Woodland blog
Catch up on all the latest news to find out what's going on with nature at this time of year.
Exploring Our Woodlands
April 2013
Easter in the Tŷ Gwyrdd - Corkboards and tomato seeds.
Another busy Easter fortnight has been and gone, one which saw over 4000 people visit the Tŷ Gwyrdd at St Fagans. Between the 25th of March and the 4th of April we ran a range of workshops from upcycling corkboards to planting tomoato seeds via an April Fools day quiz.
One of our workshops, Grow Now, Eat Later, was designed as a way to encourage visitors to think about growing their own food. There was a chance for families to plant a few tomato seeds to take home with them. Hopefully, over the coming months, with the right kind of nurturing, these seeds will grow into healthy tomato plants and will eventually produce a crop of delicious tomatoes. I’ll let you know how my own attempts fare!
For 2 days we were joined by Wood for the Trees Wales who held an Up-Cycling Workshop in the Tŷ Gwyrdd. This involved creating notice boards from old picture frames and cork tiles. This was an extremely popular activity with all who visited, in fact we used up every single picture frame and every scrap of cork tile! If you are interested in similar workshops, visit Wood for the Trees Wales’ Facebook page for more info!
As Easter Monday fell on April the 1st, we thought it was only right to hold an event for April Fools day. We created an quiz around the house so that visitors could test themselves to find out if they were Eco Cool or indeed an April Fool. Luckily it turned out most of our visitors were indeed Eco Cool… with only a few exceptions. After completing the quiz there was a chance to make badge to show off your eco credentials to friends and family.
As part of the Making History Project, the use of the Tŷ Gwyrdd will be changing. As the main visitor entrance is being upgraded, the Tŷ Gwyrdd will form part of a temporary entrance to St Fagans.
Over the years, we’ve had a fantastic time running numerous workshops in the Tŷ Gwyrdd and meeting literally thousands of wonderful poeple. Thanks to the many, many people who have helped us achieve this. Rest assured, lots of our workshops will continue, albeit in different locations throughout St Fagans Museum. Watch this space!
October 2012
Half term fun in the Ty Gwyrdd!
Next week is half term and that means there will be lots going on at the T? Gwyrdd at St Fagans.
On Tuesday and Wednesday next week, 30th and 31st of October, we will be celebrating Halloween by dedicating two days of activities to some of our favourite residents of the museum. We have many species of bat living at St Fagans and there will be a chance to find out much more about these fascinating creatures! What facts do you know about bats? How many of these are true and how many are myths??
With the help of our team of volunteers, including Anne-mie who's an artist, we will also be creating a batty art installation in the T? Gwyrdd. We are hoping to create a large willow bat which we can hang in the house and surround with many, many baby bats! We need your help so that we can make as many of these baby bats as possible! As you can see from the picture, these will all be made from recycled newspaper, elastic bands and pipe cleaners!
Next week also sees St Fagans’ Halloween Nights events. The museum will be open after dark with many activities taking place. Again, we will be championing the bat with some crafty activities taking place each night. Halloween Nights take place between Tuesday the 30th of October and Thursday the 1st of November. Tickets MUST be purchased in advance. Click here for more info
Towards the end of next week we will be leaving Halloween behind and taking a look at some of the brilliant foodstuffs that are in season at this time of year! On Friday and Saturday (2nd & 3rd of November) I will be cooking up a treat in the T? Gwyrdd kitchen using some traditional recipes and ingredients grown in the T? Gwyrdd garden! Come along to taste some chutneys, soup and maybe even some cakes! There will also be recipe sheets that you can take home to try out some of the recipes for yourself!
All in all, next week promises to be very busy but lots of fun with plenty going on, so why not pop over to the T? Gwyrdd to see us!
August 2012
Summer Snaps! Wildlife Photography Workshops @NMC
Over the past two weeks we have been running family activities linked to the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition here at National Museum Cardiff.
Over 400 of you took part and it has been a fantastic fortnight of photographic fun! I've been busy uploading as many photos as possible to the NMC Photo Club Flickr page and I have to say they look great! When you visit the Flickr page the photos are organised into sets on the right hand side of the page so if you took part all you need to do is click on the date of your visit to the Museum and look for your name!
The photos will be going up on the screen in the Clore Discovery Centre in the Museum on Saturday the 8th of September so if you came to the workshops pop in to see your pictures on display at the National Museum!
I'd like to say a big thank you to Cat, Lauren and Catherine for all their excellent work in running the workshops and I'd like to thank everyone who came along to take part as well. Thanks!
June 2012
Explore Nature at St Fagans this half term!
If you are anything like me, you will have been glued to the BBC’s fantastic Springwatch programmes over the last few days. Spring is a brilliant time of year with so much going on all around us, and St Fagans Museum is a fantastic place to get up close and personal with a wide range of wildlife!
This half term, why not come and visit us and pick up one of our family nature trails, which you can find at the main reception and in Oriel 1. The trail will take you to the best places in the museum to spot our fantastic wildlife. You can watch birds feeding from the comfort of our bird hide, visit the Tannery where you can watch our roost of Lesser Horseshoe bats on our live infra-red camera and even peer into the water pits to see newts and other creatures that have made it their home.
Throughout the museum there are birds nesting, whether in some of the old buildings, in trees or in some of the nest boxes that we have put up. Look at the Greater Spotted woodpecker (pictured) nesting in a tree. You can even watch a family of blue tits nesting in one of our nest boxes live on our website.
