Folly Farm

My first day volunteering with the Avon Wildlife Trust today, the position I was applying for last Thursday. A brilliant day, albeit challenging and long.

Up early to get ready for the 10:30 start, expecting to have to cycle the 13 or so miles to the centre, but my brother ended up kindly offering me a lift.

I met up with Jo who I was working under, to set up the equipment and classroom. Good to have a few minutes to get used to how everything worked.

After an hour, the children arrived. They were of various ages and all had behavioral issues, and it quickly became apparent that they would be quite hard work to keep engaged.

As soon as everyone had put their bags in their rooms and got their packed lunches sorted, we headed out into the woods to have a picnic.
After lunch, we started the activities. First up, a minibeast hunt to find as many little bugs as you could and attempt to identify what they were. A tough job to keep everyone enthusiastic and engaged.

We got back to the centre at about 5, then after a break dissected some owl pellets to see what they had been eating. Easy to find skulls of shrews and mice.

After dinner, a quick night walk with bat detectors, and then my brother collected me at 9. A long day, and a long day tomorrow as I travel to Snowdonia for another interview for a volunteer position.