B & B for Birds and Bugs

Eco Seniors

The Eco-Seniors Group in Scoil Chonglais have set up a project aimed at attracting, homing and recording the diversity of bird and invertebrate life in areas near our school in Baltinglass, West Wicklow. Our aim is to continue and see the project expand over time.

A substantially-sized Bug Hotel has been set up in the wilderness area of the adjacent Tearmann Community Gardens. Local schools and organisations call to the Gardens and we too go there to identify the insects on the plants around or in the Bug Hotel itself. We also built bird nesting boxes and set them up in time to shelter native birds over the winter months. Homemade bird feeders are filled and re-filled. Our new school courtyard has been planted so as to attract both birds and pollinators. We are still hopeful that a bird family will move into the courtyard nesting box by early May. Rainwater, collected from a downpipe into the water barrel, will supply the courtyard over the drier months.

It has been great fun to build this project. We are starting to appreciate how the cycle of life starts and ends with invertebrates returning nutrients back in usable form to the plants that feed the insects whose larvae will feed the bird hatchlings.

We thank all those who have supported and encouraged us.

Our website: BandBforBirdsandBugs.weebly.com

Also: https://www.facebook.com/pages/BB-for-Birds-and-Bugs/342959672572409