By guest blogger Melanie Beck - Norwich Nuthatches Assistant Leader
April’s Norwich Nuthatches meeting began with a quiz on Earth Day which had taken place a few days before. Earth Day aims to show people ways to help protect the planet we live on. Our first challenge was to answer ten multiple choice questions to see how much we knew about the environment and conservation. The children were really knowledgeable and able to answer questions on recycling and composting. We also learnt some interesting facts. For example did you know one aluminium soft drinks can gives enough energy to power a TV or computer for 3 hours? That’s amazing from one little can. So the message of the day was – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, something the Nuthatches are all doing.
Our main activity of the day was learning about different habitats by getting the children working in teams. They were given a digital camera and a list of things to find in different parts of the reserve. They needed to take a photo of each one they found as each one earned a different number of points. We would then show our photos on John’s laptop and count the points. Some were quite easy to find such as binoculars, a home for nature and an RSPB volunteer so they didn’t score many points. Some were harder to find such as a woodlouse, an animal track or sign, or something you hadn’t seen at Strumpshaw Fen before so these earned more points. Finding a stick shaped like a letter of the alphabet, a seed or pine cone or the sky reflected in water gave us all quite a challenge but with good results. Then there were things that you would be really lucky to find or needed thinking about. Nuthatches regularly visit the reserve (I mean the birds) but they proved hard to find. As we are the Norwich Nuthatches the children took pictures of each other so points were awarded for creative thinking! (I took our featured photo of some of the Nuthatches taking a photo of three RSPB volunteers – very clever, we both earned points!) No-body saw an otter that was worth 50 points or scored 100 points for finding something common you think no one will recognise. However, some photo’s we just had to disqualify. Those who took photo’s of photo’s of otters and nuthatches – and you know who you are – were just cheating!! The children understood that different things could be found in different habitats and others can be found all over the reserve and how important it is to manage these habitats.
It was time to find who had scored most points. Assistant Leaders, Carolyn and Peter were in charge of scoring and the scores were all very close in the end. But we must say congratulations to Ella, Adam and their Mum who scored a huge 225 points - they even beat the assistant leader team!
It’s a great game to play on a visit to a reserve or local park, so why not have a go yourself. You can make it as hard or easy as you want but remember – no cheating!