The Biggest Twitch goes back to school
Put to the test by the pupils! Our quick trips back home in between the important business of birding are usually full of packing, laundry and various admin chores. So when we were invited to visit Craig-y-Don Primary School in Llandudno, North Wales, to talk to the pupils about The Biggest Twitch, how could we resist the perfect excuse to escape the chores and have some fun? The headmaster, Marc Hughes, is a keen North Wales birder and was one of the party who joined us in Spain, what an age ago that seems! Under his influence and with the fantastic enthusiasm of his staff, the pupils at Ysgol Craig-y-Don have also been encouraged to take an interest in nature and wildlife, as you can clearly see from all the amazing hand-made displays around the school. In connection with their studies of geography, travel, climate and nature, some of the pupils have been following our adventures on The Biggest Twitch. When we walked into the classroom, the first thing we saw was a fantastic world map pinned up on the wall where they’d marked the countries we’d already visited and showed our crazy bird-chasing zigzag across the globe. It was a stunning map and had obviously had so much thoughtful work put into it – we particularly loved the toucan logos to show where we’d landed. Take a look at our next photo entry and you’ll see just how great it is!The classroom quickly filled up with several classes and teachers, and Marc introduced us to them. After a few minutes’ general talk about The Biggest Twitch, we invited the pupils to ask us any questions they may have – and boy did they have plenty of good questions for us! We were grilled on the countries we’d visited, what had been our favourite birds and what animals we’d seen. They also wanted to know what had been the biggest bird we’d seen (Californian Condor), smallest bird (Ruby-throated Hummingbird) and the fattest bird (probably the Ocellated Turkeys in Mexico who came readily to biscuit crumbs!). In fact, they had so many questions for us that the end-of-day bell rang before we knew it, so we suggested they email us with any more questions they have – let’s hope they’re not too difficult!We’re surrounded by suitcases as we write this – off to the airport shortly for the next flight to Cyprus en route to Turkey. Hopefully we’ll get there ok, we had a last minute crisis thanks to the airline canceling our flights without notice – more of that in a later blog!
Bird Species Total still 2192, 15th May Llandudno, North Wales