Lots to do - The reeds 15 weeks on

The amount of ongoing tasks for the John Muir award is building. With each new session comes new monitoring and assignments; so today we had a morning of playing catch up after our week away. The boys will be required to make some kind of 10 minute presentation at their next session (as part of the "share" aspect of the award) which will involve talking about what they have experienced since they started the award in February. In the 3 months leading up to February the boys were involved in 3 general workshops too.

October 2014 - What Lives in this Habitat
November 2014 - How do Birds Fly
January 2015 - Migration

February - 1st Session (we were absent)
    Learning about Peter Scott and John Muir

March - 2nd Session
    Water Vole survey

April - 3rd Session
    Hedgerow Planting and Monitoring

May - 4th Session
    Bat Boxes and the Bat Walk

June - 5th Session
    Random Sampling and Hedgerow Weeding and Monitoring

Today the boys measured their reeds, updated their graphs and typed out some observations about the changes. The reeds have been placed outside since they last measured them which has caused some visible differences.

Connor's reeds and marsh marigold!

Nath's reeds, one dying invader and another invader about to bud

They followed this with some notes and observations from their last session where they weeded and monitored the hedgelings they planted in the wildllife garden in April.

They made good progress today. They still need to type out the results from the random sampling and explain their reasons for choosing a particular area of the wildlife garden as a nature reserve. They've decided to tackle this after another visit to the Wetlands tomorrow - a little jogging of memory is required and Nath was unwell at the last session so not totally with it!

They also need to start work on their presentations. We talked about focusing on their experiences so far, what they've learnt, enjoyed and disliked. Nath is reluctant to stand and talk in front of others - always has been - so he will work on a powerpoint presentation; but Connor is willing to give it a go.

Re-potting Again - 14 weeks on

Growing reeds has become a bit like "Day of the Triffids" as the growth rate per day has really ramped up and one of Nath's invaders has begun to overtake the reeds in growth! 

We decided to re-pot AGAIN this afternoon as we are going away for a week and didn't want there to be any chance of them becoming pot bound. As it was, it was more tricky getting them out of their current pots this time.

Nath's reeds now stand at 62cm tall which means they've grown about 2cm per day since last week and as you can see they are now almost waist height. The invader has developed these thick white roots and when we were at the park earlier in the week we spotted this plant below and we are convinced it's a match as they both have a very similar bud appearing...it's exciting to see what it's going to look like!

Connor's reeds now stand at 32cm tall and his marsh marigold has been looking very healthy this week.

Nath's reeds have started to block out the light in my bedroom so we picked a sunny area of the garden for them to stay outside. We have a friend staying in our house while we are on holiday and one of her jobs will be watering the reeds!

Re-Potting Again - 12 weeks on

We've not noticed so much growth this week so the boys agreed to re-pot into larger pots.

Nath stopped to inspect the root patterns which sure enough had reached the bottom of their pot.

Louis watched over Connor as he fetched his compost.

Connor had to be very careful when re-potting as he needed to put the marsh marigold roots under compost instead of leaving them exposed, it wasn't 100% successful but hopefully over the next few days they may start to strengthen. He was very interested in the roots structure too,

Reeds - 11 weeks on

Nath's reeds now stand at 38cm and the leaves are widening. We decided to gently remove one of the unidentified plants as there was 2 of them and they were trying to take over and it means more room for the reeds roots.

Connor's reeds are still playing catch up and have had a very healthy growth spurt and now stand at 7cm. His marsh marigold is also doing rather well but is very fragile as Connor left some of its roots exposed when he re-potted them.

The boys keep them well watered and they seem to like the sunny position of my bedroom windowsill.

Invaders are Thriving - 10 weeks on

Connor is doing remarkably well growing a marsh marigold and even his reeds have had a good week growing to 3cm!

Nath's reeds have now grown to 27cm and his plant is starting to look very substantial. He's also growing 3 invaders, 2 of which we've yet to identify.

