Sunday 18 May 2014

The Grand Finale!


THE BOG BLOGGERS! (plus my dog Boo who snuck in!)
Last week we had our very last Bog Blog session of 2014. While we have seriously lucked out with the weather each week, we were super lucky on our last day to have a gloriously sunny and warm summer's day to see the Bog Blog out.

As it was the last session we had a more informal session to celebrate our last Bog Blog. All of the brilliant Bog-Bloggers have been a pleasure to "teach" and explore the marsh with. Miss Amos and the school have also been very helpful and Miss Amos great to have along for fox poo sniffing and mealworm tasting (see previous blogs).

In previous blog sessions we have always followed the dedicated path for the general public. However, today the mini wildlife rangers had been given permission by Devon Wildlife Trust to go on the normally out of bounds path which leads to the sluice gate so that they might get a chance to see what makes the marsh...well marshy!

Surprisingly the path wasn't quite as dry as we expected. In the muddy pools along the path a very eagle-eyed wildlife ranger noticed tadpoles and also a little newt! Unfortunately, I had missed an opportunity to slip in one of my favourite amphibian jokes...I should have introduced my pet newt "Tiny" to the group called Tiny because he's my newt...



Anyway, we progressed on to the sluice gate which was a great chance to reinforce to the group that this was a developing habitat. That the sluice gate had only recently been put in place to allow water (from the estuary's incoming tide) into the marsh to develop more saltmarsh habitats. That the children were here to see what wildlife could be found here in 2014 but that perhaps in years to come it will have developed in other ways and might look very different with a variety of new wildlife and plants. Hopefully, the school and other groups might come and use the site for further investgations!

We headed towards our (we have now made claim to it!) bird hide  and again these wildlife rangers who were not going to miss a thing spotted a lizard scurrying across the dry and cracked mud - a Common Lizard.


A Common Lizard found close to the South Efford Marsh Sluice Gate
Despite it being an informal and fun last session we still managed to find 2 new species! There were signs of new life too with both Pigeon and Mallard Duck egg shells. Indeed, today (Sunday 18/05) while I was kayaking further down the estuary I saw a mother with 11 chicks - perhaps one that had hatched from the egg shell that was found!

After stopping for a mini picnic and seeing a formation of Canada Geese fly over and 4 Swans making their charachteristic thwacking noise when in flight I asked the children what had been the best part of the Bog Blog to which they replied, "EVERYTHING!"


During our celebratory picnic we saw hundreds of birds enjoying a snack too!

On our walk we used a sweep net over the long grass and saw lots of different flies, spiders and midges. Sadly, we haven't had time to fully look at them for identification but it gave a sense of all the mini bugs that were living all around South Efford Marsh.


A wonderful sight to see the children at home in the great outdoors!

The children certainly seem to have developed an affinity with South Efford Marsh. Some of the girls independently decided to do a litter clean which just went to show how much they had grown to treasure this wildlife haven.
The Bog Blog Litter Pickers!
Next week we will prepare for our guided tour. This will take place on Thursday 5th June between 1430 - 1530 for members of the local community and 1530-1630 for primary school parents and children. We would love to see you there. The children will give their own guided tour to South Efford Marsh so that you can see what an "epic" place it really is.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to the Aune Conservation Association and it's members for funding this project. I think the children's enthusiasm for South Efford Marsh shows just what a valuable experience it's been for all involved.

Monday 12 May 2014

Wild Flowers - dyed oinkers....

The penultimate session was held last week...sniff sniff. As we are reaching the end of our time on the 2014 Bog Blog we see that the marsh is exploding with colour and life thanks to the wild flowers, plants and trees.

Plants from South Efford Marsh are busy pressing!
This week we were to collect some plants to show just what a wonderful variety of plants support the wildlife at South Efford Marsh.

I had managed to collect a flower press from a car boot sale for the pricely sum of £1. Before the session I opened it up to discover an impressive collection of garden plants! However, we were going to show just how beautiful wild plants are. We started looking through the banks and hedgerows and realised just what variety of plants could be found. Each child chose a plant and they are, as we speak, pressing. We collected plants such as Nettle, Red Campion, Buttercups, Goosegrass and an oak leaf from a sapling. We also chatted briefly about Latin names and how, sometimes, it's good to remember them with funny connections. I explained that at university we had to learn all the Latin names and why it's useful to know the names. It can even be fun! The grass Poa annua, for example, I remembered it by thinking of a poo-y annual. When I asked if they remembered the name at the end of the walk the children almost got it right!

