Surprisingly my latest venture back to school was rather more enjoyable than previous events. After 6th form I vowed never to darken a school door again, and the only times I have broken that rule is to take swimming lessons (probably the worst combination I can think of . . ), to listen to various talks (usually boring), and to vote (generally making the wrong choice). So in rather apprehensive mood I joined Malcolm at the local school to carry out a survey of their wildlife area with a group of young natural history enthusiasts.
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| Overgrown Pond |
The youngsters, led by their teacher, helped to map out an area of the school grounds which has had a pond on it for several years. The idea is that we help them to decide how to renovate the pond so that it can provide an outdoor classroom area for various scientific and geography projects.
As we wandered around the area with the girls we decided what made up the various strategic parts of the garden. We found a huge area behind trees and hedging which was being mown in the centre but left with broad grassy edges. An allotment was also being developed with various vegetables and fruits being grown. Many samples of leaves and flowers were taken which were then scanned and filed for future investigation. We found two mallows, orchids, caterpillars, snails, many differing trees and shrubs.
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| Wild space |
After a morning of mapping, measuring and photography, the afteroon was spent pond dipping and once again, photographing the species found which included leeches, water-boatmen, beetles, and common newt tadpoles.
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| Common Newt Tadpole |
The plan is to track the pond area initially and then in the next few years work on the rest - hopefully leaving the school to take on this project fully after the initial input from ourselves.
Here's wishing them well
