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Discover Wildlife page

Welcome to the Reserve 2 Planning your Visit 3 Activities Map 4 Pre-visit Activities 5 Around the Reserve 6 Discover Wildlife • Bird-watching 7 • Stream-dipping 9 • Bug-sweeping 11 Follow-up Activities 13 Teaching Supports • Games 14-16 • Trails Map 17 • Risk Assessments 18-21

Welcome to RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve

Welcome to the RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve.

We want you and your students to get as much as possible out of your visit, so this pack is designed to help you prepare beforehand, explore and learn while you’re here, and build on the experience when you’re back in the classroom. Above all, we want everyone to enjoy the day and go home feeling not only that they’ve had a fun and rewarding time, but also that they want to go on discovering wildlife.

First, some background. RSPB Geltsdale is: • Situated in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and an internationally important breeding area for upland birds. • Steeped in history: over the centuries, it’s been a royal hunting forest, a mining and quarrying area, and the preserve of red grouse and hill sheep. • A working farm with a unique mosaic of habitats – meadow, wetland, moor, and woodland. • Important for a wide range of wildlife, especially wading birds, black grouse, and birds of prey, providing abundant food, shelter and nest sites. • A very beautiful environment in which adults and children alike can explore freely, stretching their minds as well as their legs.

In your pack, we hope you’ll find all you need to ensure your group’s day at the Reserve is a success, including information on how to book a visit, how to get here, what you can expect to see on the day, suggestions for activities before and after your visit, and health and safety provisions. But if there’s anything we haven’t covered, or you need more information, please visit our website www.rspb.org.uk/geltsdale, or give us a call, on 016977 46717. 2 Planning your Visit

Facilities How to book N.K. Brown (16- and 33-seater minibuses): The RSPB Geltsdale Information Centre is located When you’ve decided you’d like to bring a group to 07720 773 105 or 01228 670 827 at Stagsike Cottages and will be your group’s base RSPB Geltsdale, please give us a call (016977 46717) for the day. or send us an e-mail ([email protected]) Community Transport At the Centre, you’ll find: to arrange a date and tell us your requirements. (16-seater minibus): 01228 633 642 We’ll need to know: We recommend you check when booking your • Parking for pre-arranged mini-buses transport that the driver will be familiar with the • Toilet facilities (with disabled access) • Your preferred date and time for your visit route to the reserve. • Picnic tables • The number of children and adults in your group (the ideal group size is around 15 students) • Space inside if the weather is too cold or wet What to wear • What equipment you’d like to borrow from Please ensure you take all left-overs and litter with us in advance (eg binoculars) or use on the day The Reserve is in very open country, and much you when you leave. (eg stream dipping equipment) and how many of the day will be spent out-doors, so everyone of each should come prepared for breezy, upland Mobile phone coverage is generally good at conditions. • Any special needs your group may have Geltsdale, except in the main RSPB Visitor Car We strongly advise: Park, before entering the Reserve, where reception • Warm layers (eg fleece, woolly jumper, can be poor. How to get here long sleeves and trousers) From the A69, outside Brampton, take the A689 • Waterproof outer layer Alston road. In Hallbankgate, look out for the (eg anorak, raincoat, cagoule) A69 brown RSPB sign and take the road which forks • Wellies for stream-dipping* and/or boots, right, past the ‘Belted Will’ pub which will be on sturdy trainers for other activities your right. Follow this road through the village and • Spare pair of socks turn sharp right at the top of the hill, where the • Sun-hat or a woolly hat A689 road narrows and is signposted ‘RSPB Geltsdale’. (depending on the weather) Hallbankgate Continue up the hill and past some houses. Just before the main RSPB Visitor Car Park, go through We also recommend that teachers or other accompanying adults bring: Belted Will pub the gate on your left (closing it behind you, please), and follow the track for approximately 1 mile. The • Towel • One complete change of child’s clothes Visitor Car Park information centre at Stagsike Cottages is visible from the track after about half a mile. • First aid kit Stagsike Cottages • Sunscreen *We have spare pairs of wellies in various Reproduced from the digital Ordnance Survey map by permission of The track is unsuitable for large coaches, but you Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. children’s sizes and 18 pairs of waterproof © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. RSPB license 10002178 may wish to contact one of the following companies to arrange a mini-bus: trousers in case of need. 3 Activities Map

