The HeronHeron August 2017 part 2 THE MAGAZINE OF THE RSPB MACCLESFIELD LOCAL GROUP www.macclesfieldrspb.org.uk Review of the year from Macclesfield Wildlife Explorers ike most of us I like to think I’m right Photograph by Susan Wilson about most things, most of the time! Each time I look back on a completed L Wildlife Explorers season I honestly think that there is no way that any subsequent season could match the conservation achievements or incredible wildlife experiences that have been delivered. Each and every year our fantastic team of Leaders and young nature enthusiasts prove me wrong. Last season was no exception. Indoor Meetings Each season we try to cover a variety of topics in our indoor meetings. We hope to reflect the interests of our members and to help illustrate the diversity of the natural Photograph by David Tolliday world. This year we have covered topics as The group helped with water conservation work diverse as fungi, the deep ocean, British on the Middlewood Way and with a birds, mini-beasts and wildlife and the Conservation Work Party at Jodrell Bank weather. It is always a challenge to present Arboretum to restore a wildlife pond. The information in original and interesting formats annual December Tree Dressing session and to make learning fun. Leaders rise to the Silly Hat competition at Tegg’s Nose was a challenge, whether it is devising a clever craft great success once again and seems set to be activity or attending a meeting wearing scuba a permanent fixture on the calendar. gear or silly hats. Wild Weekend In Wales Outdoor Meetings In the spring a group of nearly forty volunteer Outdoor meetings balance nature watching Leaders, Wildlife Explorers and their families and wildlife investigations with practical spent a weekend basedPhotograph in the byWelsh Martin seaside conservation work. This year we visited the town of Borth, learning about coastal wildlife. Visits to the sand dunes of Ynyslas National Nature Reserve, the rockpools at Borth, the RSPB reserve at Ynys Hir and the red kite feeding at Bwlch Nant yr Arian guaranteed a weekend packed with amazing nature spectacles. It wouldn’t have been a Wildlife Explorers weekend though without the addition Photograph by Susan Wilson RSPB nature reserve at Coombes Valley to look for fungi, ran a Dawn Chorus at NT Hare Hill and had lots of fun with a springtime Treasure Hunt at Tittesworth Water. Photograph by Darren Mayer 2 of fantastic fun activities like building a In January our volunteer Leaders completed a sculpture of seals from beach pebbles, busy fortnight of RSPB Big School conducting a whole range of sand Birdwatches for 2017. This year over 1,000 experiments and competing in an obstacle local children took part in one of our sessions course and a sandcastle competition! in ten local Macclesfield schools. We ran two of the Big School Birdwatch events at Victoria Park in conjunction with the Friends of Victoria Park. The team also ran a Birdwatch event at Jodrell Bank Arboretum for local home educators. Throughout the year Leaders visited a range of uniformed and other youth groups to talk about the work of the RSPB, ‘Giving Nature a Home’ or to make nestboxes and insect homes. Leaders of all ages give up their free time and even take time off work to run these sessions. Photograph by Susan Wilson School and Group Visits Photograph by Martin James The Macclesfield Big Bird Box Build The Macclesfield Big Bird Box Build project has been an incredible success. As well as surpassing all of our original aims, it has been a fantastic opportunity to work with so many sections of our community to provide lots more nestboxes in more locations across the Photograph by Martin James Macclesfield area. Local conservation 3 organisations, groups, charities and wildlife of young people who attend our programme of sites have worked together to create meetings throughout the year. Please tell the something very special. There have already young people you know locally about the been a whole host of success stories such as group – we would love to welcome more successful barn owl, dipper, kestrel and children and teenagers to our meetings. redstart broods and I am sure that there will be many more to come as the project’s ongoing Thanks monitoring efforts report back in coming years. There is still an incredible amount of local Wildlife Explorers would like to thank the Local enthusiasm for providing more new homes for Group Committee and members for their wild birds, however, the project team have to continued and wholehearted support and be realistic and unfortunately the large number encouragement for all of our projects and of volunteer hours needed to administer and activities. The Team would also like to thank monitor an ever-expanding project of this our own members and their families as well as nature means that we will be winding the all those within the wider community who Macclesfield Big Bird Box Build