GILBERT White’s House Museum in Selborne is holding its second annual Nature Festival next Saturday (May 27).

The day is for everyone, from families looking for a great day out to those passionate about nature and its conservation.

The festival will consist of organisations such as the RSPB, South Downs National Park Authority, The National Trust, Naturetrek, Hampshire Fungus Recording Group, Hampshire Bat Group, Fresh Water Habitats Trust and Hampshire Ornithological Society, who will be running stalls and activities.

There will be interactive stalls, guided walks, nature games and activities, live demonstrations, and nature exploration.

Event organiser Amanda Pagett said: “Gilbert White is referred to as the father of ecology, and his work is some of the earliest in the fields of ornithology and phenology. We think it is essential to follow in his footsteps by raising public awareness about the diversity of nature around us. The aim of this event is to have fun while doing just that.”

The Nature Festival runs from 10.30am to 5pm and admission is £7 for adults and £3 for children, which includes access to the house and gardens as well as the activities.

The festival will run alongside the Gilbert White’s 24-hour ‘Bioblitz’, which runs from 10.30am on May 27 to 10.30am the following day.

Once the Nature Festival closes, the Gilbert White Field Studies Centre will become the base for the operation. Visitors and experts will be collecting data on an array of species in the grounds and the results, collated with the help Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre’s team, will go toward a Modern Natural History of Selborne, continuing White’s legacy into the 21st Century.

Evening activities will include a talk by Naturetrek on exploration beyond the Selborne Hanger, to be followed by an investigation of the newts and bats below the hanger lead by the Natural History Museum’s identification trainers and Nik Knight from the Hampshire Bat Group.

Naturetrek will then lead an investigation of moths, setting up traps. Early on the Sunday, May 28, the moth traps will be opened to enable the recording of what has been caught. Breakfast will be followed by an informative walk with Chris Webb, a National Trust warden, on Selborne Common.

For more details or to book, visit gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk.