What a busy few weeks it has been! Darting around the country, playing with puppets, constructing moorlands from playdough, refereeing Skydance Olympic competitions... Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Popping into primary schools to deliver hen harrier workshops and assemblies is a lot of fun. Occasionally, though, I feel especially lucky to have my job. I’m speaking about those days when the sun shines on a moorland field trip.
Towards the end of May the primary 4/5 class from Finzean School joined me in an upland area of the Forest of Birse in Aberdeenshire to find out more about the hen harrier and the moorland as a habitat after my visit to their primary school earlier in the month. And what an excellent day it was too. We scoured the skies with our binoculars, and the moorland vegetation below for invertebrate life and interesting plant species...
... and made recordings of a variety of living creatures with varying numbers of legs, investigating the unusual that we encountered along the way, including animal skulls and insect cocoons...
We enjoyed creating some mini moorlands to take home...
... and concocted moorland healing potions with magical properties in an attempt to help the hen harrier thrive in this habitat again.
Sometimes going about my day just doesn’t feel like work at all! The only thing that could have added to the trip would have been to see the hen harrier above, going about it’s day too.
To find out more about our work to raise awareness and secure a future for hen harriers in our hills, visit www.rspb.org.uk/henharrierlife or follow us on twitter @RSPB_Skydancer.