It’s been very wet and windy over the past few months, with just the occasional sunny spell breaking through before the miserable midwinter weather sets in again. The weather has made wildlife watching hard, with most of the birds keeping their heads down to avoid getting blown away! I have noticed however, during my wanders in the brief sunny breaks, that the birds seem a lot tamer and don’t fly away as readily as they usually do. The reason is probably that their energy reserves are low and so they are trying to conserve as much energy by doing as little as possible. Either that or they are just so used to visitors that they simply don’t mind anymore. I swear there was a Robin following me around yesterday…
The project is quickly racing towards the natural extravaganza that is the springtime. The information panels for the path are written, and we’re finalising the design. The wildlife cameras will be here soon (I can’t wait!) and a flash new website is on the way too. I’m also busy preparing worksheets for families and lesson plans and resources for teachers, so it’s all very hectic, but should make the spring and summer a very special time indeed. I've had enough of the winter now, bring on the spring!
The autumn has been in full swing for a couple of weeks now, and the mild weather has resulted in some spectacular scenes here at St Fagans. The days of October were sunny and clear and the winds have been calm. The result of all this were spectacular shades of orange, red, yellow and brown as the leaves changed colour but stayed on the trees. Now that it is mid November we have had a couple of blustery days and a couple of rainy days and the branches are becoming increasingly bare as piles of dry leaves collect along the paths and roads. The temperature has also dropped dramatically over the past week, with the cold nights often leaving a frost on the leaves by the morning.
Many of the trees and hedges that bore fruit earlier in the month have been picked clean by the hungry birds. The squirrels are having a field day with all the seeds and nuts currently in abundance on the trees, Particularly the Beech Mast which is just starting to fall. I’ve also seen a good few Redwing over the past few weeks that have flown south from Scandinavia to cash in on the bounty of Hawthorn and Yew berries.
As far as activities go I had a very busy week with the school half term holidays. I ran workshops based on the BBC Autumnwatch and Nature Detectives schemes and personally dealt with over 1100 visitors! There was a leaf identification trail and an autumn identification challenge as well as colouring in for the little ones. The autumnwatch website is well worth a visit as it has loads of free resources and information that will keep you busy for years!
The woodland path is coming along nicely and plans for the panels are moving forwards. I’m particularly pleased with some of the ideas for activity panels that will get people interacting with their surroundings, and actually looking differently at the woodland. The path was cleared last week with the help of some volunteers from Legal & General and it's starting to look more walkable. Many thanks to the guys and girls at L&G for being such tough nuts and doing a great job! I've put some pictures below.
The Ty Gwyrdd interpreter Elin Roberts and myself have also started getting bird food from a company called Wiggly Wrigglers and have been feeding the birds all manner of treats outside the Ty Gwyrdd . I'm hoping to put up several bird feeding stations in the next few weeks as well as some nest boxes and hedgehog boxes too. Let me know if you have any comments and don't forget to look at the pictures!
Hello everyone! I've decided to start a blog about the newest and (in my opinion) coolest project here at St Fagans: National History Museum. I have been appointed 'woodlands facilitator' and it is my job to facilitate the woodland as much as is humanly possible.
First I think I might tell you a bit about my own background. My name is Gareth Bonello and I am 26 years old. I am originally from Cardiff and despite living in the city I developed a deep love of nature which led me to study Zoology at the University of Bristol. After graduating in 2002 I worked for the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) conducting bird surveys throughout the North West of England. I returned to Cardiff in 2003 where I worked as a Natural History Facilitator at the National Museum Cardiff for three and a half years.
I began working at St Fagans National History Museum in May 2007. I also have an interest in Photography and Film and I and am about to complete an MA in Film at the University of Wales Newport. If I ever have any spare time I like to play my guitar, eat and sleep!
The Project
Enough about me, what about the project? Well it has three main branches:
Education
Nature Path
The Web
Firstly, the project is an educational project aiming to teach people about the natural history of the forest, sustainability and a lot more besides. During the school term I shall be running workshops for schools inside the woodland here at St Fagans. The workshops will incorporate such activities as mini-beast identification, tree biology, PE and Art. During the school holidays I will be running activities for families based on a woodland theme.
Secondly, the project aims to put a new nature path in place. This will run through Beech woodland to the rear of the Celtic Village where a new entrance shall be in place. Along the path there will be interpretive panels with information about the natural history of the Beech Wood and uses of woodland throughout history. I’m also hoping to get a chainsaw sculptor in to make some interesting carvings and the new Celtic Village interpreter Ian Daniel is hopefully going to make some wooden carvings of figures from Celtic mythology.
Thirdly, the project will go online. Wildlife camera specialists Eco-Watch (who did BBC Springwatch) are going to help put in nest box cameras, bird table cameras and pond dipping cameras ready for the spring. In addition I shall be filming and taking photos throughout the year and posting pictures and movies on the web to keep you abreast of the latest developments.
The wildlife here is pretty impressive with Lesser Horseshoe Bats roosting in the barns, Great Crested Newts in the ponds and mind boggling varieties of Insects, Birds and Mammals; I think I’ve got my work cut out for me! The website will also feature educational games and resources for teachers as well as links to this blog and to other websites dedicated to woodland wildlife.
I’m going to aim to write on here once a month, but I’ll write extra bits when really interesting things happen! In the meantime have a look at these websites to find out more about woodlands and the animals that live there:
