at the Living Seas Centre – including some particularly exciting after dark events – come on a shark egg hunt, or help out at one of our many beach cleans along the Yorkshire coast.
There’s even something for little’uns, as we celebrate 10 years of running our nature themed sessions for pre-school children!

Find out more on Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s website and explore our online events listings and events guide – or pick up a copy from heritage sites and venues across the region, including York Minster, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Ripon Museum, Hull and East Riding Museum, and The Civic in Barnsley.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s events programme is funded thanks to the players of People’s Postcode Lottery.