Today it was my pleasure as an RSPB Medway Local Group member to be at Foxes and Badgers classes at St Werburgh Primary School, Hoo, near Rochester to give them a talk on the Owls of Northward Hill.
This year for us on the RSPB reserve it’s been very successful with at least four Barn Owls fledging, two Tawny and two Little Owls as well. All, it has to be noted within a short walk from the Bromhey Farm office.
Bearing in mind the children were only 4 or 5 the talk had to be visual and stimulating.
I took 8 Owl pellets along (pre-soaked of course, to make it easier to tease open) so after asking the children what they knew of Owls and they knew quite a bit as the morning session with the teachers was about the amazing qualities of these stunning birds.
After a short talk and pictures in a power point of the three aforementioned owls, all taken on the reserve this Spring into Summer, we dissected the pellets and found three rodent skulls. I put these into plastic tubes and passed them round with a magnifying glass for the children to get a closer look at.
They were all rodent skulls and I will analyse them at a later stage, but for today ‘mice and voles etc’ was sufficient.
As far as promoting wildlife to the younger generation it was extremely worthwhile.
My parting question to the children was if they wanted me to come back and show them more of nature, Butterflies and Hedgehogs etc and there was a resounding, ‘YEEESSS’.
The North Kent Marshes are a very special area and worth preserving at all cost.