Building a Living Willow Bird Hide
Building a Living Willow Bird Hide in Stewards Ancient Meadow
with Leanne Block from Essex Wildlife Trust
Friday 14th December 2012
Year 11 GCSE Environmental and Land-based Science Students
We picked a horrendous day weather wise to carry out this practical activity in the meadow. It was heaving it down with rain but we still went outside and built a living willow bird hide at the bottom right-hand corner of the meadow. Leanne Block from Essex Wildlife Trust led the activity.
Building a Living Willow Bird Hide in Stewards Ancient Meadow
with Leanne Block from Essex Wildlife Trust
Friday 14th December 2012
Year 11 GCSE Environmental and Land-based Science Students
We picked a horrendous day weather wise to carry out this practical activity in the meadow. It was heaving it down with rain but we still went outside and built a living willow bird hide at the bottom right-hand corner of the meadow. Leanne Block from Essex Wildlife Trust led the activity.
The bird hide is made out of living willow whips that are pushed into the soil then woven in a decorative fashion to make a sturdy hedge. In the spring the willow will come out in leaf and by the summer the bird hide will be bushy enough for us the hide behind to watch the birds. Each year the willow will grow side shoots which will be woven into the structure, making the hide more dense. We used this hide when we did the Big School’s Bird Watch on Saturday 26th January 2013.
The students, Shakur Dixon-Chennis 11DF, Bethan Randall 11PH, Connor Bull 11SL , Ben Kuczko 11NJK wrote up the activity as part of their course work.