Having seen the BBC weather forecast warning of rain all day, for our 'Feed the Birds Day 'event on Saturday 24th, it was with some trepidation, that i set off in the early morning to the Lodge.
However, it was dry when I arrived and Derek Gruar decided that he could set up his nets to run the bird ringing demo's.
After the usual last minute rush around, everone was in place and people now started to flow in and take part in the activities. The kid's loved getting their hands messy, plunging them into tubs of lard and seed to
make the fat balls and we had some brilliant collages made from Autumn leaves and nuts.
Visitors were now keeping us busy, visiting the marquees housing 'Homes for wildlfe', Membership and pin badges and then the wood carver, making bird feeders .
Whenever the bird ringing nets were emptied people crowded around and were able to gain close up viws of Goldcrests, Song thrush and Nuthatch in the hand, along with our common species.
Dawn Cox had home cooked excellent soup and chillie con carne and kept everyone well fed in the canteen, where people could watch the wool spinners using our very own Manx Loghtan wool and buy feeders and goods from the shop.
We had the bonus of a Peregrine flying over, we didn't get too wet and we signed up 3 new memberships, so a good day at the Lodge.
A very big thank you to everone, staff and volunteers , who helped out....thanks