Wildlife Watch Group

Next Meeting to be arranged.

The watch group is part of Herts and Middlesex wildlife trust. It holds meetings on the third Sunday of the month, and helps to encourage children between the ages of
8–13 to enjoy nature and the environment.

We meet at Lemsford Springs and have a brand new classroom. If you wish to be registered onto or distribution list or require more information please email Andy at chapman.lc@btinternet.com

November 2007 Meeting Do you have a few hours to spare each month? Would you enjoy running pond dipping, bug hunts and other fun activities? Would you enjoy helping 8-13 year olds develop an awareness of the environment? If you can answer YES to each of these questions Andy & Kate would welcome you to the group. Email Andy, chapman.lc@btinternet.com or go to the official Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/herts

OPEN DAY SEPTEMBER 2006
APRIL 2007 MEETING
NOVEMBER 2007 MEETING
JANUARY 2008 MEETING
FEBRUARY 2008 MEETING
MARCH 2008 MEETING
MAY 2008

Open Day 2006

April 2007 Meeting

Our meeting this month was 'The Bluebell Walk' in Sherrardswood. Our guest was an old friend of the group Neale Holmes- Smith

A big thank you to Neale, and everyone who took part.

Above is a selection og photos of the days events. For more images of our Watch meeting go to, Watch Meeting, Gallery.

November 2007 Meeting

Our meeting this month was on the theme of ‘Design & Planting a woodland floor’ in Lemsford Springs. Our guest was an old friend of the group Neale Holmes- Smith, who planed the plot and kindly prepared it. The plot he chose was next to the classroom and he also chose the trees and plants which he kindly supplied. He started the meeting by explaining why he had chosen the plants' trees and locationto be planted. After showing us how to prepare the plants he set us to work in teams to start the planting. After a short time the transformation was complete. The day was a great success and enjoyed by everybody.

A big thank you to Neale, and everyone who took part.

Above is a selection of photos of the days events. For more images of our Watch meeting go to, Watch Meeting, Gallery.

January 2008 Meeting

Our meeting this month was on the theme of fencing around our woodland floor to protect it from rabbits. Our guest was Neale Holmes- Smith, who planed the plot and kindly helped us create the woodland floor in November. Neale had prepared the area by driving in wooden stakes around the area and had cut lengths of hazel branches to weave around the stakes. Neale demonstrated the technique and then split the group into teams. After about an hour the fence was complete.
we then had a walk around the springs to look at the river, which due to the rainfall was high. The meeting was rounded of with an art & craft session. We also welcomed our guests from Herts and Middlesex wildlife trust, Sandie & Claire. The day was a great success and enjoyed by everybody.

A big thank you to Neale, and everyone who took part.

Above is a selection of photos of the days events. For more images of our Watch meeting go to, Watch Meeting, Gallery.

February 2008 Meeting

Our meeting this month was on the theme of birds. Sunday was a mild sunny day and the turnout was high. We started with a bird box quiz which consisted of a walk around the Springs finding bird boxes and noting the location and which birds would use them. This was followed by making Bird cake to place in paper cups to hang out for the birds.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/makeanddo/activities/birdcake.asp
We ended with a challenge of making a birds nest, which everybody did to an amazing standard. Thanks to everyone who attended. And look forward to next months meeting.

'Give me my chocolate eggs or i will shoot'

March 2008 Meeting

This month we celebrated Easter by having an Easter egg hunt around the Springs. The children had to find 14 eggs all with clues in them. When they found the clues they had to answer nature questions to find letters which led to the location of the buried treasure. The map led to Trussocks Bridge and they paced out the instructions, which gave the secret of the treasure. Once the location was found they dug up the booty. Each child received an Easter egg.

The weather was dry and the river was high and fast flowing. See you next month

For more images go to gallery

May 2008

On Sunday May 18th we had a very special meeting at Lemsford Springs. We had a guest speaker, Barry Trevis who demonstrated bird ringing. He was joined by Paul who are training to do bird ringing and Luke who is a keen nature conservationist and attends the Springs work-parties

Barry explained why we have rings on birds. The rings are a way to record various data.
Barry, Paul and Luke had set up special nets to catch the birds, they are then placed in cotton bags and are ready to be ringed and recorded.

The birds are handled in a very special way. Barry has been bird ringing for 30 years and is highly trained in bird handling. When the bird is removed from the bag if it already has a ring then the number is recorded with various measurements.

Those measurements are, Length of the wing and weight, the sex and age of the bird is also recorded.

If the bird has no ring then it is ringed , this involves a highly trained procedure which clamps a ring onto the birds leg, this does not hurt the bird and does not effect the bird in its day to day life. Once the ring is on the number is recorded and the same data as above is also recorded.

When the data is recorded the bird is let back into the wild. The results recorded are sent by computer to a central database and shows the life of birds, where they visit, and how they grow.

During the afternoon we looked at various birds including a Black Cap, Blackbird, great tit, wren and a fantastic Kingfisher.

After the demonstration we walked to the nets and saw how the birds had been caught. Barry then took us to two nesting boxes to show us young Great tits and blue tits.
The great tits were old enough to be ringed and Paul & Luke took them from the box and ringed and recorded them. This does not harm the birds or effect them in any way, but must be performed by experts.

The last treat of the day was to look at very young blue tits who were to young to ring but
Provided a great end to the day.

A big thank you to Barry, Paul & Luke for a great day

For more images go to gallery