Davidson's Mains Primary

Davidson's Mains Primary School

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Davidson's Mains Primary School Wildlife Newsletter Nov 2008

The Wildlife Club

I like the wildlife club because it is always fun. I also like the trips we go on to Cramond and Cammo and what we do like making bramble smoothies and face paint. Gus and Sarah run the club and they are really nice. We play games like catch the flag and hide and seek. Gus also lets us play games that we choose. When it has been raining all day or the weather is bad, Gus always has something for us to do indoors like quizzes, making bird food balls, guess what is in the tray, or animal masquerades. I have learned a lot about nature and that Davidson's Mains Park has much wildlife in it. I often take my family to see what we have found in the park. In the summer we go on a wildlife cycle which is fantastic. The wildlife club is amazing but we need more girls because, including Sarah, there is only five of us.

Emma Gray P5A

Wildlife Club

In September I joined the Wildlife Club run by Gus and Sarah, who are both really nice. I was keen to start as I had heard it was lots of fun. I was not disappointed! Since joining I have learned lots about wildlife and had a great time while doing it. Every week we do something different like looking for signs of wildlife, going on scavenger hunts, outdoor art and playing lots of games. My favourite is 'Catch the Flag' which we play in the woods. The best session so far has been when we went on a cycle safari. We rode along the cycle path towards Cramond, searching for evidence of wildlife such as chewed acorns and animal droppings. It was quite hard work but very interesting. When we got there we found badger setts. If you enjoy learning about wildlife and exploring the woods and river banks you will enjoy the club too.

Susanna Smith P5

Wildlife Ranger Report

Over the past few weeks the wildlife Rangers, Gus and Laura have been looking for wildlife in the forest at the back of Davidson's Mains Primary School.

The Rangers have also been looking in the nature garden and have been improving the environment for both pupils and wildlife. Last time we met up we went on a search to see what wildlife we could find in the grounds of the school and how to improve it. Morven found an extremely large, blind centipede. Both Laura and Gus said it was one of the biggest they had ever seen. When some of the rangers were working in the nature garden they said that they had spotted what looked like a family of mice scurrying about, but it turned out that they were actually a family of wood voles.
The rangers are looking to improve the amount of wildlife in the grounds of our school and help the habitat of the remaining creatures. We hope that this will help.
The weather has been holding us back slightly, but on the whole we have been doing our best.
We would like to broaden our wildlife and by the end of the year the wildlife club would like to see an eco friendly green flag flying above our school.

Reported by Cara Anderson P7a

The Wildlife Rangers

The wildlife rangers have been working in the last few weeks on clearing the wildlife garden and the bit of ground next to it. It was hard graft for the first three weeks as there were nettles, brambles and thistles almost as tall as us and they were all over the garden. We all worked together to try and get rid of all the weeds and rubbish from the first garden and put it all into the second garden. Gus and Laura cut back the overgrown branches from the trees and took the mud out of the pond. The rangers had to weed the flowerbeds at the side of the garden and turn over the soil in the pots and on the ground.

We moved over to the second garden, which was a seemingly impossible task but little by little we pulled weed by weed and started to get somewhere. There were two entrances to get into the second garden but only one was accessible and it was not the main one but by the time we had finished you could walk all over the whole garden.

By Morven Risk

Tree planting

All the classes got a chance to plant three trees of different varieties. The trees are there to help drain water out of the field and make it dryer, help the local wildlife and to make the field look nicer for
everyone at the school. There are 50 new trees planted at the left hand side of the field.
Each class went out one at a time to do their planting. Some of the older classes carried the trees and stakes over to the field. Then Laura, the wildlife ranger leader, told each class about the different types of trees and the leaves and nuts that the trees contained. Then she chose six people to plant the trees. Two people were put at each tree and they had to pull the plant out of the pot, loosen the roots, place it in the ground, fill the hole in with soil and then pat it down.
Hopefully sometime next year we will be able to buy some more new trees and expand our mini woodland.

Report by Morven Risk P7B