Watch our family of Blue Tits on our live webcam
Hopefully the beautiful weather we’ve had recently will return as I will be spending time next week showing off some of our wildlife highlights. From Wednesday to Friday next week (June 6-8) I will in the bird hide from 11-1 with binoculars and I.D sheets and then at the Tannery from 2-4 showing off our colony of bats with the bat cam. If you get the chance, pick up a trail and come and say hi!
Video Clip, taken 30/05/2012
January 2012
A New Year of Exploring Nature at St Fagans
First of all I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! 2011 was a very busy year for the Explore Nature project here at St Fagans. The project was officially launched back in April, and we had a full calendar of events throughout the spring and summer, taking a closer look at the fascinating wildlife here at the museum.
Thank you to all who came along and took part in our events, whether it was bird spotting in the bird hide, pond dipping for a closer look at our newts or watching the lesser-horseshoe bats on our infra-red bat camera. If you missed out, many of these events will be happening again later in the year. Keep an eye on the What’s On pages for details. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?site=stfagans
The bird hide, of course, is still open to visitors. Situated along the woodland walk it is a great place to relax and watch our woodland birds at the feeding station. With the weather as cold as it is, I’m sure the birds are very appreciative of the food as it can be hard for them to find food at this time of year! If you find the bird hide a little cold, you can watch some of our birds feeding from the comfort of Nature Den in the Oriel 1 gallery, or even from home. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/woodlands/wildcams/birdfeed_cam/
This month gives you all the perfect opportunity to find out what birds visit your own gardens. The RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch takes place over the weekend 28-29th of January. All you need to do is spend an hour watching you garden and keeping track of which birds visit. You can register and find out more by visiting the RSPB’s website. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
This morning we took advantage of the dry, yet very windy, weather to set-up some nest boxes. We are hoping to attract Great Tits to one and Robins to the other. Both are fitted with cameras, so if they do get used, we should get some really good footage of the eggs and chicks. We will of course share any footage we do get with you!
If you are interested in our wildlife and nature events at the museum, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Nature_StFagans or send us an email at nature.stfagans@museumwales.ac.uk
November 2011
Bird blog
Female Bullfinch spotted at our woodland feeder today. Come and see for youself in our woodland bird hide www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/woodlands or watch them in the comfort of your own home at www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/woodlands/wildcams
July 2011
Da na na na na... bat cam! bat cam!
Come to see the St.fagans bat cam, where you can watch Lesser Horseshoe Bats and their babies. The camera is based in the Tannery buildings and can be viewed daily from April until October.
Better still, come along to one of our Explore Nature Activity Days when Hywel Couch will be at hand to answer questions on bats and birds. http://tinyurl.com/3uv8fyd
Or if you would prefer to get out after dark, book yourself a place on our family bat walk. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=5029
Today, after installing some new Infra Red lighting to improve the image on the bat cam we were able to count 50 or so bats, 20 of which were babies born over the summer.
Last week, a team of bat experts attended a specialist course run by Wildwood Ecology. During the course they recorded 6 different types of bats living on site. Including: Lesser Horseshoe, Natterers, Serotine, Soprano pipistrelle, Brown Long Eared and the Daubenton's Bat.
April 2011
Explore Nature at St Fagans!
After months of planning and preparation, the Explore Nature at St Fagans project was officially launched earlier this month. On April the 2nd, we had a day filled with nature and wildlife activities. The weather was fantastic and hundreds of visitors to the museum participated in bird spotting, bat watching, pond dipping and arts and crafts activities. I hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did! I’d like to thank everyone who came along, especially Daniel who can be seen cutting the ribbon at the bird hide in the photo.
As we are well into spring now, St Fagans is alive with wildlife once again! The lesser horseshoe bats have returned to the Tannery, yesterday I counted around 25 of them! Later this summer the females will give birth to their pups, as this is their maternity roost. Why not come along to the Tannery and watch them on our special infra-red batcam?
The pits at the Tannery are once again teeming with life. There are countless newts, water boatmen, pond skaters, dragonfly nymphs and much much more. The Tannery is perhaps the best building on site for wildlife. Last week saw the return of the swallows who nest here every summer. It really is fantastic to see so much wildlife so close.
As part of the Explore Nature project we will be holding events and activities throughout the spring and summer months, from early morning bird walks to evening bat walks. Keep an eye on the museum website for more information.
As the Tannery is so good for wildlife, I will be spending the day there on Saturday the 30th of April. Come along and learn more about the bats, the newts and all the other wildlife that have made this building their home!
March 2011
Explore Nature at St Fagans Project Launch
On Saturday, April 2, we will be officially launching the Explore Nature at St Fagans project, here at the museum. The launch will be at 11am in Oriel 1. Then, throughout the day, there will be a variety of different nature based activities.
We will have visits to our new bird hide, where a member of staff will be on hand to help with identifying the birds that can be seen visiting the bird feeders. Find out also how to attract different birds to your own garden so that you can watch them from the comfort of your own home!
We will also have a number of activities at the Tannery. The Tannery has become home to a great variety of wildlife, from protected Great Crested Newts to rare Lesser Horseshoe bats. Come and find out more about these fascinating creatures. We will also be doing a spot of pond dipping and minibeast hunting, come along and see what we find!
As part of the Explore Nature project we have commissioned a couple of films. The first is a general nature film shot at the museum, it shows the wealth of wildlife that we are lucky to have here. The second film concentrates on the Lesser Horseshoe bats that roost here. Enjoy!
Has spring arrived?
First of all, Happy Saint David’s Day to everyone! March has arrived, but is spring on its way? This morning, I went for a short stroll through the museum grounds to search for signs of spring. Here’s what I found…