Arts Week at St Madoc

Last week we ran our first ever onsite Music and Art Week with Year 4 pupils from Clase Primary School. We had a great time coming up with some team names and mascots (the spiderpig was one of my favourites) and then building the mascots out of sand and scrap on the beach.

We had some interesting interruptions to our walk coming back from the beach, with a fully fitted out film crew popping up amongst the dunes, and some errant sheep making a bold dash for freedom!

Next day featured tracking animals in the woods and making some more unusual forest creatures of our own – here’s Blue Team’s great Man of the Woods:

We also did a lot of running around the woods pretending to be woodpeckers and then helping each other come up with clan rhythms on percussion instruments.

We then got messy with mud paint and clay in the sports hall, building on Clase Primary’s current class topic of the Celts. So, here’s a sample of the fab Celtic badges made by students:

Then, as if all that wasn’t enough, we got in the mood for Halllowe’en with an evening lamp procession using lanterns made from willow and paper and some spooky flickering lights . .

We finished off the week by making more music and building some of the animals we had tracked in the woods earlier in the week out of scrap and craft materials (although we also had some brave attempts at making spiderpigs).

My favourite artwork of the week? A city in sand designed on the beach - it sort of reminds me of the Nazca Lines in Peru. Great stuff.

Thanks to Mrs Thomas from Clase Primary for most of the above photos. Interested in coming for an Arts Week yourself? Email info@stmadoc.co.uk to see what we can offer.

Volunteers get stuck into bracken clearance

It's that time of year again! One of our biggest conservation tasks is controlling the bracken on our sand dunes. Each year we cut back the bracken at selected areas of the site. This encourages the rarer plants, including pyramidal orchids, and their associated insect life.

The habitat enhancement should be well appreciated by the hundreds of school children who will join us on wildlife hunts on the sand dunes next year.

Much of this work would be impossible without volunteers, so thanks to all those who are taking part! If you are interested in volunteering please call 01792 386291, or email info@stmadoc.co.uk

Reptile survey yields loads of adders!

The reptile population continues to thrive on our sand dunes. In our latest survey, we found nine adders and five slow worms. These normally elusive animals can be attracted by a piece of roofing felt, which creates a warm microclimate in which they like to shelter.

Adders and slow worms give birth to live young, and this may explain why most of the animals we found were female. They may have a more urgent need to keep warm during pregnancy.

Our ongoing program of habitat management benefits these animals by maintaining a varied habitat, with plenty of places to hide and open areas for basking and hunting.

Show me the honey . .

Last week we were graced with another visiting bee expert. But this time, it’s a more domesticated variety we were hunting for – the honey bee.

David O’Carroll, a cornerstone member of the Gower Honey Co-operative, makes regular visits to the beehives kept on St Madoc’s land. Visitors to our site often don’t realise that we keep bees here since we tuck them out of the way to make sure children can’t bump into them by accident. But we actually now have four hives in all, and David has been looking after the bees here for two years.

Here he is, talking a bit about the work he does and what’s going on with the hives kept on our land.

Apple Day coming up

As mentioned in the video, we will be celebrating Apple Day on Sunday 19th October this year. Come and join us from 2pm to 5:30pm to celebrate the humble apple (and enjoy some homemade apple related produce). Hopefully, the Cooperative will be able to provide us with some St Madoc honey on the day as well.

Just turn up on the day or, if you want more info, contact Sarah Leedham at St Madoc Centre, info@stmadoc.co.uk / 01792 386 291 first. Our address: St Madoc Centre, Llanmadoc SA3 1DE

Buzzing about the dunes

Mark Pavett scouting for bees

Last week we were lucky to have Mark Pavett, a Curator at the National Museum of Wales, visiting us. Mark works for the Entomology Department at the museum, which means that he is an expert in the study of insects, and he spent a day looking around the site and identifying bees.

We won't have his species list back for a while yet as he took over 30 samples and needs some time to investigate but we will let you know what he found as soon as we get the results back. What we do know is that we definitely have at least one member of the Osmia genus which nests in shells (something we definitely have in abundance here) which we now know to look for when we're showing guests around the site.

A very shy
Andrena barbilabris

New species for The St Madoc Centre

Even more excitingly, last week's visiting school children discovered a new species for our site while exploring the sand dunes, which Mark was able identify as Andrena barbilabris, a species often found on heath and sandy areas.

Our captured bee was a little shy for the camera, but you can read more about this species and see more detailed photos on the Nature Guide UK website. Congratulations to the pupils from Burlais Primary School who found this new addition to our species list!

More insect activity coming up

We will be running a butterfly identification walk here at the Centre from 11am-1pm on Sunday 27th July. This event will teach attendees some introductory butterfly identification skills and demonstrate butterfly survey techniques as part of a walk around our special sand dune habitat. This event is free and open to all ages, but booking is essential. 

Contact us on 01792 386291 or info@stmadoc.co.uk to book a place or for more information.

St Madoc Winter Bird Walk – 08/03/1

We booked the nice weather for our winter bird walk – our first wildlife event of the year - and it arrived just on time!  Our nine guests were able to appreciate our grounds in their full splendour, with stunning views across the estuary and as far as Worms Head and Llanelli. 

The clear skies meant ideal hunting conditions for buzzards, and we were treated to a constant aerial display from these big raptors, including some territorial disputes with crows. We used the brilliant ‘Birdvoice’ gadget to play bird songs in the woods, and attracted some replies from our resident birds, which at this time of year are just getting ready to establish territories and nests. On leaving the woods we watched oyster catchers and lapwings on the marsh, and meadow pipits flitting about on the sand dunes. 

A good time was had by all, and we increased our appreciation of this unique angle on Gower and its birdlife.