Birds in schools across Newport will be offered new homes this winter.
Children in 15 local primary schools are busy building nest boxes where wrens, robins and blue tits can huddle together for warmth in the cold winter months. They will then use the boxes for rearing their young come the spring.
Newport City Council Biodiversity in Schools Officer, Natalie Waller, will be visiting schools with volunteers from Gwent Wildlife Trust (GWT) over the next few weeks.
Natalie said “There is no better way to develop an interest in local wildlife than to get stuck into a practical project like this. Having built the boxes, the children can then watch them being used and follow the habits of garden birds, which are such an important natural feature in urban areas.”
Natalie’s post is part funded by the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), who work closely with Newport City Council on a range of environmental projects.
The Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) District Team Leader Sue Howard said: “We are extremely happy with all the hard work that Newport City Council countryside team have put into their environmental programme. The nature awareness work they do in schools is an important part of the work they are doing to meet their local biodiversity targets through the Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP).”
Building bird boxes is just one aspect of Newport’s Biodiversity in Schools scheme. There are also projects to plant trees and wild flowers that will attract birds and butterflies to school grounds. Log circles will also be created as outdoor classrooms, and bug ‘hotels’ and log piles will become a rich habitat for insects of all kind.
Natalie and the GWT volunteers will be at Mount Pleasant Primary school on Thursday 11 November at 9:15am.
