As the name implies, we look at nature with great interest, but what nature does Warrington have, you might ask?
Well, over recent months we have found out that Warrington has lots of nature, especially at Fiddlers Ferry, which you’d never think of, seeing as it’s a power station. We spend our evenings at Fiddlers hunting for mini-beasts in the undergrowth; learning how to video and photograph wildlife and bird watching over the lagoons. So far we have seen lots of birds there including Geese, Herons, Mute Swans, Sand Martins, Cormorants and a Sparrowhawk. All these birds really like the environment around Fiddlers Ferry, especially the sand martins that make their nests in holes they carve out of the huge piles of left-over ash from the power station. Nature can make a home anywhere but we all know that humans, as well as making habitats like this for wildlife, also cause massive damage to many places that wildlife lives in too. We’re not happy about this and want people to know about some of the special places around our town and the wildlife that live there.
We have enjoyed day visits to Woolston Eyes, Risley Moss, the National Wildflower centre in Liverpool, with trips to Moore Nature reserve and Daresbury Firs still to come! Lots of adults are helping us to spot, identify and record Warrington’s wildlife – Helen from Groundwork Mersey Valley organises the group and the activities; Eric from a wildlife surveying group called RECORD helps with the i.d and we have an expert cameraman, Marlon Davies who is teaching us how to direct and edit our own film about the group and the wildlife we’ve seen.
By Rhiannon Ellison and Anna Loftus (Aged 13)
Photo of Burnett Moths by James Pare
Photo by Amanda Didsbury (aged 9)Giant Newts and Crocodiles at Risley Moss
On Tuesday 21st August the Wildlife Detectives decided to visit Risley Moss to learn about its history and its trees. Andy from the Risley Moss Action Group told us about the history of the site from World War 2, when they used to make and test bombs there. Then we walked round the site, identifying trees from their bark and leaves. We spent some time bird watching from the big tower but we didn’t really see anything!
After lunch, we got bitten by flies while we pond dipped, where we found some Diving Beetles, a cool leech, sticklebacks, water snails and some wicked Water Scorpions with big pincers at the front and tubes to breathe from at the back, coming out of their stomachs. We also got to see a Ruddy Darter dragonfly up close, when it landed on Eric’s bald head!
We also enjoyed spotting the wooden sculptures around Risley Moss including a crocodile, a bear on a bench, owls, mushrooms and the giant newt.Shannon Loftus (Aged 11)
Woolston Eyes Wonderful Wildlife
We started our adventure at Woolston Eyes by eating our rations, in the sun, looking over the weir. Suddenly a flash of green darted past my eyes and as I turned my head I saw 5 other blue-green arrows darting after it. After only been at the site for 10 minutes, the excellent Warrington Wildlife Detectives had set a record of the highest number of Banded Demoiselle damselflies seen in one session!
After a long time walking miles across the site we stopped at a bird hide and spotted a Black Necked grebe, which are very rare. This site is one of the best in the country to see these birds, but you aren’t always lucky enough to see one. He seemed very pleased to see us and kept showing off by stretching out his wings for all to see! We didn’t even know this huge nature site was on our doorstep, let alone it had all these rare species on it.
We came home quite tired after a long day wildlife detecting, but I reckon it was all worth it.
David Didsbury (Aged 10)
Anna and Rhiannon bird watching Caterpillar from the Arctiid family of moths "This project has been co-ordinated by Groundwork Merseyside, in partnership with Warrington Museum and Art Gallery and has been funded by the Young Roots programme from Heritage Lottery Fund"