With all the news of COP 26 going around members of Les Pughs’ Own Explorer scout unit decided to do a small bit for the wildlife at the local Peterstone camp site. The site which is undergoing major restructuring to allow camping and the natural world to flourish side by side needed some wildlife habitat construction.
So at the Friday night meeting it was all hands to the saw and hammer as they set about building a selection of bird boxes. Firstly the safety briefing, don’t cut your self being the predominant instruction. Then each member took a plank of wood and proceeded to mark out the differing sections that need to be cut. Working in inches, the templates are that old, was a novel task for them. Using rulers and set squares the markings were made then as Nathan and Keri set too with hand saws Bethan and Kimi were guided in the use of power driven jig saws, most of the cuts were straight though Nathan did wander a bit. Once all the sections were cut they were then marked out ready for drilling, drilling pilot holes through the facing wood, would ensure the pieces fitted snugly together.
Using battery operated power tools they found that keeping the hand steady whilst drilling makes life easier. Once completed it was assembly time, trying to attach two pieces of wood at right angles too each other is tricky with one pair of hands so working together, one holding the sides firm the other driving the fixing screws home they assembled the first group of boxes Beth made sure there was some ventilation in hers, Kimi and Keri put the finishing touches by nailing some water proofing to the bird box roofs. Now used to the tools and process they proceeded to make another home each, by the end of the night 13 boxes had been made.
Saturday morning saw Beth and Nathan up early, for them anyway and set off for the Peterstone camp site, here they spent around 2 hours selecting and fixing the birds boxes too various trees around the woodland area, with an eye on the weather as showers kept moving across they finished off with hot dogs cooked over an open fire that they started. They now look forward to revisiting the site in the spring to see if any of the boxes have any residents’. The boxes were designed for a selection of birds including, tree creeper, nut hatch, blue tit, great tit, black bird, robin and wren.
Written by Boo.
Do you have a project your section could do or do you want to bring your section do some work at the site? If so let us know.
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