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 28-29^th 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

 

 

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

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.

After months of planning and preparation, the Explore Nature at St Fagans project was officially launched earlier this month. On April the 2^nd, 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 30^th of April. Come along and learn more about the bats, the newts and all the other wildlife that have made this building their home!

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=4792

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! 

 

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…

This week is National Nest Box Week and next week is Half Term so we've decided to combine the two and have bird-themed activities at Tŷ Gwyrdd this weekend and all next week as well. We'll be making bird feeders and nest boxes and there'll be a free info pack all about how to attract birds to your garden and look after them.

With the weather looking increasingly Spring-like at the moment it is time to get those nest boxes up before the breeding season gets going. Spring and summer is a very busy time for the birds as they have to feed all those chicks as well as themselves, so any help that comes from us is most welcome I'm sure!

On Thursday and Friday last week, work began on revamping the existing nature area of Oriel 1 here in St Fagans. This is a very exciting part of the Explore Nature project at the museum, which sees us drawing attention to the wealth of wildlife that can be found on site. 

The first step was to decorate the area. We chose woodland themed colours and large colourful panels which show some of the animals that live within the museum. All of these panels are now in place, as you can see from these pictures. Hopefully this has made the area very inviting and a fun way to learn about our wildlife. 

We also see the new ‘nature den’ as being an activity area where a range of nature and wildlife based activities can take place. For this we have installed a new shelving area which will be used for displaying specimens, keeping games and activities as well as being a bookshelf for a range of nature and wildlife books. We also now have an area for displaying your artwork, so come along and do some drawing! 

This week will see the installation of the technological aspects, which we are very excited about. Along the wall with the wildlife montage (between the blackbird and the bat) we will be putting up our new flat screen television. This television will be linked up to our new live bird feeder camera so you will be able to watch the various birds feeding. There will also be access to other footage taken from our wildcams, from batcam and our underwater pond camera. 

As well as the footage from our cameras, we have also had some St Fagans wildlife documentaries made. These will also be available to watch on the screen, from the comfort of the sofa if you so wish. The first of the films shows a typical day in the life of the wildlife here, while the second concentrates on the Lesser Horseshoe bats that roost in the Tannery here. 

We are very happy with how the nature den is looking and we hope to have everything installed and up and running ready from half term, which is next week! Why not come along to St Fagans during the half term holiday and have a look and let us know what you think? 

If you can’t make it during half term, be sure to attend the big launch of the Explore Nature project, which is taking place on Saturday April the 2^nd! For more information click here.

Do you enjoy watching birds in your garden? Do you have a favourite place to go to watch birds? This coming weekend (29th and 30th January) is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual survey of the nations birds.

All it takes is an hour of your time to record which birds visit your garden or local park. For a list of local parks in Cardiff, click here.

You could even visit us here at St Fagans museum to record which birds you see from our bird hide. Wherever you choose to go, make sure you wrap up warm, it can be very cold work!

Registration is free and all the information you need is available from the RSPB's website: www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch 

What will you see??

First it was the snow and now it's the rain! The Ely burst its banks at St Fagans today and rose pretty high. A mere trickle compared to what's happening over in queensland though... You can help victims of the floods in Australia here