BTO NI's Big Nature Day

Bird identification workshop at Oxford Island in 2023, by Jemma Davies / BTO
Level
Beginner/Improver
Presenter
Sorrel Lyall, Lois Clements, Andrew Upton, Hala Haddad
Date
Saturday, June 7, 2025 - 07:00 to 16:00
Places
Places available
Book places online

Join us on Saturday 7th June at the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre and Oxford Island National Nature Reserve for a day of fun, interactive, and informative wildlife workshops.

Enjoy, learn about, and celebrate Northern Ireland’s nature with us at our Big Nature Day - a day filled with interactive workshops to introduce you to a whole range of wildlife. We’re bringing together several of NI’s nature organisations to get you hands on with moths, butterflies, plants, birds, and insects through a variety of activities.

Join us to:
  • Try out a whole range of nature activities
  • Develop your skills in wildlife identification and recording
  • Meet other people interested in wildlife
  • Explore the wonderful Oxford Island Nature Reserve with enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff and volunteers from NI’s nature organisations

Whether you’ve not done any nature activities before, or you’re looking to develop your wildlife skills, you are most welcome. We’d love for people to learn from each other in a sociable, friendly, and fun environment!

This event is aimed at people of all ages who are interested in learning more about Northern Ireland’s wildlife. Under 18s are most welcome and must be accompanied by an adult, and there will be a youth session for anyone aged 25 and under!

Timings:

Early birds are welcome to arrive from 7am to take part in the early morning activities, however the main activities will begin at 10am and finish at 4pm. Arrival later than 10am is fine too! There will still be plenty to get involved with. A full programme will follow.
 

Booking is essential to secure your spot. 

Entry is £15 per person* and £8 for under 18s - this includes registration, tea/coffee, and lunch.

*For those on lower incomes: we have a limited number of tickets available at a price of £10. We want everyone to be able to join us and so for those on lower incomes, including young people aged 18-25 and anyone else for whom the full ticket price would be a barrier, please feel free to choose this option.

To book your place, click the 'book places online' button on the right of this page. The BTO website is sometimes slow. Please be patient while subsequent pages load.

Booking closes at midnight on Sunday 1st June.

We’re delighted to be able to subsidise the ticket cost thanks to our NIEA funding.

Public transport:

For those looking to travel by public transport, there are trains or buses to Lurgan, from where we can arrange pick ups and drop offs as it's a 10 minute drive to the venue from there. Please get in touch with us at northern.ireland [at] bto.org if you would like to arrange this.

Accessibility:

The Lough Neagh Discovery Centre venue is accessible, please find more information on AccessAble here. Please do get in touch with us at northern.ireland [at] bto.org to chat about any accessibility requirements so we can maximise your enjoyment of the day!