Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, attended the Perton Springwatch Festival on Saturday 12th April.
The free annual event was the eigth edition of the Festival, which is hosted each year by Wild About Perton and the Perton Library, and supported by various wildlife and environmental organisations.
Students from Perton Middle School and Perton First School also helped to prepare this year’s event.
Gavin said: “I greatly enjoyed my visit to the Perton Springwatch Festival. The event was extremely popular and attracted around 2,000 visitors, which I am reliably informed is a new record.
“It was also wonderful to be able to meet the many volunteers, who worked extremely hard to make the Festival such a big success, and I was delighted to be given the chance to hold a hedgehog for the second year running!”
The 2014 Festival featured the widest variety of wildlife to date. Visitors were given the chance to meet animals such as the Daubenton bat, Celly the hedgehog, ferrets, lambs, hens, goats, greyhounds, and Perton’s very own aquatic mini-beasts.
Additionally, donkey rides were offered to the younger family members, a group of owls and raptors were featured in a flying display and families had the opportunity to take a wildlife walk.