Week 27 - Island Wildlife Course

Last week we had our first course on site since lockdown in March! It was exciting as it was only the 2nd group I had got the chance to work with. A lot of measures had to be put in place to ensure the course and centre was covid secure including social distancing measures, sanitising stations and group bubbles. 

On Saturday the families arrived, we had 3 families arrive with 5 children between them all from England. They arrived at 5pm with dinner shortly after a welcome talk and then our first evening session at 6:30pm - Wildlife walk. We took the families for a short walk from the centre around Farland Point to spot some seals, Cormorants, Gannets, Eider Ducks, Oyster Catchers etc. 

Sunday was our first full day and we started the morning with a session called Hidden Histories which was about learning about the Vikings and the history of Largs and Cumbrae. This included a story boarding activity, designing and naming a family viking name and crest, creating runes on rocks, making viking shields and hats and making a 'viking house'. 

In the afternoon we had a minibeast hunt which the kids loved, we found a range of cool insects and bugs including lots of froghoppers, devil horse coach beetle, spiders, woodlouse (scottish name - slater), worms and even a couple of lizards! We followed this session up with some pond dipping at the pond on site which the kids loved. We caught lots of pond skaters, backswimmers, waterboatmen, bloodworms, pond snails and even loads of baby newts!

Our evening session was orienteering which is a question and answer styled fixed boards around site with maps and corresponding numbers and answers to find around site. 

On Monday our morning session was Team games which was a few of the kids favourites. We set up the equipment for different team games as different stations and disenfected the equipment between families. We also played a few group games such as the limpet game, crabs and seagull, the pirate game etc. 

In the afternoon we took the family to Farland point for some bushcraft fire lighting as well as shelter building at the centre. 

The evening session on monday was 'what wanders at night' which included bat detecting and small mammal trapping. Unfortunately it rained a lot and we didn't get any mammals when we checked in the morning however later in the week the other course did get a small mouse!

On Tuesday we had a morning of habitat creation where only one family joined us. They made a bat box using dimentions and materials provideed to them as well as a bird feeder, insect attractor and footprint tracker tunnel from my eco posts that I had done during lockdown. The families then had a family free afternoon and evening. 

On Wednesday we went to Kames bay to do some sandy shore activities such as beach art, litter/beach clean, nurdle hunt, digging and seiving to find worms, sand castle building. 

In the afternoon we took the families to the other side of the island to Fintray Bay and walked them back over the top of the island and through town before getting ice creams and heading back to the centre. Then that evening we did touch tanks and showed the kids some different starfish, urchins and crabs that had been collected from a snorkelling trip. 

Thursday was the last day of the course and in the morning  we went rockpooling which is one of my favourite activities. The kids enjoyed clambering over rocks and finding animals such as starfish, blennies, crabs, anemones etc. In the afternoon we went on the RV Actinia which is FSC Millports Research Vessel, I was really excited as I hadn't been on the boat yet during my placement. We headed off towards the Eileans and saw a couple of Seals, then over to Wee Cumbrae where we saw a couple more and also saw Gannets, Gulls and Guillimots in the water. 

Then as we headed over to the buoys where Kylie the dolphin normally can be seen circling, the most amazing thing happened! We saw Kylie's fin pop out of the water and suddenly she was right by the side of the boat swimming alongside us and surfacing for about a minute long! We could see her so close and so clearly it was truly amazing and one of the best wildlife experiences ever. 

Once we were off the boat we went out and collected some plankton samples and looked at the under the microscopes which the parents were very interested in but the children lost interest in after a while and so I played some more environmental games with them instead. That evening we had a campfire where we played a few games and sung a song before bidding the families farewell. 

That friday evening Luke and I had our 'leaving drinks' and went to the pub on the island with Jenny and Christina which was a fun evening. 

Then on Saturday  Luke, Adam and I  hired some Kayaks whilst Jenny Paddleboarded and we went around the Eileans trying to spot seals as the heatwave hit scotland! I have also published a blog post about my experience as a HEP for FSC Millport of the wildmillportfsc blog page: https://wildmillportfsc.wordpress.com/2020/08/07/experience-as-a-volunteer-placement-student-at-fsc-millport/