Silene dioica (Red Campion) was a dyed pink pig - died oinker...it made sense to me!
One of the children shows her chosen plant.


 As we were reaching the end of the sessions I decided to lay a little surprise of laying 3 mammal traps. As we reached the bird hide we discovered that 2 of the traps were triggered. The first was an adult Field Mouse who was definitely not Helena. This mouse had darker colouring we decided. This mouse had to be named...Marianna.  When it comes to connecting children with wildlife I have no hesitation about anthropomorphism!
Marianna the Mouse!

The final trap was hiding under the bird hide. As we carefully let the creature out of the trap out popped a young Field Mouse. I have never heard such a loud and unified, "Awwwww...." from adults and children alike. After naming Sameya the baby mouse we released it back into the wild to go on to forage another day.

Walking towards the bird hide it was fantastic to see that the marsh was busy with feeding Swifts, Swallows and House Martins. We chatted about our summer visitors and how they are feeding low to the ground to catch flying insects from the marsh. The children were able to identify a Swift from a Swallow by the end of the trip!

For our final session next week we will be looking at some of these insects with a sweep net and heading towards the sluice gate to see what structure was put in place to help re-establish this wonderful wetland. It will be sad to visit South Efford for the last time. However, on the walk back to the entrance I was talking to a couple of children who I was reassured to hear loved the marsh - thought it was "epic" and planned on coming back again through the summer! Mission accomplished...

Tuesday 6 May 2014

A sensory exploration by more than "average human beings".





Feeling the delicate seeds of the Dandelion clock.

Last week we had another lucky escape from very heavy down pours. We left school in dark clouds but arrived in sunshine! We hadn't visited the marsh in 3 weeks so it was great to see the trees really filling out with vibrant green leaves.

The aim of this weeks session was to become extraordinary human beings. The session stems form Leonardo Da Vinci's famous quote,

The "average human looks without seeing, listens without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking."

We chatted about how we often walk along a path without really looking about us to see the smaller pieces of the big and beautiful jigsaw that is life. We might not really listen to our surroundings and how what we hear (but not necessarily see) effects that place. Similarly,  how often do we take a moment to smell objects around us to get another sensory understanding of what it is and what it's influenced by. As a result of having a better understanding of all that we can see, hear, touch and taste we get a much better sense of all that is going on in one space and time.

So we were to focus on each sense and show what extraordinary human beings the children are. Showing that they have the ability to really get to know an environment through their senses and even inspire some writing.

We "stealth walked" around the perimeter of South Efford Marsh concentrating on one sense at a time. We went through some exercises to help us focus on our ability to see, hear, touch, smell and taste. As we completed each sense we then had a chance to write our thoughts or words that came to mind about those senses.

Children stealth walking and focusing on all they can hear around them at South Efford Marsh


As we were working on our sense of smell one of the children spotted a nice pile of poo. As this isn't a dog walking area and from its texture we decided it must be fox. I stuck a piece on a rush and some brave children breathed in the strong aroma! Miss Amos happily set a great example! We chatted about how naturalists would use their nose to identify where a fox may have been by knowing what a badger, fox or otter poo might smell like. Chris Packham was (naturally) mentioned as a keen fan of not overlooking the things naturalists can learn from a nice piece of poo.

Miss Amos happily smelling the rich aroma of fox POO!

Taste was obviously a tricky one in today's age of health and safety so we sat on the bank overlooking the marsh closed our eyes and stuck our tongue out. Trying to see if we could taste different things on different parts of our tongue. For experimental purposes (!) the children were each given a sweet. The children first looked at the sweet, felt the sugary coating and then placed it on their tongue to see what aromas and tastes they could sense. This seemed to go down very well!!


Children sticking their tongues out to taste their air.

Finally, we took a moment to complete a short piece of creative writing. The children's writing showed that they had now a full sense of South Efford Marsh as an environment and a full working ecosystem effected by all they could see, hear, touch and smell. The writing also demonstrated that by using all our senses and describing them we can create a very clear picture of our surroundings for the reader. 


Children writing their creative pieces inspired by all they can see, hear, touch and taste at South Efford Marsh.
Here are a couple of examples of their BRILLIANT writing:

"Hearing all sounds nice,
Being as quiet as Field Mice,
Wet and dry smells around.
Some coming from the ground.

Walking around the meadow, 
Seeing how the flowers have gone bright yellow,
At the end a little treat,
Really was quite sweet."
Sam, aged 10

"Strong, demanding cold air,
Is tracing on my face, 
Nearby refreshing green grass,
is flickering on my nose.

