Tuesday 20 September 2011

Our First Meeting: Setting up the Bird Feeding Station

I was greeted tonight by lots of keen, eager WOW Club members, all ready to get stuck in on the first Wildlife project of the new term.... getting our bird feeding station up and running. The club members will then be responsible for keeping all the feeders topped up. I will also be teaching them how to recognise all the birds that visit, so they can then hold birdwatching sessions for other children in the school and help them to learn about the feathered visitors we get to our school grounds.

The club members were greeted by a table full of 'goodies' when they came after school..... a big pile of dead sunflowers from the school garden, some bird feeders and food and a flat pack bird table which we bought out of our Tesco vouchers!


Our first job of the day was to harvest all the sunflower seeds so we could use them in one of our bird feeders..... most of the group had not appreciated that sunflower seeds actually come from a sunflower! We talked about how they are formed and looked at the large number that were produced in some of the heads we had. Sadly, these had fallen over and got a bit damp, but we did our best to get all the seeds out. We also discovered some other wildlife... lots of earwigs that like living inside the sunflower heads, plus a few spiders, beetles and a ladybird!






Next, we took a look at the different types of bird feeders we had and the different food types. We learnt about how a wide variety of foods and feeders will attract lots of different birds. I bought some spare feeders in from home to use in school and we hope to get some more types soon... a niger one for the goldfinches perhaps!


As it had stopped raining, we took the feeders outside to fill them all up.... we had already made enough mess in school with bits of sunflower seeds!!!






It was not long before they were all ready to be hung up! Everyone was really pleased and excited about what they are going to attract to our garden!


All that was left was to get the camera and the live stream set up again. We moved the feeders around and checked on the computer, that they looked good. We could see the set up on the live stream on our website. It is great to have the live stream as it means that we can all watch the bird feeders when we are at home and we can share our feeders with lots of other people too! You will be able to see our ive stream camera on our school website and on the WOW Club member page on my WildlifeKate 'My Patch' page.


We finished tonight's meeting by taking a look at  my WildlifeKate website and taking a look at what was visiting my feeders. The kids were excited to see a blue tit and a greenfinch.


Time had flown past and we had not had time to make our new bird table... that will have to wait until next week. A great start to WOW! Club and I am sure when I return to school next Monday, there will be lots of excited children waiting to tell me what has been visiting our feeders.

Monday 19 September 2011

Preparing for the first meeting of WOW! Club

I have lots of excited children at school, waiting for Tuesday night and the first meeting of WOW Club. I have set up this blog so we can share all the things we get up to in this club and we also have a Flickr account so I can upload photos of the activities we take part in. The members of WOW Club will be doing some of the blogging.... not leaving it all up to me, so watch this space and learn along with us about the wildlife in our patch at school!