In February Panda Nursery joined up with the RSPB’s Bird Watch scheme, a simple bird survey that all children can take part in at school or preschool and enjoy together.
Bird Watch is about counting the number of birds in school grounds, with the results contributing to Big Garden Birdwatch – the world’s largest wildlife survey.
Our part of this national scheme is to help monitor the birds that come to visit Panda’s garden and the surrounding Glebe fields. We’re really lucky to be in our woodland and meadow setting, because we get a huge variety of very interesting and sometimes quite rare birds…
You might have heard about one of our most interesting visitors, the Red Kite, from the children, because we frequently see up to five Red kites flying over the Glebe field.
We also have very frequent visits from bluetits, magpies, crows, wood pigeons, sparrows and even nut hatches. The children particularly love to listen out for the sound of the pair of woodpeckers in the Oak trees, but they’re very clever and almost never actually spotted!
The children were so interested in the project that we asked parents for any unused bird feeders and we were very pleased to have had so many donations of various feeders and bird boxes – especially our beautiful Panda’s Birds box made by one of our very dedicated and talented Panda families!
As well as donations from parents, Knights Garden Centre also provided some boxes and feeders. We ask the children to fill them up every week, which builds up their co-ordination skills and keeps them interested in the small animals around us.
Although we started for the RSPB birdwatch, we will continue looking and talking to the children about wildlife in general, as there is so much of it in the Panda garden – including two squirrels that have moved into the play area and our own resident pheasant. We love it!
We’re hugely grateful to everyone for helping out with such a worthwhile, enjoyable and educational activity for the children.
We’re sure all Panda parents, grandparents and friends will be hearing more about Panda’s Bird Watch over the coming months.
Find out more about the RSPB Bird Watch scheme here…