Faia Brava Presentation and Barn Owl Perch Making: 6th November 2021

We started off the morning with the very exciting news that I
had received my John Muir Explorers Award. After that we split off into two groups and completed a quiz on deer, dormice, foxes and beavers .

We then sat down and enjoyed Jonathan’s Portugal presentation which included a report on the Faia Brava nature reserve in Portugal. This reserve is an 1000 hectare rewilding project owned by over 700 members. It is filled with an abundance of wildlife. Jonathon saw many species including Hen Harriers, Hobbies, Mongoose, Lynx (possibly!), Otters (hundreds!), Kingfishers, Dippers and River Fish. Faia Brava is looking to expand and incorporate 120,000 hectares of the Coa valley and employs 9 full time people including 3 ecologists. It was truly incredible to see.

Jonathon also visited an amazing town called ( name I also need to find out ), where there are no cars and people ride on white Spanish horses. Jonathon showed us pictures of Pepe, a very cute miniature pony which the children ride.

After cups of tea we headed out into the nature reserve to replace old barn owl perches with new ones, ready for the winter. We had made these perches in previous visits to the nature reserve. After pulling the old perches out, we found good places amongst the long grass to put our new perches in. It is important that these perches are located here as it is much easier for the barn owls to hear their prey rustling in the grass.