“Get Looking” encourages wildlife recording
Tattenhall Education Centre was the ideal venue for the Cheshire Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) ‘Get Looking’ Training Day on 21st February.
This event, generously funded by the Habitats and Hillforts Project was aimed at parents and children to teach them the importance of recording wildlife.
A morning session indoors commenced with Nicky Hall from Cheshire FWAG giving an introduction to the day followed by 3 very interactive presentations. Eric Fletcher from rECOrd (The Biodiversity Information system for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington and Wirral) explained the importance of recording wildlife. This covered what species they were looking for, how to record them and where to send the information. Following on from this Sarah Bennet (Cheshire Region Biodiversity Partnership) showed how to identify mammals, and how to recognise the signs that they are living close by. These included animal tracks, holes in the ground and mammal ‘poo’. Sarah had also brought along stuffed mammals and live Harvest Mice for the children to identify. To round off the morning session Neil Friswell (Cheshire Wildlife Trust Trustee and RSPB volunteer) showed pictures of garden and farmland birds and how to identify them and recognise their song. All 60 parents and children then participated in a quiz to see how much they had learnt.
After lunch they were all given another quiz sheet with pictures of mammals/flowers/fungi/insects etc designed by Fungal Punk Dave and set off for the nearby woodland with him to see how many species they could find.
At the end of the afternoon the quiz winners received their prizes and all the children were given certificates, a recording calendar and a copy of the Darwin Guide to recording wildlife. This book was the perfect tool for everyone to take away and read. It covers in more detail what the days events were all about and is a valuable reference book for everyone to help them record the correct information in an easy to read format.
This information will help to secure the biodiversity of the Cheshire Landscape for our future generations by recognising those species that are either threatened or in decline before it is too late and they are lost for ever.
Contacts
For more information of Cheshire FWAG Training Events please contact Helen Broughton on 01270 627938.
Written by Helen Broughton of the Cheshire FWAG