Habitat workshop at Llanilar

Harry Smalley from Cardished ran a fantastic habitat workshop with Year 5 students from Llanilar. He brought two finished Barbastrelle bat boxes, four nest box apartments for House Sparrows and kits for Robin and Starling sizes nest boxes that the students assembled, using a form, a clamp, hammers and nails.

After the workshop, we walked around the grounds to look at possible sites for the nestboxes, and then we had a quick walk around the village pond to talk about habitat and the importance of water and flying insects for bats.

Potential site with Oak, Ash, Holly, Field Maple and Hazel, with access to trees along path. But the gate is locked!

Possible site with mature trees near the outbuilding at back of the grounds

Two 4-apartment wide nest boxes for House Sparrows on a table

Harry showing students how to line up the back of the nestbox

Headteacher Jan Jones explaining the activities to Year 5 students

Everyone taking turns with hammering in the nails

Inside the luxury House Sparrow apartments

Possibly rare centipede Propolydesmus testaceus, found by the village pond

Reflections

The nest box kits for the students are fantastic, with a simple construction with nails. My woodworking skills are pretty basic, so I could have done with a simple set of instructions.