Our new bird hide/wildlife hut arrived at school on Friday, 10th May and was promptly erected to overlook our pond and wooded area. The purchase of the hide was funded by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund which has also enabled us to purchase binoculars, a bird feeding station, bird food, a hedgehog house, a ladybird/lacewing box and a replacement colour camera for our B&W birdcam box. In the coming weeks we will also be planting up the area around the hide with plants to encourage further wildlife into the school grounds.
Our Wildlife Diary
The children have been busy checking out the new hide giving their suggestions for kitting it out and improving its surroundings. A list of these has been added to the comments of this post; please feel free to give your ideas by leaving a comment.
During our initial trips to the hide we have manage to spot 17 species of birds: Stock Dove, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Rook, Jackdaw, Blackbird, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock, Tree Sparrow, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin and Chiffchaff (heard). They also saw some Orange-tip butterflies, a white butterfly and a squirrel. All sightings are recorded in our new wildlife diary which has been beautifully decorated by CL.
Here are the suggestions so far for improving our wildlife area and hide:
Bird food, bird ID poster, bird books, butterfly book, logbook/diary, stools to stand on, wooden bench, post to hold door open, safety sign for binoculars, bird bath/saucer, sunflowers, flowering plants/herbs, cloth for wiping windows, gutter and water butt, plants to grow up hid, door mat, making fat balls, internal bird box with hole from outside (possibly with one way glass!), camera to take photos of birds.