Access Track

Area sting Ne ess Acc STAGSIKE wetland cted MEADOWS Restri

Toilet

Stagsike Cottages Staff and pre-arranged parking Interpretation Information

Ideal locations for:

Bird-watching

Stream-dipping

Bug-sweeping 4 Pre-visit activities to do at school

Curriculum Links Activities The following activities would link in well with • Download a short film called ‘Discover Science topics, such as habitats, food chains, or Widlife’, showing children on a visit to adaptation. They could also be used across the RSPB Geltsdale: curriculum in Literacy, Art, Maths, or Design and www.rspb.org.uk/exploremoor Technology. • For a great introduction to the wildlife of RSPB Geltsdale, play the ‘Habitat’ and ‘Find Your Flock’ games described on pages 14, 15 and 16.

• Borrow binoculars, wooden birds and Food chains at RSPB Geltsdale charts from the reserve, for the children to practice using binoculars and identifying Rough grass Stream Wetland birds by their markings, colours and features. To arrange loan call: 016977 46717

peregrine • Have a go at bird-watching in the school stonechat dipper grounds or a nearby park. • Try mini-beast hunting and/or pond-dipping in or near your school grounds. Pupils could spider then compare the creatures they find with caddisfly larva curlew those at the Reserve.

For further information on RSPB activities, please contact the Education Officer: earthworm froghopper mayfly nymph [email protected]

grass algae soil 5 Around the Reserve

While the main objective of your day at RSPB On the slopes, we’ve planted thousands of Geltsdale will be discovering birds, bugs and native British trees (birch, hazel, hawthorn and water-beasties, there are lots of other things oak) which, in time, will re-establish scrub- in and around the reserve which contribute woodland, providing food and shelter for birds to making it a special place for wildlife. and small animals. If you’re very lucky, you may spot a black grouse.

blue-grey cattle blackblack grouse grouse Much of the higher ground is ‘blanket bog’ - deep layers of peat, formed over time by Sphagnum mosses. The surface layer is interspersed with tufts of heather and the bobbing white heads of cotton grass – all typical of upland moor, and home to skylarks, meadow pipits, and a number of wading birds, such as curlew and golden plover.

On the way up to Stagsike Cottages, you’ll probably see some of our blue-grey cattle. Their sturdy build and thick coats make skylark them well-suited to wind and rain. Cattle and sheep-grazing help to create varied habitats, suited to different birds. 6 Bird-watching

wheel eye pieces Objective Tips Use binoculars to watch wetland birds in their body • The children can rest their arms on the natural habitat. wall to steady their binoculars and conceal themselves. When to visit • Start by scanning the pools and the bank, • These birds arrive in March when you can then look at the tree tops, fence line/walls see them displaying and finally the skyline. • Females sit on nests in April • If there’s any bird you are unsure of, look • Chicks may be seen May to late June at its size, shape, bill, colour, patterns and movement. Make some notes or sketches Resources needed lense strap if you can. Then use one of the bird guides All the equipment needed can be booked in advance Binoculars in the Information Centre to help you for collection at the Information Centre, ready for lense identify what you have seen. you to use (call 016977 46717 to book). We can provide up to 18 pairs of binoculars and identification keys How to do it Demonstrate to your group how to use the Please return all borrowed equipment to the binoculars: Centre when you leave. 1. Put the strap around your neck so that if you lose grip of the binoculars you won’t drop them, as the lenses are easily damaged. 2. Holding onto the binoculars with both hands, raise them to your eyes and swivel the main body until the eyepieces are the right distance apart for your eyes and you should see one image (which may be blurry). 3. To focus, find a point in the distance, e.g. one of the pools, or a tree. Rotate the wheel on top of the binoculars, until you can see clearly. The wheel turns both ways. 4. Now practice focussing on objects at different distances. 7 Bird-watching

