Bird Box Building (Sunday FEB 10th 2008 10am-1pm)

 

This morning with the help of St Matthew's Scout Group we held a bird box building session in the country park.  The timber had been cut to size for us by the wood yard and so it was a case of nailing the pieces together using the picnic tables as work benches.  A piece of roofing felt was then fixed to the roof of each box to hopefully prolong its life.    It was a beautiful sunny morning as you can see from the photograph!  We made 2 sizes of open fronted bird boxes, the larger suitable for robins and the smaller sized boxes for spotted flycatchers.

 

 

KIDS GO WILD: WICKED WINTER WILDLIFE TRAIL (Tuesday 12th FEB 10.30am–2.30pm)

 

64 children followed the wildlife trail learning about the lives of robins as they went along. Each child took home a robin fat ball to hang up in their garden.

WORKSHOP (Tuesday FEB 19th 2008 6.30-9.00pm)

 

The first part of this session was spent looking at diagrams of treecreeper nest boxes and working out which designs we where going to try and replicate in the country park at the next outdoor session.  We discussed what equipment we would need to make these very experimental "boxes" out of pieces of bark and natural cavities in trees.

 

In the second part of the workshop Richard Baines introduced the group to the methods involved in carrying out bird surveys.  There are 2 types of bird surveys: generic and species specific.  Generic surveys can include breeding bird surveys, winter bird surveys, habitat surveys. Species specific surveys obviously just include a specified species.

 

A survey gives a representative picture of what is happening at a particular time.  It is a snapshot.  A survey repeated at every few years is very helpful in identifying what changes are taking place and can inform a management plan of a site.

 

Common bird surveys require a minimum of 7 visits with 10 visits being the ideal.  Territory mapping visits involve designing a route through the area which is followed in alternating clockwise and anticlockwise directions on each visit.  The best times for surveying are 1-2 hours after dawn and 1-2 hours after midday.   Every call and every sighting is recorded on a map.  A breeding bird survey takes place from the 3rd to 4th week in March until July.  Three or more registrations in one area exhibiting certain characteristics are deemed to represent a territory.

 

The results of all visits are combined onto one map and from where territories may be determined.  A map in the scale of 1:5,000 or 1:10,000 should be used.

 

Common bird survey - 7-10 visits.

Breeding bird survey - 3 visits.

OUTDOOR (Tuesday 4th March 6.45-9.00pm) Tawny Owl Survey

 

This was a very exciting evening as we carried out a tawny owl survey in the country park which has never been done before.  It was a very cold evening and it must have been a strange sight for anyone watching all 14 of us set off into the country park under torchlight clutching clipboards and red pens!

We split into 2 groups each taking a different section of the park and used walkie talkies to stay in contact with each other.  At approximately 15 minute intervals each group played a recording of a tawny owl call and listened intently for any response from a real tawny owl.  Both groups heard one response and recorded it in the same area of woodland at 7.40pm.  This turned out to be the only response we got.  When the group finally met up in the middle of the park we decided to all head back together to the area in which the real tawny owl call was heard.  We played the recording again and unbelievably we had a response from 2 tawny owls which we think are possibly a male and female breeding pair.  It is likely that this survey may be repeated in a few weeks time.

OUTDOOR (Sunday 9th March 2008 10am-3pm) Willow Day

 

WORKSHOP Tuesday 18th March 2008

Tonight we had an inquest into the Tawny Owl survey we carried out on the 4th March. Good points and bad points were discussed and ways of improving it were suggested.  These will be put into practice when we repeat the survey next month.

Easter Egg Trail  Sunday 23rd March 2008 1pm - 4pm

110 people braved the chilly weather on Easter Sunday, following the Easter Trail and dodging hail storms at the same time - they were rewarded with chocolate!

NEST BUILDING FOR BEGINNERS! Wednesday 26th March 2008 10am–12 noon & 1pm–3pm

 

Today we discovered that it is harder to build a nest than you might think!  After collecting our nesting material from around the nature reserve we experimented with building a nest in the woods before a grand finale of making a giant nest into which we all climbed.  (Children's event!!)

OUTDOOR Tuesday 8th April 6.30pm-10pm 2nd Tawny Owl Survey

This was our 2nd tawny owl survey in the park and we were all optimistic that we would get a positive recording this evening.  We spent the first couple of hours walking through the park recording survey locations with a GPS, trying to locate the same points we used in the previous survey.  This was more or less completed as dusk descended.  We then retraced our steps and played our owl loop at each survey location.  It was a very long evening and much to our disappointment we didn't get a response!.  The two tawny owls we recorded last time must have been out hunting elsewhere!

OUTDOOR Sunday 13th April 2008 10am-3.30pm BIrdwatching and Spotted flycatcher nestbox building

OUTDOOR Tuesday 6th May 2008 7pm-9pm Putting up the Spotted flycatcher boxes