Walk on the wild side

I've long known the difference between a moorhen and a coot, but telling a lime from a beech tree wasn't always so easy. Eventually, I twigged that beeches are usually found in woodland and limes are fairly common in parks, where they were often planted to form majestic avenues. And so it was with a fair amount of certainty, and a little smugness, that I stood admiring an 18th century parade of trees in Londesborough Park, on the western slopes of the Yorkshire Wolds, and identified some of them as limes...

Oh dear, I've just given away the answer to a question. It's one of several in a new pack launched this summer to help people explore the wildlife and history along parts of the Yorkshire Wolds Way.

The so-called Tracker Packs have been compiled for four short circular walks along the 79-mile footpath between Hessle on the Humber and Filey Brigg on the Yorkshire coast. They contain everything from binoculars, specimen jars, magnifying glass and compass to identification cards and even a finger puppet of a bee, which is used to pollinate flowers.

The whole lot comes in a sturdy shoulder bag, and can be borrowed for one day free of charge so long as you leave a 10 deposit and provide proof of identity. The packs are a pilot scheme by Natural England, and if successful they may be introduced on other National Trails like the Pennine Way and the Cleveland Way.

I could have borrowed Tracker Packs for a wildlife walk at Welton on the west side of Hull, or a history ramble around the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy in the northern Wolds, or a seaside "scramble" at Filey, but chose to try out the pack for Londesborough Park, a once-grand country estate first laid out in the 16th century.

I collected it from the friendly staff at Market Weighton's The Paper Shop, and after completing a bit of paperwork I headed for the nearby village of Londesborough.

The accompanying map was easy to use and soon led me out of the village and over a large field to the first information point marked with an orange dot. On arrival I took out the corresponding orange activity bag to see what was inside.

Measuring the enormous oak tree in front of me was the point of this task. Unfortunately, I needed two people for the job and I was alone. But the ingenious idea of the task is worth sharing – get someone to stand under the tree, hold out your thumb and ask them to walk forward until they are the same size as the thumb, then count how many thumbs fit into the height of three. Finally, take your partner's height (say 5ft 5 inches) and multiply it by the number of thumbs in the tree (say 10), to work out that the tree is just under 55 feet tall.

Further on, there was a map reading and compass exercise before I arrived at one of Londesborough's beautiful lakes for some birdwatching. The plastic binoculars included with the pack have a magnification of 6 x 30 and are unlikely to become a twitchers' optics of choice but proved perfectly adequate for the task: spot the difference between a moorhen and coot.

Or they would have done if moorhens hadn't remained unsportingly out of sight. A coot and two chicks, however, did splash about on the fringes of some reeds and rushes. The rest of the task – using a tally counter to record the number of birds spotted in five minutes – was somewhat easier. My five minutes' worth broke down as: five woodpigeons, three coots, two mallard, one tufted duck, one heron, one buzzard and one robin, plus something birdwatchers call an "lbj" (little brown job) which evaded identification.

Now on the homeward stretch, the next information point on the map was a felled tree. The first task here was to use the pack's tally counter and magnifying glass to calculate the precise age of the tree by counting its rings.

Some of the rings were extremely narrow, others wide, and I got to 114 before losing my place and deciding that the answer to the question was "very very old". Another task involved finding some of the decayed tree trunk's various insects to identify by placing them in pack's so-called "nature viewer", a glass jar with a magnifying lid.

There were plenty of bees, wasps and hoverflies around but they didn't look like they'd be too obliging with this task. A beetle beat a hasty retreat between a crevice in the bark, but a woodlice obligingly yielded to examination by a couple of great eyeballs in the sky.

A fun game with about a dozen plastic insects aimed at discovering why their colours camouflage them so well in the grass led me to ponder that while these tracker packs are a brilliant idea, and should have a lot of appeal, a lot of care is required to avoid losing one or two of the numerous contents.

Thankfully, everything was present and correct when I checked them back into the pack. And what should come running out of a hedge bottom as I set off home but... the hitherto absent moorhen.

Later, Malcolm Hodgson, national trail officer for the Yorkshire Wolds Way, told me: "The packs are aimed at families, so they can learn a bit more about things when they're out on a walk, and enhance the outdoors experience instead of simply enjoying the fresh air and views."

There are four Tracker Packs funded by Natural England, East Riding Council and North Yorkshire County Council. There are four packs for each route available below:

The Welton Wildlife Corridor (a three-mile circular route) available from: Hull Tourist Information Centre, 1 Paragon Street, Hull, HU1 3NA, phone 0844811 2070 or email [email protected]

The Londesborough Parkland Ramble (a two-mile circular route) available from: The Paper Shop, 66 Market Place, Market Weighton, YO43 3AW, phone 01430 872248 or email [email protected]

The Wharram Percy History Detective Pack (a four-mile circular route) available from Malton Tourist Information Centre, Malton Museum, Market Place, Malton, YO17 7LP, phone 01653 600048 or email [email protected]

The Filey Seaside Scramble (a four-mile circular route) available from Filey Tourist Information Centre, The Evron Centre, John Street, Filey, YO14 9DW, phone 01723 383636 or email [email protected]

YP MAG 14/8/10