Tayside Wildlife Group wins award

Oct 29 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

THE Tayside Wildlife Group, which teaches children up to the age of 12 about our native flora, fauna and birdlife, has achieved a Bronze Award in The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ (RSPB) Wildlife Action Awards.

The group, involving 30 children from five to 12 years, meets at Scone Palace each month to undertake practical projects aimed at conserving the rich wildlife and habitat which can be found across the Palace grounds.

The group was set up with the RSPB and Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scotland’s leading wildlife charities, and is run as one of Scotland’s first joint Wildlife Explorer/Watch groups.

The RSPB’s Wildlife Action Awards Scheme encourages children to find out about wildlife, do practical things to help and tell other people. To achieve the Bronze Award, the children undertook activities including building nest boxes around the palace grounds; counting and monitoring birds in the Big Garden Birdwatch; taking part in a ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ project, focusing on recycling activities in their own homes; designing a logo for the group; counting butterflies in Scone Palace’s butterfly garden; and building mini beast bug hotels to create a safe environment for hibernating insects.

A photographic competition, featuring pictures taken by members of the group of a variety of native wildlife and fauna, has also led to the group producing a colourful calendar.

The calendar will be on sale at Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Loch of the Lowes and Montrose Basin Nature Reserves from the beginning of November, and at the High School of Dundee Christmas Fair on November 13.

Proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go towards the osprey satellite tagging project at Loch of the Lowes, being carried out to track migration of these iconic birds.

Dan Spinks, co-ordinator of the Tayside Wildlife Group, said: “We’re thrilled with our bronze award, which is testament to the children’s dedication and enthusiasm over many months. Continuing the good work, we’ve already started working towards the silver award, which we hope will take us one step nearer to a coveted gold.”

For more info on the group, email taysidewildlifegroup@yahoo.co.uk, or telephone 07950 095336.