Snipe Oyster catcher • Uses its very long, straight • Nests on bare ground bill to probe for insects and • In summer, uses its long, worms orange bill to probe in soil for • Flies in a zig-zag line when invertebrates disturbed • In winter, goes to the coast • Call sounds like a squeaky and uses its bill’s blunt tip to bike wheel – ‘chippa, chippa’ break into shells • Displays by tumbling out of • Shrill, piping call the sky, making a drumming noise with its tail feathers

Redshank Lapwing • Orange-red legs and bill • Long crest and striking Size Guide • Uses straight bill with green-black plumage flexible tip for collecting Bird silhouettes are compared • Tumbling display flight with invertebrates, not probing in size to a robin ducking and diving • In flight, white flashes • Scrapes small hollow in the visible on edges of wings ground to lay its eggs • Call has two notes – • Eggs are camouflaged against ‘tew-tew’ predators • Gets its other name – ‘pee- wit’ – from its display call

Curlew Canada Goose

• Very long down-curved bill, • Long black neck and head used for probing for insects • White chin patch and chest and worms that are beyond • Loud, honking call the reach of other birds • Introduced from North • Sad, bubbling call – ‘curlee, America curlee, curlee’ • Nests on the moor in the long grass 8 Stream-dipping

Objective How to do it Discover what creatures live in a moorland stream. Fill the viewing tray with water, then demonstrate stream-dipping to your group: When to visit 1. Stand in the stream, facing the bridge, with the The best time of year for water-beasties is May to net directly in front of your feet. July, but there are creatures in the stream all year round. 2. Gently disturb the stones and silt with your feet, catching any creatures in the net.

Resources needed 3. Quickly turn the net upside down into the All the equipment needed can be booked in advance viewing tray, highlighting to the children that for collection at the Information Centre, ready for these creatures need to be in water to breathe. you to use (call 016977 46717 to book) Wash the net thoroughly, including the corners. We can provide up to 7 of each of the following: 4. Using the magnifying glass and one of the keys • Dipping net attached to the clipboard, identify the Tips • Viewing tray creatures in the tray. • Magnifying glass • Ask children to fill the viewing trays with • Identification keys 6. At the end of the session, adults carry the water before getting into the stream. • Clipboard and pen trays back to the stream and carefully empty the contents into the water, holding the • Emphasize the importance of rapid transfer We also have some spare pairs of wellies, in children’s tray close to the surface of the stream. from stream to tray, because aquatic sizes, and 18 pairs of waterproof trousers, in various creatures need water to breathe. sizes. If you need these, please ring the bell at the • Explain that some creatures are almost Information Centre and a member of RSPB staff will invisible, so the net must be emptied very be happy to help. thoroughly. Please return all borrowed equipment and • Two keys are supplied, for use with different wellies to the Centre when you leave. age-groups

Where to do it Follow the path down to the stream, cross over the bridge and you can set up the equipment along the bank, as marked on the map (see page 4). Dippers love caddisfly larva and sometimes walk underwater to catch them 9 Stream-dipping

nymph Mayfly nymph Freshwater shrimp Beetle larva • ‘Nymph’ is the first stage after • Belongs to a family called • ‘Larva’ is the stage between hatching from an egg ‘crustaceans’ the egg and the pupa • Only found in very clean water, • Brownish yellow in colour • Beetle larvae have big with lots of oxygen • Prefers flowing water appetites • Flat body helps movement in fast- • Feeds on tiny pieces of debris • Cast their skin as they grow turns into flowing water, use hooks on their and small creatures • Hard, sometimes dark heads, legs to cling onto rocks mayfly • Sides of body are flat and distinctly visible mouth- • Adult mayflies only live for a day – parts just enough time to lay their eggs • Long antennae on head in water, but not to eat!

