HI, if any of you are at work, have you noticed how many animals enjoy the peace and quiet in the holidays. Every day, I am seeing foxes running around the buildings and we had a green woodpecker pecking on the grass for ages, just outside the science block. Mind you, the gulls have taken off, no food rubbish to eat!
Wildlife creeping in school grounds in the holidays
- Thread starter Mad hatter
- Start date
Was watching the Hummy hawk moth working in the Science garden at lunch time - had a Purple Hairstreak the other day too which was nice. Then a flock of rooks wheeling - I think there was a Peregrine annoying them. Would be a lot of birds if I was feeding (we have quite a list) but I spotted a visiting furry friend so that forced a pause ...
once on a summer break I had a blackbird get stuck in a drain pipe that run inside the prep room, I could hear the chirping noise but could not work out where it was coming from. Then found it, as luck would have it, it was stuck in the pipe right next to the sink and there was a removable cover, I opened the window and removed the cover on the pipe and waited coaxing the blackbird to come out, it finally came out jumped on the window edge looked around and flew off. I think that was a thank you lookThe mice are back in the prep room
But yes, I do notice more wildlife in the holidays, and even in the evenings - in the winter we have a large flock of pied wagtails trotting around the playground every night after the kids have gone
We normally have a few wagtails hopping about. We have a big pond with lots of reed, when the clocks go back it's dusk at the end of school so we'd see the wagtails accumulating on the nearby buildings, take off in groups of ten or fifteen then dive into the reeds, make a racket for about 20 minutes then go quiet and you wouldn't know they were there. We (my wildlife group) did rough counts, one year we had well over 400!The mice are back in the prep room
But yes, I do notice more wildlife in the holidays, and even in the evenings - in the winter we have a large flock of pied wagtails trotting around the playground every night after the kids have gone
Oh lucky you, are you down south? They get a lot more butterflies than the West Midlands, where I am.
Yes, we get pied wagtails as well. We used to have a mouse (mice, there is always more than one) we called him Mr Bojangles. He used to run across the prep room, even when teachers were eating at the tables on one side of the prep room.The mice are back in the prep room
But yes, I do notice more wildlife in the holidays, and even in the evenings - in the winter we have a large flock of pied wagtails trotting around the playground every night after the kids have gone
How lucky was that! I hate to see injured birds and hear them stuck in a chimney.once on a summer break I had a blackbird get stuck in a drain pipe that run inside the prep room, I could hear the chirping noise but could not work out where it was coming from. Then found it, as luck would have it, it was stuck in the pipe right next to the sink and there was a removable cover, I opened the window and removed the cover on the pipe and waited coaxing the blackbird to come out, it finally came out jumped on the window edge looked around and flew off. I think that was a thank you look
working over the holidays , but school open for lettings. there is always kids in the ground doing sport etc so no extra wildlife
We've never had rodents inside the department ... Then the OFSTED inspectors arrived. Child at the door, "Sir, Sir there's a mouse in the corridor ..." What? We actually had a vole running up the corridor (big long corridor) so major rodent-catching don't-look-panicky time while inspectors were in a lab. The inspectors didn't seem to notice so all was fine. Then in the afternoon someone spotted a shrew in the corridor! You couldn't make it up. It's very difficult to rush and run whilst wielding a sweep net without looking if you're rushing or running after something potentially resembling a spanish hamster ... It was ejected but as we've never had them inside before or since, we suspect both were inspector-planted test rodents ...
Mushrooms! Things soon move in don't they?
I like those hawk moths. We have a very overgrown area behind the PE block, used to be a garden. It gets used for a few months each year when the kids grow things. Now it is overgrown with brambles and bindweed. There is rubbish around that the foxes bring in from nearby gardens. I love it in there, even when it looks awful. We have rats too. There are poison boxes around the school.
If the ants bother you, wipe some bleach all around where you think they are coming in. This stops their trail. My first job was office based and the tea making area had a sugar bowl. Every time I lifted the lid, it was covered in ants. I did not take sugar but I liked to see the ants, weirdly!not so much mammals- we inner city school - but ants! They moved into my fellow techies prep room (we have 2 prep rooms not two ants
I am just going to leave them alone as they are not doing anything harmful, all perishables have been cleared when we finished back in the end of July.
Wish we had a pond. We do have a brook running through the school yard and it gets overgrown and full of rubbish. The caretakers are strimming all through the six weeks and it grows back in a week or so. It can look nice but the rubbish is a problem.
Pied Wagtails like schools. They feed on the playing fields and other green spaces then roost in shrubs that are near artificial light. They like supermarket car parks too. Perhaps the artificial light helps deter predators. Schools are often lit in the dark evenings for cleaners and after school activities
I made an insect watering spot as there is so little access to water on our site. Just a small pond outside our perimeter fence. One design criteria was it had to be too tall for rat access. It is a shallow glazed saucer on top of a glazed pot and filled with stones. When I went to refill it the other day i found some of the stones on the ground. Something big has been licking them. Fox or Deer I think, bit tall for a badger who would probably knock it over.
Only a wasp's nest in the cage the big Biffa bins live in