Swaddywell Wildlife Watch Visit

Young people from Stamford Wildlife Watch visited Swaddywell on Sunday 9 November, taking the opportunity of a break in the rain to attempt to herd sheep and to inspect - with more success - the reserve's nest boxes, as well as sampling the delights of an animal poo trail - poking around in the grass and mud to find stoat, rabbit, deer and fox pellets!

A total of twenty adults and children turned up for the tour - many of them first time visitors to the reserve. Their first task was to herd up the small flock of hebridean sheep and drive them into the pit area of the reserve which is in need to grazing. We had great success getting them within site of the gate through to the pit area and all seemed set fair for a successful operation, until these head-strong ewes simply decided to make a dash for it and their sheer speed saw them through - and yes they can jump, really - much to the surprise of the children!

This was followed up with a tour of the reserve's nest boxes, looking in each one to see what had made use of them this summer. We found several tit nests, two of which had skeltons of unlucky chicks still in them (presumably a result of the wet summer, when food would have been insufficient to raise the whole brood). And we also found a suspected tree sparrow nest and one nestbox occupied by mice!

And yes, we spent an exciting time prodding, pulling apart and smelling some lovely animal pellets - tentativley identified as stoat! Great fun, much helped by the provision of anti-bacterial soap that one Mum had kindly brought along.

The two hour visit finished with a talk about the geology and fossils of the pit followed by coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits.

And we got away before the rain came down!

If you would like to bring your children's group or organisation to visit Swaddywell, contact Richard Astle on 01733 252376.