Wednesday 26 June 2019

Report on Watch Meeting at LRAC, Kenwick 23-6-19


We began the afternoon by walking to the meadow area at Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre near Kenwick. It looked beautiful as it appeared to be full of ox-eye daisies.
The children were asked to see how many different leaf shapes they could find and record in a 3 metre long strip.
We talked about why meadows are so magical and special. The children (11) were  given Meadow Activity Sheets and encouraged to explore the meadow.  They  were able to take the sheets home to use in other meadows.
They  were also  able to use the pootle pots and magnifiers to look for insects.
They were told about the Love Lincs Plants project .
The children chose the two plants that would be added to the Natural History Museum and Joseph Banks collections. There were a great number of common spotted orchids in flower and two of those were dug up and laid on a tray.
The other plant that was chosen was the meadow cranesbill which was again in abundance and two of  those were dug up.
The children then each chose a flower to be added to the Watch collection. They collected a flower and leaf from each specimen. These  included ox-eye daisy, germander speedwell,  black medick, common mouse- ear and birds-foot trefoil.
We walked back to the Centre where the children were ready for the drinks and biscuits, donated by Northgate Coop in Louth.
The specimens were identified and recorded. Each was arranged on paper on a board laid on newspaper and then covered with paper and another board and  placed in a press.
The resulting dried specimens will be mounted at a later meeting.
We had a very pleasant productive afternoon in a beautiful place.


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