Birds Are Brilliant

This week has been our annual "Birds are Brilliant" week here at the lighthouse, and what a fantastic week it has been! Monday, Wednesday and Friday was birdbox building, Tuesday and Thursday was various bird crafts and finally Sunday is bird identification for beginners. This is the third year we've done our "Birds" week and it's proving to be one of our most popular weeks of the year, especially when it comes to building the birdboxes. What we do is over the winter period order a load of treated timber and cut the various pieces needed to make a birdbox and pre-drill them so that all the children have to do is screw the pieces together (with our help of course!). The kids absolutely love making the boxes, especially using the electric drills. Of course, we are the ones controlling the tools but we let them believe that they are doing it themselves. The first 2 years we averaged around 50 boxes per day, for 3 days, which meant we were making 150 boxes per week, a fantastic amount! This year we went even better, making around 180 in a week. It's incredibly good fun, and when the children are holding the finished boxes in their hands that they have made 'by themselves' the smiles on their faces are absolutely priceless. But not just that, it's fantastic news for birds, as there are now all those new boxes out there ready to be used. Almost 500 birdboxes in 3 years. Now that is something to be proud of!

Lots of timber cut ready to put together

Happy smiley faces!

WINTER CLEANING

Souter Lighthouse officially reopened to the public this week after having the month of January off. Contrary to popular belief we did not spend the time letting our hair down and partying hard. If only! No, we took the opportunity to give the property a complete and thorough deep clean. As we are open 7 days a week for most of the year it's really difficult to dedicate the time needed to give the lighthouse a really good clean,so the only time we can do it is when we are closed to the public. Obviously the place gets a general clean every day, but to get into all the nooks and crannies takes a lot more time and effort. So that's what our Curator Kate and her wonderful team of volunteers have been up to this winter. And if I may say so they have done a mighty fine job indeed!

The volunteers working hard behind the scenes

The new images we've added look fantastic

The property is looking fantastic after its thorough winter clean

PREPPING THE WILDLIFE GARDEN

During the winter months we've spent whatever time we could spare preparing the wildlife garden for the coming season. Since the garden was transformed in 2013 it's became one of the most photographed parts of the property. If you'd seen the place before 2013 you'd have never in a million years thought that would ever be the case! To put it mildly, the garden had become an absolute eyesore. It had become a dumping ground for anything and everything with horrible rank grass the only thing growing. That was until a group of local volunteers called the Coastal Conservation Group decided to take it over. What followed was months and months of incredible hard work. First they had to dispose of all the rubbish. Then they cut down all the grass, leaving them with a completely blank canvas. The first thing they did was build a pond, but then decided to build a stream running to it! Of course the stream needed a bridge to go over it, so they built one! Then they created a bird feeding station with a viewing screen. Then they planted a load of berry bearing shrubs around the borders and finally planted a wildflower meadow. The end result was an an incredible area for both wildlife and people. Well done guys!

Ranger Dougie working hard