Heritage and discovery days

In conjunction with the heritage office in cavan and Bear essentials I will be  running a discovery day in BawnBoy, west cavan on the 22nd August. This aims to be a family day  with lots of activities come rain or shine . To book contact heritage office.

How to catch lots of little insects on a summers day. A malaise trap

 

Pond dipping for discovery days at Bear Essentials

young smooth newt

The weather has been very unpredictable and showery in July, here in  County Cavan. I have run several discovery workshops for children and young people at the Silver bear center in Bawnboy. Fortunately, despite the weather , the pond creatures have provided lots of interest. The workshop for children with autism was a learning experience for me and very enjoyable.  

great diving beetle

 

Moths, slugs ,newts and an otter

This piece of stick is a moth called buff arches

The Discovery Day at Bear Essentials  went off with a bang since we started off with a thunder storm. Thundery weather is great for moths and slugs and we had good collection in the moth trap . The sugar refuges provided lots of slugs for us to look at.

Garden Tiger moth

eft or young newt

The parents and children who came all had a good time and stuffed a variety of cuddly creatures indoors during the thunder storm. Once it cleared up we got outside to look for bugs. I also managed to spot an otter crossing the road outside Bear essentials so that made my day.

 

looking back

I have enjoyed my recent trips to undertake bird atlas work in the Bawnboy, Swadlinbar region. This area is rich in  stone archaeological  sites. I have also been recording a more recent form of field monuments;— the digger!

As any one interested in natural history would be, I have mixed feelings about diggers . A lot of  habitat can be removed very quickly!

Our farm was home to breeding curlews, lapwing, yellowhammer, grey partridge, snipe ,  and corncrake. Not any more. The changes in land use in the past forty years have been responsible

My children will not be seeing the big spotty eggs of curlews or hearing the screech of barn owls as they hunt.

 

Halloween recyclers

Blackbird on hawthorn

Heavy rain forced the young Halloween creepy crawly hunters ( see events) inside. They manfully stirred the compost, we had brought in, finding worms , woodlice ,slugs , snails, millipedes,beetles,and lots of fun. They might also have learned a bit about nature’s recyclers.

The days before and after, of course, were bright and sunny, so there were still lots of dung flies

halloween creepy crawler hunters

, hoverflies and other diptera about, in sheltered spots.

The beetle pitfall traps revealed ground beetles to be active at Halloween and devil coach horse beetles on the move . Lots of slugs to be found in the slug pubs and the potatoe traps .The spider traps on the tree trunks produced no spiders over the week but earwigs and woodlice (on a dead tree).

pitfall trap , (pieces of slate left on top to keep out the rain but let insects in)

The first frosts now hitting(29th oct) so activity will drop off. The whooper swans now number 30 on the Bawn lake and the berry hunting thrushes and blackbirds  are busy.

 

children and the outside

muddy boots

Science discovered vitamins by studying unfortunate people deprived of a healthy diet.

Now by watching our 21st century children they are gathering evidence that playing unsupervised in the woods and fields, getting dirty and finding snails and birds nests are good for their mental health and development. I suppose all we had to do was ask our grandmothers.