stonefly nymph Phantom midge larva Caddisfly larva nymph • So called because they are • Also called ‘glassworm’ cased and uncased found under stones, in fast- • Hatch by the thousand in • Sometimes called ‘sedge fly’ flowing streams summer, from eggs laid on the • Makes case for itself from • Stonefly nymphs have 2 tails and surface of still water grains of silt or plant fragments no gills along their body, unlike • Use hairs in mouth to filter • Growing larva sheds skin and mayfly nymphs food from water and sediment case, then builds another case • Spend between 1 and 3 years • Eat other larvae • Carries case with it for under water until they reach the camouflage, protection and turns into adult stage • Phantom midges don’t bite! stonefly living in while changing into adult caddisfly

Worms brook lamprey stone loach • Bristle worms have tiny hairs on • Up to 15cms long and easily confused with an eel, • Up to 10cms, with slender, mottled, brown/buff body segments, to help movement has a sucker disc with mouth in the middle rather • Mouth has 6 barbels, (look like whiskers) used to detect • Live in mud than jaws invertebrate prey • 2mm to 75mm long • Has a line of 7 respiratory holes behind the eye • Lives amongst the gravel and stones of fast • Flatworms have flattened, • Buries itself in mud and only emerges in spring to flowing water jelly-like bodies spawn, then dies • Live under rocks and pebbles • Can re-grow if injured 10 Bug-sweeping

Objective How to do it Tips Discover who lives on the grassy slopes. Demonstrate to your group how to use the nets There are thousands of different species of and transfer the bugs into the viewers: bugs in the UK, so the ID chart lists some of the When to visit 1. Walk slowly forwards, gently sweeping the net interesting ones you’re more likely to see on Late May to September are the best months for bugs. your visit. back and forth through the long grass. 2. look inside to see what you’ve caught by Resources needed Spiders, flies and other easily recognisable bugs resting the bottom of the net on the grass to are not included, but there are many different All the equipment needed can be booked in advance stop it blowing around. types of these on the Reserve. for collection at the Information Centre, ready for 3. Take your bug viewer and brush, and gently you to use (call 016977 46717 to book). transfer any bugs you’d like to have a closer If you want to identify a bug, you could take a We have 7 of each of the following: look at into the viewer or pot using the brush. photo or make some notes then research it back • Sweep nets (It will be easier for the children to work in at school. • Bug viewers pairs/small groups with one holding the net, • Magnified pots A useful website is: www.britishbugs.org.uk and another putting the bugs in the viewer). • Brushes (to transfer bugs into pots) • Identification keys 4. look at the ID chart and see if you can work out what you have found. Please return all borrowed equipment to the Centre when you leave. Caring for your Captives Where to do it • Emphasize to the children that these bugs are very delicate. See map on page 4 • Always use the brush rather than fingers to gently coax them in and out of the viewers, as they can easily be crushed. • Remind the children not to run when they have bugs in their viewers, so the bugs don’t get a headache! • Remember to release your bugs roughly where you found them and ensure there are no bugs left in the nets. 11 Bug-sweeping

grass bug Froghopper and Scorpion fly • Feeds on developing grass nymph • Black and yellow body, with seeds, causing seed heads to • Gets its name from the way it reddish brown head and tail shrivel and prematurely whiten jumps from leaf to leaf • Male’s tail curves up at end, • Males are always fully-winged, • Can be various colours, like a scorpion, but doesn’t sting females usually partly-winged including red, black and brown • Transparent wings have dark patches • Legs and antennae are • Nymphs cling to plant stems covered in long dark hairs and suck sap. This creates a • Downward curving ‘beak’ and • Come in a variety of colours protective foam known as large eyes and patterns cuckoo spit • Eats dead insects, sometimes nymph taken from spiders’ webs please do not capture or handle me grasshopper Cranefly my wings are very delicate • Jumps using a springy mechanism in its knees • Very common, especially in small heath butterfly • “Sings” by rubbing hind legs against front wings or summer by rubbing wings together • Small, yellow-orange • Often called ‘Daddy Long- • Five eyes and no ears • Flies close to the ground Legs’ but hears with an organ • Perches with wings closed • Birds, especially rooks, like to called a ‘tympanum’ eat them • Underside of forewing has • White blood eyespot at tip • Larvae (called ‘leather-jackets’) can damage plants by eating • Hindwing banded with brown, roots and stems grey and cream

