March 24th - Woodland walk in Massey Woods

On March 24th the Dublin Branch of IWT brought 70th Porterstown Beaver Scouts on a woodland walk in Massey Woods. The scouts really enjoyed themselves and their leaders sent the Dublin Branch this report telling us about all the nature they saw:

Despite the cold, once we started the hike all the young minds were focused on the wonders of the woods with some general chit chat with their friends! With the cold weather the air borne insects and birds ( we did see one robin!) mostly stayed at home but we found some mayfly larvae and shrimp bugs on the river bed using kick sampling method. We also found some spiders living on the branches of trees using the beating trays and the pooters. We learned about some of the fantastic trees in the woods ( hazel tree - no sign of any nuts - the squirrels did a good job taking the nuts into storage for the winter); king of the forest - sessile oak, the silver birch, the olde Yew tree, the Monterrey pine, the redwood/ sequoia trees and the 'kind of bearded' lime trees ( not to be confused with the ones that actually produce limes) and found out lots of interesting things - there was a dead deer on the path - most likely died of natural causes as deers don't have any predators; red squirrels eat the acorns from pine trees not preferred by grey squirrels, and much more.

We all had a great time - thanks to Roisin, Claire, Niall and Phil for making it so interesting and fun for the Beavers and the 3 cubs who joined us on the hike. Some parents joined us on the hike too - we were all heartened and impressed with the Irish Wildlife Trust Volunteers spending their time with us on a cold Sunday afternoon.

Many thanks.

Yours in Scouting,

Friday night Beaver Scouts - 70th Porterstown

talking about trees

Under the old oak tree