Sticky, hooky duck leaves,
Are sticking to my finger,
Blinding hot yellow sun in my eyes
And the blue sky is disappearing
From all the grey clouds."
Maddie, aged 9

"Splish splash I see the muddy water,
Raining down into the sea,
This is Efford Marsh with the fresh, green grass
Efford Marsh is a wonderful place to be.

Tip tap rain on my face,
Wonderful to me,
Cold air blowing at me like a flying bee,
This is the best place to be.

Fluttery soft flowers all around
Fluffy feeling to me
What is this cold feeling in April
Well this is the most amazing place to be."
Elizabeth, aged 9

The temperature in the creek now reads 14.7 deg C






Thursday 3 April 2014

Mouse POO!

Mouse "POO"!
 So we started the session under dark clouds! The forecast was that the heavy rain would be clearing in the later afternoon and thankfully as we made our way out in to South Efford Marsh the weather cleared and we were spared the heavy rain.

We decided to "stealth hunt" the wildlife. We walked in single file as quietly as we could so that we could concentrate on our listening and seeing skills maximising our chance of seeing all the wildlife on South Efford Marsh. We noticed budding leaves on brambles, the Willow buds bursting open as well as tree leaves starting to appearand heard lots of bird song.

I had previously laid out 4 mammal traps and 8 pitfall 'bug' traps so that we could discover some of the terrestrial insects and the small mammals that might feed on them.

The children were numbered 1 - 12 and would then be responsible for the sequential 12 traps. We approached pitfall No. 1 to discover somebody had kindly tidied it away and was nowhere to be found!

No. 2 could not be found initially (as I was having a senior moment)...although we did discover a nice Earthworm in the meantime and an ant in the trap once discovered. The pitfall traps proved to have a small variety of bugs in them which we put in containers ready to identify once we had got to the bird hide. We were even able to learn how to use a pooter to carefully suck a small spider up for later identification.

I was sure that we would be successful with the mammal traps. There were so many little burrowed holes in the banks. The first trap we came across was sadly not triggered and there was nothing inside. The second was also not triggered but as I peered in I noticed a slug wrapped around the trigger wire and once we opened the trap we found not 1 but 4 ants!! At least we had something!

The third mammal trap was looking good I could see some of the bedding had been pulled out but on closer inspection there was in fact an open door and nobody was home. When we opened the container we discovered mice POO!!! This was exciting but just not good enough...could it mean that the fourth trap under the bird hide might just be the lucky one?

We stealth hunted our way to the bird hide and tentatively approached Mammal Trap No. 4 and myself and number 11 child kneeled down to see that it has been triggered and the door was closed! Number 11 decided that she would rather I picked it up. I discovered it had definitely got the weight of a small mammal who had just gorged on meal worms!

The trap was laid down onto the floor and out popped a very timid looking little mouse!

We were all delighted to see our furry friend and stayed nice and quiet so as not to unduly freak the poor little rodent out! We were all so pleased to have finally caught something in our mammal traps.

Once in the hide we used our field studies key to identify our insects. We had insect larvae, a Harvestman spider, a Ground Beetle and a non-identifiable moth larvae.

Slowly we are painting a clear picture of the diversity of life at South Efford Marsh from the fox to the otter; to the birds and the beetles; the shrimps to the boatmen and now to our new and named friend Helena the Mouse who lives around the lovely habitat of The Water Pipit Hide in South Efford Marsh...lucky mouse.

On the way back I asked one of the children how the session was out of ten and she said, "a billion out of ten". That'll do nicely.

(Water temperature had gone down this week to 12.6C)


One of the girls carefully captures a Harvestman with a 'pooter'.

The trap door is closed and the trap is feeling heavy!

Carefully releasing the mystery mammal...

...to discover a mouse!

We release Helena the Mouse back into the undergrowth.

Friday 28 March 2014

Fishing for Shrimp! ..as the Swallows arrive!

The River Avon on the left borders South Efford Marsh on the right.
First thing in the morning while the children were in registration, I planted some "fish traps" in the creeks. These are very simple traps made from a bottle cut in half and then the top is inverted. Here's the general very simple principal...

http://www.reeftime.com/images/trap-in-action.gif

The spot where the fish traps were laid.
We made 1 trap in the class session and laid this along with two others in different patches. One I laid deeper in the creek, the other in the shallows and the last in the shallows but under the shade of a small tree. I was sure that we would return later in the day to find some fish! Two weeks ago we had seen what seemed like hundreds of quite possibly juvenile Mullet in the water by the bird hide. A couple of locals had also said that they'd regularly seen Kingfisher fishing successfully in the water.



