Conserver Award 2023/24 Explore

Explore its wildness:
What have you done to get to know wild places?
How have you experienced them?
What things have you found out?

Explore:
Through the year we discovered with trial cameras and personal observations signs such as tracks, trampled undergrowth, gnawed bark, animal droppings and even a skeleton of a squirrel head revealing through the seasons the huge variety of nature that the area supports – from birds, badgers, deer, squirrels, rabbits, foxes, to the wild orchids in the meadows and the trees in the woodland – all supporting the bird population we discovered.

We experienced the dawn chorus and learnt to identify some of the bird songs, including those of the birds warning of our presence when approaching the nesting box areas.

Working with the Severn Gorge Countryside Trust we discovered different sizes and styles of nesting boxes, how to make the right boxes for the size of bird for the monitoring project, how and where to site the boxes and how to establish a monitoring record ready to follow throughout the nesting season.