One of them is also a marsh marigold. The other 2 are quite different to each other. One has serrated double leaves and a fluffy stem, I'm tempted to say it might be a nettle but doesn't sting when you touch it; whilst the other has smooth oblong double leaves and a smooth stem. Any ideas anyone...?

In an attempt to identify them we came across this website about leaf morphology and the diagram below from Wikipedia helps with the detective work!

"Leaf morphology" by derivative work: McSush (talk)Leaf_morphology_no_title.png: User: Debivort - Leaf_morphology_no_title.png. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leaf_morphology.svg#/media/File:Leaf_morphology.svg

Re-potting of the Reed Seeds - 8 weeks on

The growing and monitoring of the reed seeds has been intermittent to say the least! One minute they are drowing in water, the next they are crying out for it! But with a little nagging from me, the boys agreed to re-pot their seeds into pots with drainage holes and a base of shingle to see if it would make any difference. 

Connor went first...

He was very careful taking the reed seeds out of their original coffee cup and inserting them and their original earth into the new pot.

Nath chose a much larger second home since he's had slightly more success so far.

He was surprised to see how much root growth there was coiling round the base of the earth when it came out of the cup.

He finished off watering thoroughly with filtered water!

Both lots of seeds enjoying some fresh air and sunshine. Nath's pot is on the left of the picture...we're assuming those long grass like stems are in fact reeds!

Afterwards we discussed how they could share the reed seed success/failure with the group and talked drawings, limericks, parodies. There are lots of ideas floating around but they're having difficulty getting them down and Nath in particular is resistant to the idea of standing up and presenting to the group, his lack of self confidence getting the better of him.

WWT Arundel for Hedgerow Monitoring and Planting

We've been spoilt with more amazing weather today and so we made the most of having membership to the Wetlands and arrived early so that we could have a peaceful wander before the afternoon workshop.

Friends also had the same idea so we met up with them for a picnic lunch outside...suncream was required!

We saw plenty of ducklings and goslings, all very cute and witnessed the lapwings performing their aerial mating displays high in the blue skies. We also got to see and hear a Spitfire go overhead a couple of times which was very unexpected and a bit of a treat too.

Today's session focused on hedgerows but included a talk and look at eggs in incubation, some of which are due to be transported to Slimbridge for specialised care and the boys were also shown a variety of moths which had been sedated by being kept in a fridge, all of which were wetland varieties of moth and very beautiful close up, one even looked as though it had a superhero mask!

It was reassuring to hear that we're not the only ones to have limited success with the reed seeds but Monica encouraged everyone to keep monitoring and watering them, changing position and care if necessary.

Outside the kids were shown a stretch of hedgerow and asked to examine and identify the variety of bushes contained within it. To start with, and with unaccustomed eyes, it was tricky, but with a little help from Monica who has a wealth of knowledge we think there was approximately 7 including Dog Rose, Hawthorn, Privet, Bramble, Sloe, Myrtle, Viburnum. This month's take home task is to find a nearby hedgerow and monitor it for wildlife etc.

Connor had the hawk eyes today and spotted a tiny bright yellow spider in amongst the virburnum; sadly noone was able to identify it but Mark (the other tutor) took some photos to show a colleague.

Their next task was to plant some saplings in the wild garden area, adjacent to a newly installed weaved willow fence which would grow and take its place as the willow dies and disintegrates. Wetland staff had already done the hard bit and dug some holes so the kids dropped the saplings in along with a cane and then wrapped them with a plastic tube to protect them from greedy ducks and geese. Finally they trod the earth back in place around the saplings and watered them. It'll be interesting to watch them grow over the coming year.

Greylag Geese

All together now "aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh"

Mum keeping an eagle eye

Could have sat and watched them for hours

Marsh Marigold maybe? 

Canadian goose and goslings

Variety of eggs for incubation

Eggs in incubation

Transportation box for eggs going to Slimbridge

Identification chart and different eggs

Candling helps show what's going on inside the eggs

Cowslip, one of my favourites

A little stoat anxiously trying to cross the path