Forest School

Sunday, July 4th 2021

Once a month there is a small family Forest School for Richmond Home Educators. So far this keen group have been getting familiar with the reserve and have done some pond dipping. The theme for this month was owls and the children spent some of the time dissecting Barn Owl pellets to learn more about the owl's diet.

They found bones of various small mammals such as Bank Voles and Shrews. Many thanks to volunteer Nicola for sharing her expert knowledge on the identification of these. These pellets were collected by the Swaledale Bird Ringers from the ranges at Warcop near Appleby where the small rodent population seems to be more abundant than the local one.

Forest School is all about being outdoors and so the remainder of the session was spent in the woodland having a go at some 'Andy Goldsworthy' inspired artwork. On the way there we had a look at some of the owl boxes in the conifers.

Using only materials found on the forest floor the budding artists created pictures of owls and other plants and animals.

There were flying owls, perched owls and even some with a nest of eggs!

A lot of thought was given to the specially adapted features of the owl such as the disc shaped head with large eyes, sharp beak and talons!

Here are some more of the masterpieces!

There was even a sheep inspired by the wool from a Jackdaw nest that was discovered in one of the owl boxes!

A fun time was had by all!

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