Come along to the Oxford Festival of Nature at Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park on Saturday and explore Oxford’s largest park to discover the wildlife that lives there.

Andy Gunn, one of the organisers of the festival, is looking forward to introducing people to their local wildlife. “Most people who visit Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park are playing on the sports pitches, walking their dogs, or looking after their children on the playgrounds.

“When they come along to the festival they’ll have a chance to explore the hedgerows, ponds, woods and grassland to discover the small animals, butterflies, birds and beautiful insects like dragonflies.”

Budding citizen scientists can go on guided walks to hunt for creatures. “We’ve got a team of knowledgeable experts who can help people who want to know the names of creepy-crawlies and butterflies they see in gardens or out on walks,” said Andy.

There are events and walks on Saturday morning to discover shrews and voles that the Oxfordshire Mammal Group will have trapped overnight. Once these little creatures have been weighed and recorded, they will be released unharmed.

We’ll be finding out what lives in the ponds in the park, and taking a good look at the crayfish that live in the River Cherwell. Most of them will be American signal crayfish which are taking over in UK streams and causing problems for the native crayfish. The park’s wetlands and ponds will be havens for newts, frogs and toads, many of which are newly hatched from tadpoles. Water insects such as dragonflies and damselflies are fascinating to see as they dart and hover around the reeds. The Wild Fair at the Oxford Festival of Nature runs from noon to 4pm and includes lots of activities such as meeting and handling birds of prey, making bird boxes, wildlife story-telling, face painting and crafts.

There’s a large pop-up wildlife garden with Butterfly Borders and Creature Features to inspire everyone to make space for bees, hedgehogs and birds.

As part of the Wild Oxford project children from the wildlife club at Rose Hill have made Care Crows to be displayed in the wildlife garden. These wonderful creatures will look after the birds rather than scaring them away, and have specially created pockets for plants and bird feeders that look like ornaments.

The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust is running the Oxford Festival of Nature on behalf of Science Oxford, and there is a scientific aspect to the fun of discovering wildlife at the festival.

Part of the park will be studied by ecologists to record the numbers of different species, so that Oxford City Council can make sure its Biodiversity Action Plan for the park helps to maintain the right habitats.

Andy Gunn said: “We’re very grateful to Oxford City Council for giving us so much support with the Oxford Festival of Nature.

“The parks team do a great job looking after the city’s wild and green spaces, and they will be using the information we collect in the surveys to continue this work.”

Several local community groups and organisations will be represented at the Wild Fair, and BBC Radio Oxford is recording a special Gardeners’ Question Time to be broadcast in Sunday’s Garden Café programme.

The Oxford Festival of Nature starts on Friday evening with talks and walks from Cutteslowe Community Centre. Keen nature enthusiasts will be out at 5am for a dawn chorus walk and the Oxfordshire Mammal Group will be back on site at 8.30am to open up the mammal traps they set the previous evening.

The Wild Fair opens at noon and runs to 4pm.