dock leaf beetle Weevil Hoverfly • Green dock leaf beetle feeds • Recognized by their distinctive • Looks like a small bee or wasp on wild docks and sorrel long snout or beak • Hovers in one place then • Females develop enlarged • Antennae are L-shaped, usually suddenly zooms off abdomens when pregnant, so attached part way along their • Important for pollination their hard wing cases cannot snout close properly • Feeds mainly on nectar and • Mouthparts are adapted for pollen, also eats greenfly • Eggs are laid in clumps on the boring into plants and blackfly (aphids) pregnant female underside of leaves • Nearly 600 British species • Doesn’t sting 12 Follow-up activities

You could follow up the visit to RSPB Geltsdale Postcards, created by RSPB projects and activities by linking it in with other subjects, for example: children following their Discover Birds at School Literacy visit to RSPB Geltsdale For fun ideas and downloadable resources that Writing poems, stories, accounts of the visit will help you and your class make the most of your linked to the wildlife and landscape. school grounds and discover more birds go to: Art and Design / ICT www.rspb.org.uk/birdsatschool Creating artwork based around the wildlife Big Schools’ Birdwatch they’ve seen, designing a poster, postcard or Be part of the world’s biggest birdwatch. Run every leaflet about the reserve. year in January and February, Big Schools’ Birdwatch is a free activity for schools throughout the UK. Maths Count and record the number of different We provide all you need to take part, along with species they find at the reserve, then, in school, free supporting resources to suit all ages. For more information visit: www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch work out percentages, produce charts etc. Design and Technology Wildlife Action Awards Design and make a bird feeder or nestbox for This award scheme for children helps them discover wildlife and do practical things to help. It’s easy and the birds in the school grounds or design and fun to do. To find out more, visit: make homes for insects e.g. a mini-beast hotel www.rspb.org.uk//learn or homes for bees. For downloadable resources The Wildlife Action Awards booklet costs £3 and is go to: www.rspb.org.uk/birdsatschool available by calling 01243 263619 or by e-mailing: Citizenship [email protected] Children could improve their school grounds for RSPB Wildlife Explorers school clubs wildlife, by putting in wildlife-friendly plants as If you would like to set up a lunchtime or after- a source of food and shelter, creating a pond or school environment club we can supply everything making homes or feeders for wildlife, as above. you need to get started. For further details contact If you would like further guidance on how to the RSPB Education Department on 01767 680551. develop your school grounds for wildlife you can obtain a copy of our Discover Birds at School booklet by e-mailing: [email protected] 13 Habitat game

