As spring gets underway, we are preparing to open full-time at the start of April. Last year saw us welcoming over 4,000 visitors to our centre whilst engaging with a further 2,000 through our walks, events and other activities
Meanwhile, we have been busy with education workshops. This week we have taught groups ranging in age from pre-school (Squirrels, the youngest cohort of the Scouts) to post-graduate (Conservation Management students from Exeter University). In between these ages we ran a series of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) workshops for 140 primary school pupils from 9 schools in Argyll and hosted a group of additional support needs students from Oban High School. It’s been quite a week and it’s only Thursday. Tomorrow sees two of us attending a marsh fritillary butterfly identification and habitat training, one of us a bird-ringing course whilst the remaining member of staff runs our visitor centre.
Over the winter we have recorded the comings and goings of the species that regularly visit our bird feeders. Some, such as the badgers, robins, blackbirds, great and blue tits and dunnocks are regulars whilst others ebb and flow. We’ve seen large numbers of chaffinches and siskins moving through and, as spring has gained momentum, the return of our red squirrels, pine martens and great-spotted woodpeckers. The pine martens have a habit of stealing feeders and fat-filled coconut shells, running off with them and caching them as part of a stored food supply.
The beavers had lots of breeding success last year and we now have some 45-50 animals in 11 family territories throughout Knapdale. Youngsters disperse at around 2.5 years old. Sometimes they will travel through seawater to find a freshwater outlet where there may be suitable territory. One individual ended up washed up on a beach 52 miles south of us near the Mull of Kintyre. He was rescued by the Campbeltown Coastguard, given immediate treatment by the local vet (he was dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia) and rehabilitated by the SSPCA at their rescue centre in Alloa. He was then matched up with a single parent female and the new family were released into the Cairngorms National Park. A great result for everyone concerned, not least the beaver who found both a mate and territory, if a little unconventionally!
There was great excitement a couple of days ago when a tawny owl was seen checking out the owl box in our byre! The pair managed to successfully raise two chicks last year.
Our Vegware grant allows us to supplement our large feed bill that helps support both the birds and mammals that frequent our feeders, giving visitors the opportunity to see them, as well as providing ‘bait’ for our cameras that log beaver activity; beavers love sweet potatoes, not the cheapest vegetable, but one that is largely ignored by other species and has a high nutrient content.