When the children arrived we helped the contractors who were laying paths for Devon Wildlife Trust bed them in by being the first to walk them! On the way we noticed how many more flowers had grown on the Gorse.



The freshly laid path by DWT, bordered by willow.
The Gorse is really coming in to bloom!
 DWT had very kindly laid an access point for the stream for us so that we could get to the creeks relatively easily and safely. The children sat down as I carefully pulled the pots up and we emptied them on to the tray...LIFE!


Ok so it wasn't fish but the bottles were full of shrimp! This is a great sign of healthy water. The children went on to do some pond dipping and found more freshwater invertebrates. Using a key they identified a Water Beetle, Freshwater Hoglouse and a Water Boatman. We discussed whether we might find more invertebrates later next term as the water warms...time will tell!
Pond dipping and fishing in the creek.


Children enjoying watching the shrimp.


It certainly is warming too..slowly! We measured the temperature which 2 weeks ago was 12.9C and yesterday read 13.1C despite it being a considerably chillier day!

We also put a small fishing rod in to the creek baited with a mealworm...the children took turns to hold the rod but alas no nibbles today.

Despite having not caught any fish the children enjoyed watching the erratically jumping shrimp and witnessing South Efford Marsh slowly come alive as we approach the clocks going forward this weekend.

After the session I bumped into a local bird watcher who informed me that the first swallows had arrived at South Efford Marsh that afternoon! We will have to keep a good look out for them next week!

Next week we will be laying pitfall traps and also Longworth traps to see what insects and small mammals are lurking in the undergrowth!

As far as the Otter are concerned here is a fab video of an otter that was filmed at South Efford Marsh very recently... (Feb 2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRFfhKZHRuk

A clear path made by Otter down to the creek!



Friday 21 March 2014

Water Pipit Windows.

Due to parents evenings we were unable to get out to the marsh for our session this week. It is fair to say that we were all a little disappointed not to be exploring the marshland once again. However, when the rain started to really fall halfway through the session there were some sighs of relief!

So we had a classroom session. BBC Inside Out very kindly sent me a copy of a recent film they made about South Efford Marsh with Nick Baker. I was able to show the children this great little film. The children saw the sluice gate in action with water pouring in and out with the tide. They also got to see some of the birds we saw last week but in more detail and closer up - the beautiful plumage of the egret and the vibrant colours of the Shelduck.

Devon Wildlife Trust (as manager of the site) have asked the children if they can paint a sign for the bird hide. When the hide first went up one of the local bird watchers first saw a Water Pipit so it was decided that the hide should be called, "The Water Pipit Hide".

So the children got to drawing a Water Pipit. This gave them all a chance to identify some of the characteristic features of this little bird compared to its other Pipit family. They realised the black eyeliner, the white eye shadow and the white throat of this little bird.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/W/WaterPipit/index.aspx

As the children were drawing the bird, one of the children suggested "Water Pipit Windows" as a name. This then went on to a discussion amongst the children about is this alliteration or not. They're a bright bunch!

We also prepared a "fish trap", which consists of a bottle cut in half and then the spout inverted to make a small fish trap.

The children also decided who might do which parts of their guided walk they will give in June. They seemed very pleased to be told that they would be the local "experts on South Efford Marsh" so local people and their school friends will want to come and learn from them about this wetland and their experiences.

One of the children was assigned the task of creating a graph of our temperature readings from the creeks for our guided talk...which she agreed to with huge enthusiasm.

It is such a joy to run this project with these children who are so very keen to learn and are so enthusiastic about what they see! It really does help that we have such a stunning backdrop in the shape of South Efford Marsh! It also goes to show how much learning can be achieved through outdoor learning. We've incorprated some science, maths, English, art, team working and even confidence building through public speaking!

Next week - fish!!

Friday 14 March 2014

Birds!


What a glorious sunny day for our second bog blog adventure. It was such a joy to see the mire of mud drying out although not quite as much fun to squelch through. The very observant children were walking along the path to the bird hide when one pointed out, "Look how much lower the creek is! The water levels have really dropped!" So we had a chat about why this was and what it might mean for wildlife.
South Efford Marsh is a perfect resting and feeding spot for a variety of birds!

However, this week's session was less water related and more focused on the birds. The aim was to reach the bird hide and make a list of birds that could be seen at this time of year. They were lucky enough to have some fab binoculars to use which helped them clearly see the red beak of a distant Shelduck and to identify it.

The tide was high on the estuary side so there were no Curlew to be seen (as last week) feeding on the creatures that lived in the glorious mud. Towards the end of our time in the bird hide two friendly bird watchers came along to say that they had also seen a heron being mobbed by some gulls. They also pointed out the Wagtails which we'd missed and had only relatively recently come back to the warming south Devon coast.

