Recently in Schools Category

Well first things first, congratulations to the Field Teaching Team as they have just become the first in Wales to achieve the 'Learning outside the Classroom' Quality Badge. It shows the Field Teaching teams exceptional standards and acts as a guarantee to schools that RSPB Conwy is a safe, value for money, efficient and competent organisation that delivers exactly what it says! It is a fantastic achievement of which you can read more below from Charlie, our Lead Field Teacher.

Flying Dinosaurs - perhaps not quite, but the dragonflies of today (Odonata) are very close relatives to Protodonata that flew over Carboniferous forests some 300 million years ago then they had wingspans up to 70cm! These amazing almost machine-like flying insects have been present on and around the reserve over the past few weeks.

One of the species noted has been the Emperor Dragonfly, Anax imperator. A large dragonfly, the male is unmistakable, a powerful flier it moves with purpose and is one of the few dragonflies that will hover around to observe the observer, so sometimes it's a case of just who is watching who? Its abdominal length is approx 50 to 60mm long with a hind wing 45 to 50mm, it's a large dragonfly and can be quite clearly heard as it flies close by. The male has green-blue eyes, green thorax and blue abdomen that curves down slightly, the colour of the abdomen does change compared to the temperature and the warmer the day the bluer the abdomen - the cooler, the greener. Midday is a good time to watch dragonflies, as the day warms up they get more active but they can be seen for shorter periods at either ends of the day.

Further dragonfly species seen include Broad-bodied Chaser and Common Hawker both around the new dipping pool. Damselflies seen around Bridge Pool have been Common Blue Damselfly, along with Blue-tailed Damselfly and an Emerald Damselfly. A male Banded Demoiselle was seen around the main gate with a female around Bridge Pool.

We have also received the RSPB's new Digiscoping kits starting from £379 for an AG60 scope body with a 26x fixed eyepiece, camera adaptor and Rollei's excellent X-8 compact camera, call in and give it a try!

RSPB Conwy may not be 20 years old yet but what is here can take you back millennia. So for some of the best education you could wish for, the latest hi-tech optics or just good old fashioned service call in for a visit, just watch out for flying dinosaurs!

We are just off the A55 at J18, follow the brown signs with the avocet on, LL31 9XZ for sat nav. Give us a call on 01492 584091, we will be pleased to help.

With banks crashing all around our ears, interest rates going up, all the supermarkets offering cheap, cut-price, bargain, discount and value food to keep body if not soul together, pensions plummeting and high falutin' government officials stating that we are due nothing but misery in the future, it's easy to forget about the things that really matter. The continual forecasts of doom and gloom are, at the moment, threatening to overshadow everything that we normally hold dear and important.

Now, I'm not going to deny the fact that money - some money - is important, and quite a few unlucky souls are going to have lost a lot of their hard-earned cash, but, given a reasonable level of income, there's an awful lot more in this world which contributes to our happiness and sense of well-being.

There's a Jamie Cullum track, "I'm glad there is you" which includes the lyrics "In this world of overrated pleasures and underrated treasures, I'm glad there is you" (It's probably a cover version, although I'm far too young to remember who sang the original...) Well, I think it's time to decide what is an overrated pleasure, and what is an underrated treasure - what are the small things in life that we take so much for granted, but would sorely feel the lack of, were they to disappear? For me, those include a decent cup of tea, chocolate, Marmite, the Mamma Mia soundtrack, "The X Factor" and watching birds on the multitude of feeders in my garden.

I remember somebody once describing a bird feeder as "the thinking person's television". It's true. All the dramas of life, love and the daily struggle for survival are played out on that little tube of steel, wire and perspex - squabbling chaffinches, nervous little coal tits, robins fiercely defending their territories and the blink of an eye flash past of a sparrowhawk, hell bent on murder - or is it just lunch? The occasional woodpecker or jay puts in a guest appearance. I have two goldfinches called Phil and Grant, because their bullying ways constantly remind me of the Mitchell brothers from Eastenders.

Feeding the birds is compulsive. For me, it is both addiction and therapy. Addiction, because it is something I have to do, every day, morning and evening, rain or shine. When I get home, I feed the birds before I have fed myself, my cat or my partner. Therapy, because there is a soothing peacefulness about watching the comings and goings, the turning of a world almost oblivious to our own. A balm for the soul, an antidote to our overwrought existence.

Feed The Birds Day took place at the end of October. This annual RSPB event takes place all over the UK, as a reminder to everyone how important it is to keep feeding the birds, especially through the cold winter months. Thousands of people took part, in guided walks, demonstrations, and by buying, making and putting out food. Small fingers were actively engaged in the time-honoured ritual of bird-cake making, or cutting up old plastic bottles to make recycled feeders. But feeding the birds isn't just a day...it's for life. Nip along to RSPB Conwy, just off Junction 18 of the A55, and get hold of some seed and a feeder. Watch the blue tits munch. And, just for a while, forget the credit crunch.