Minor bird confusion to start the day today, with Terry one of our volunteers sure that he'd found a Wood Sandpiper on the pools. I went over to have a look and was fairly sure it was the more common Green Sandpiper, a few of which have moved to the pools now that their favourite wet patch in the cattle field has dried up. Turns out we had (typically) been looking at two separate birds, with them both popping up again during the course of the day. Along with a single Greenshank, two extremely rough Ruff, lots of Snipe, a handful of Black-tailed Godwit, Golden Plover and a flock of 50 or so Dunlin in the lagoon yesterday, this means that waders are definitely on the move and it's well worth checking through them carefully just see what else could be out there. That Mongolian Sand Plover's got to be somewhere, right?
After we'd sorted out the Sandpipers, it was a trip down to the plantation for me, Iain and a group of intrepid shelter builders as part of our weekly Wild Kids club.
We provided a little bit of guidance but it was entirely down to the kids where they put their shelter, how big it was, what they used to build it (no nails or glue allowed!) and how they decided to put it together. We just told them they all had to be able to fit inside, and that it had to be weather-proof by the end of the day.
The shelter takes shape...
Adults getting stuck in as well!
Inside the finished shelter
Iain initiates Operation Monsoon
The final result, built around a central tree and finished with lots of grass and pine needles was by far the biggest shelter we've ever built - with room for all 8 children and all the adults inside. It didn't quite stand up to our wet weather test, but we're al agreed it was a pretty epic piece of work, and we're considering using it instead of a tent if it's dry for Big Wild Sleepout in a fortnight's time!
Our next Wild Kids is a week today and we're meeting at Macduff Marine Aquarium then heading up to Troup Head as part of our Gannet Week festival. You can find out more about the week's events at the Troup Head events page.