Wetlands are often destroyed when they Instructions are drained to plant crops or keep livestock, 1. Place the hoops on the ground around or to make way for new roads or houses. your playground or the garden of the Others are converted into recreational water visitor centre. Make sure they are at least facilities, such as boating lakes. This game 5 metres apart. demonstrates the importance of wetlands to the wildlife that depends on them. It can be 2. explain that each hoop represents a wetland habitat and that the children played before, during or after your visit. are all birds which use that habitat eg. a lapwing see photo on page 16 Suggested Outcomes Students understand that: 3. Whenever you say ‘fly’, the children all fly to another wetland habitat on migration. • Creatures are adapted to live in particular types of habitat and need them to survive 4. Do this a few times. Then remove one of the hoops. Explain that this wetland approximate Length of activity • If a habitat is destroyed, the wildlife that has been drained, eg to make way for a 15 minutes depends on it will be lost housing development. Any child who can’t fit into a hoop goes to bird heaven (a pre- Tips Group size designated area), as there is only enough • If you want to play the game at school you 10 or more food to support a certain number of birds could use mats, sheets of material or rope in any habitat. Keep playing and remove to represent the habitats. Resources needed other hoops until there is one left. If you Plastic hoops to represent the habitats. If you destroy the final wetland all the birds will • You could also make picture cards of each want to play this game at the reserve, these have died. of the birds. Images of curlew, lapwing and snipe can be found on page 16. Redshank can be put in the Information Centre ready for 5. Have a follow-up discussion with the you to use. and other wetland birds can be downloaded group to see what they have learnt from the RSPB website for use in school: from the game. Emphasize the need for conserving wetlands and other habitats. www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name See if the children can think of any other examples of habitats that have been destroyed locally or around the world. 14 Find your flock game

Bird-watching before or during your visit to Instructions approximate Length of activity the reserve introduces your students to bird- 1. Make an equal number of copies of each 10 minutes identification, showing them how to recognise bird card, so that you have as many cards different birds by their flight, plumage, beak in total as there are students in your group. Tips etc.. This game builds on that introduction, by To listen to audio-recordings of bird-calls making students aware that, even when they 2. Explain to the children that all birds before playing the game, go to can’t see a bird, they may be able to identify have their own calls which they use to it if they can hear it. It also teaches them that communicate with each other. www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name bird-calls are a ‘language’ used by birds to and find the birds you want to hear in the communicate among themselves. 3. Show them the card for each of the birds alphabetical index. that live on the RSPB Geltsdale Reserve. Demonstrate each of the birds calls as Suggested Outcomes Birds use different calls to communicate shown on the cards and ask the children to different things, so you may need to listen very Students: repeat the call back to you. carefully for the call given on the game-card. • expand their knowledge of the birds on the RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve 4. Test them by holding up different cards • learn that birds can be identified by their until they can remember the call of each call bird. • Understand that birds use different calls 5. Randomly give one card, face down, to to communicate a variety of messages to each child, and ask them to keep the each other identity of their bird secret.

Group size 6. On your signal, each student will make the 12 or more call of the bird on their card and they must try to find all the birds making the same call as themselves, and fly around together in a Resources needed ‘flock.’ ‘Find Your Flock’ cards (see page 16) 7. Collect in the cards, mix them up, and repeat steps 5 and 6. 15 Curlew - ‘CURLEE’ Black Grouse - ‘PSHH-PSHH’

Snipe - ‘CHIPPA-CHIPPA’ Lapwing - ‘PEE-WIT’

16 Visitor Car Park

Stagsike Cottages

Stagsike Trail Allow 1 - 2 hours (4.5 kms) Fairly level, mostly on good tracks around farmland and bottom of Bruthwaite Woodland. Some muddy patches. Allow for a break at Stagsike Cottages, and time to enjoy the woodland edges between Stagsike and Howgill

Bruthwiate Trail Allow 2 - 3 hours (3 kms) Steep and rough ground among the newly planted woodland - add 1 hour to Stagsike Trail

Moorland Trails Allow 3 hours Gairs viewpoint (8 kms) Bruthwaite viewpoint (4 kms) Longer walks out to the moorland Please do keep to trails and footpaths to enjoy wildlife without causing disturbance

Reproduced from the digital Ordnance Survey map by permission of Ordnance Survey on 17 behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. ©Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. RSPB license 10002178 18 19 RSPB Geltsdale Site Risk Assessment

20 21 This pack has been created by Julie Willenbruch, RSPB Community Outreach Officer, funded by Natural through Access to Nature, as part of the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme.

Design and production by Visual Imprint Ltd. Photos copyright of rspb-images.com Illustrations copyright Visual Imprint Ltd. curlew

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The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no. SC037654