The children loved using their fantastic Fibre Optics binoculars to spot the Wagtails and Shelduck!
The recently installed bird hide (by Devon Wildfile Trust) is a huge success with the children.

Along with two keen volunteers I helped the children take our first temperature and salinity readings. We started off measuring where there was a shallow entry in to the creek but the temperature reading was very much higher than we expected. I suggested we should go to where we could dangle the probe in deeper water.

When we were in the hide again, a particularly bright 9 year old was looking at the piece of kit we were using to read the temperature and said, "aren't you supposed to take the cap off?"

Ahem...it was just me testing them...honest!! So now we have our first reading and we will record this each week to see how the temperature is changing over the time we have of studying the marsh. The children can then create a cool and colourful graph for their guided walk at the end of the project. At the moment the creek was reading 12.9 deg C.

As we left we met another keen bird watcher who said that he was keeping an eye out for the first Swallow and suggested that we do too. He has already seen a House Martin this year!

The birds that we saw were:

Shelduck
Mallard
Mute Swan
Pied Wagtail
Heron
Black-headed Gull
Herring Gull
Egret
Robin
Wren
Long-Tailed Tit
Crow

and we hope to see Kingfishers flying through the creek too. We heard from our bird-watching friends that we were more likely to see them on a low tide. The children also noticed lots of fish in the creek which we will explore some more in a fortnight.

Next week will be classroom based and we'll be creating a sign for the bird hide, preparing for our fishing session and starting to create our graph!













Friday 7 March 2014

FOX!



Yesterday, we had our first outing to South Efford Marsh with 10 welly-clad and excited children. As it was also World Book Day the Marsh was looking extra colourful with the children dressed as Pippy Longstocking, Queen of Hearts, Tintin, a cat, the Three Muskateers and other well known childrens characters!

The weather was a little drizzly and the marsh more sodden than usual with all the rain that we've experienced in recent weeks. However, this didn't put anybody off from having a great recce of the marsh. This day was an introduction to the Marsh so that the children could get a bearing of where they were in relation to the village school, pub and even some of their homes and find out their role as mini wildlife rangers!

The marsh certainly didn't disappoint. After a safety briefing we merrily started squelching our way along the footpath towards our ultimate destination of the bird hide. As we went I asked the children to take a careful look around them for any evidence of wildlife and to really use their noses, ears and eyes to take in all the wonderful smells, sounds and sights on the marsh.

We talked about all the different ways in which we might discover what types of wildlife we might find. We'll be using pitfall traps to catch bugs, mammal traps for potential shrews or voles, sweep nets for flying invertebrates, fishing nets for the creeks, bino's for birds and even a borrowed camera trap to see the resident otters!

The children were very pleased to discover an otter run and we talked about poo. One child suggested some people taste the poo to see just what it consists of. I suggested that perhaps we might not need to do that! We could simply look at the poo to see what the creature may have eaten and in the case of otters you often see fish scales and bones.

Alongside the footpath is a little slope which separates the marshland from the estuary. We went to the top of the slope to look at this very different habitat. There in front of us was a big school of Mullet! They were flashing their silvery sides at the children as they swam twisting and turning in the water.

The children enjoy smelling the coconut aromas of the Gorse flowers. We talked about how you can make Gorse Fudge!

We were very pleased at this point to have already seen great wildlife sights!

We turned around to face the marshland when suddenly the Queen of Hearts shouted, "FOX!"

Trotting across the field on the other side of the creek the fox seemed undisturbed by Tin tin and his friends.

Children pointing out where they saw the FOX!!
Brilliant! The children had a real skip in their step as they walked on to the bird hide...as swans, geese and Shelduck flew above them.

On arrival to the bird hide we opened the viewing panels on to the marshland and the children sat with their note books while looking to see what birds they could spot. I then revealed the panels which meant that we could also see the estuary on the other side which resulted in lots of, "Coooool!"

Their journal entries included the following statements:

"My first experience of South Efford Marsh was incredible! We saw a swan, egret, FOX, mullet and curlew! It was really peaceful and relaxing." (She'd written FOX in caps!) Jenny

"Today I saw a wild fox! I think the marsh is a good place for wildlife!" Joss

"What  I thought of South Efford Marsh was cold and damp but it's very exiting!" Fleur

All in all a great success! Next week we will be going back to the bird hide to focus on birdspotting and collecting a list of birds that can be seen on the Marshland. Roll on next week!