down over the support our education and conservation next season. We would like to thank everyone initiatives. Connecting children to nature has who has contributed to the project particularly never been more important – with your Dave Bromont, who made so many of our nest backing and help we make learning about box kits and the South Manchester Ringing nature and the environment fun and Group who are doing much of the nest box meaningful for lots of local children and monitoring. groups. End of Season celebrations Tina Hanak Wildlife Explorer Leader Our season closed with a summer party where party food (with lots of jelly), fun and games You can follow RSPB Wildlife Explorers combined with special attendance awards. The on Facebook and on Twitter @Maccwildlife most important award of the evening was The Lin Townsley Award for Young Persons Contribution to Nature Conservation , in Conservation work memory of the founder of our group. This year the award went to Wildlife Explorer Grace aka ‘Doing Stuff’ Podmore (above), who not only attended more meetings during the pportunities at the start of the year than any other 2017/18 season for ‘Doing Stuff’ Wildlife Explorer but volunteers will be closely linked to she has also O the Wildlife Explorers programme. contributed to lots of All offers of help will be most welcome so additional please come along and see me at the ‘Doing conservation Stuff’ table at the Indoor Meetings. These are initiatives in her free held at the Macclesfield Methodist Church on time. As well as the second Tuesday of the month between planting wildflowers September and May. We are located at the top for ‘Grow Wild’ and of the main hall during the interval as well as painting nestboxes before and immediately after the meeting. for The Macclesfield Big Bird Box Build, We have plans to undertake conservation work most recently Grace at Jodrell Bank and at RSPB Coombes Valley Photograph by Susan Wilson added to several of reserve. So please come and join us. our contributions to the Wildlife Trust campaign ‘30 Days Wild’. Abercrombie Conservation Officer Next Season Although we support more projects and visit more schools and groups each year, the lifeblood of Wildlife Explorers is the core group 4 Wildlife Explorers at Jodrell Bank’s Bluedot Festival 2017 activities to engage and olunteers from Macclesfield RSPB Wildlife Explorers took part in an inspire families. The unforgettable weekend at Jodrell Feely boxes were a big Bank’s Bluedot Festival at the start of hit (despite the odd V scream when fingers July. The weekend was an incredible mix of music, made contact with the science, jelly slugs!) and culture and everyone enjoyed arts. Bluedot is matching creatures to an award- their man-made wildlife winning homes. The skull festival of collection was discovery in fascinating for visitors the grounds of of all ages – an a deep space incredible opportunity observatory. to compare and Set against a contrast the skeletal backdrop of adaptations of some of our familiar countryside the iconic animals and birds. The team also ran regular Lovell bug hunts in the Arboretum and the occasional Telescope at binocular workshop for interested families. Jodrell Bank, Bluedot Over the three days of the Bluedot Festival combines a over 1500 people took part in one or more truly stellar hands-on nature activities (most of them did line-up of three or four!). That is a fantastic achievement music with a for our team. Visitors from as far away as ground- Cornwall and Northern Scotland were drawn to breaking the stall to talk to our volunteers about ‘Giving programme of live science experiments, expert Nature a Home’. We were nearly always busy talks and immersive artworks. and every member of the team did a brilliant job, however, the younger members of the team particularly impressed with the mature and knowledgeable way they approached all the activities - from running mini-beast hunts to explaining the way starfish locomote. Wildlife Explorers had a huge amount of really good feedback from both the visitors and the organisers on the impact The Festival has a self-proclaimed mission: of our stall and the • To inspire and entertain activities we ran. The • To explore the frontiers of human group were delighted to advancement. be part of the festival this • To celebrate science and the exploration year and we look forward of the universe. to working closely with • To explore the intersections of science, Jodrell Bank over the culture, art and technology. coming year on a number • To highlight the fragility of planet Earth. of different conservation projects. Based in the Planet Field, the Wildlife Tina Hanak Wildlife Explorers Leader Explorers stall featured lots of hands-on Pictures from the Wildlife Explorers Library 5 Seeking Teenagers to Join Phoenix Do you know a local teenager who is interested in wildlife and the environment? Macclesfield RSPB Phoenix could be the place for them.