Day 1 of Exploring Leasgarry Woods

Today I went down to the woods to conduct a water survey, with my two sisters and my Mum. I had to look for still water and take samples off the water. I tested the waters PH level and this tells you how acidic or basic the water is. If its very acidic then its not good as it can cause problems with erosion. If the water is too basic then some bacteria find it hard to live in and can affect the biodiversity. My water I sampled had a PH of 6.5 which is close to neutral. Neutral is 7 and PH has a scale of 1-14. I brought some samples of the pond water home so I could look at a drop under the microscope to look for any microorganisms. Also I thought it would be interesting to distill the water and see if any impurities were left.
Then I placed my fishing net in the water and swirled it around in figures of eight to catch up any kind of algae or other tiny creatures so I could see any life in the pond. I didn't find any but I thought it could be caused by a sewage discharge pipe that was close by and also that it was a very cold morning in march. I also checked the colour of the water using a colour meter and the water was clean and clear.
We had a picnic in a field that was close by the woods and I played with my sisters. Afterwards we went back into the woods to look for signs of spring. I found lots of different budding flowers and trees, some blooming little flowers, and a bird with twigs in its mouth. Other birds I saw were robins, house sparrows, seagulls, magpies, blackbirds, and blue tits. When I got home later I sketched pictures off all these birds.
We all helped to build a shelter from twigs, big sticks and covered it in leaves that were still there from autumn. We built the shelter using a large tree and a fallen tree as the structure. I thought it looked very cool. We were all very careful while in the woods that we wouldn't squash any of the new budding little plants.
After building the shelter I sat on a rock and composed a poem about the woods. It was about all the different things I could hear. I recited my poem in the woods and my family all liked it.
I thought overall it had been a very good day today.