The Wild Ways Well Week 23 April

The sun has finally decided to get it’s hat on and make an appearance this year and the Wild Ways Well groups were determined to make the best of it!  To be honest I should have had my own hat on as I got my head a tad sunburnt while out delivering some taster activities to a group of teachers learning about outdoor education at Strathclyde Park.  We tried tuning into our non visual senses, wearing blindfolds to meet a tree and to create soundmaps.

Later on that week we followed on from the Nature Ninjas good work cleaning up Seafar woods by taking a stroll through them with our litterpickers.  We managed to fill another 8 binbags, we’re determined that we’ll do our bit to help keep these woodlands clean and healthy – after all the woodlands are helping us in return.  The group really enjoyed litterpicking but we also found time to make ourselves a cup of tea on the outdoor kettles.  it was the first time in a while this group had had the Kelly Kettles out but they did very well remembering all the safety rules and getting their fire lit almost on the first go – it was an exciting time as this was the first kettle of the year that we managed to boil using only the dry twigs we found on the ground rather than having to bring our own dry kindling!

We also had a go at a bit of sound mapping and stood quietly in the woods, writing and drawing all the sounds we could hear around us.  We were rewarded in our efforts doing this as after a few minutes a roe deer actually walked through the middle of our group – obviously confused as to why we were sitting so quietly!  This is something that happens quite regularly with this activity – wildlife isn’t used to people just sitting quietly!

We visited a couple of local badger setts, learning a bit more about these awesome animals and how to read the signs of their presence.  While there we took the time to survey the setts and send the information off to Scottish Badgers so they can build up a better picture of the badgers which share our town with us.  We’re hoping to get a bit of video evidence of these animals in action over the summer so keep watching this space!

Wild Ways Well is a partnership project between The Conservation Volunteers and The Scottish Wildlife Trust, delivered by Cumbernauld Living Landscape and funded by the Green Infrastructure Community Engagement Fund and Transport Scotland with the support of Scottish Natural Heritage.

Paul Barclay