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!

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!!

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!

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!