Ava goes to Wales
It’s such a great summer for me, travelling around the British Isles helping Ava to get acquainted with her new friends at WWT and find a home-from-home in her osprey nests.
Debs and Ava are met by rain in Wales
This week we’ve been in Wales, which properly feels like a bit of a holiday. We crossed the Severn bridge in bright sunshine, but as we wound our way down smaller roads to the outskirts of an old steel town to the site of WWT Llanelli, the clouds rolled in and the rain dashed my hopes of a dry install day. Following the brown duck signs to find the wetlands, we narrowly missed a family of ducks crossing the middle of the road. We swerved into the outside lane to avoid Mummy duck with her brood of fluffy babies and I crossed my fingers they’d make it safely to the other side!
Like the ducks, Ava is well-made to repel the water, but I had to don my waterproofs before heading out to the reserve. Simon and Aron had the nest sorted by the time I arrived and Reserve Manager Brian Biggs mobilsed his team to get the listening posts installed for the trail. Ava and I were lucky enough to spend the day with Sarah Mitchell, whose previous experience puppeteering for the RSPB means that I’ll be leaving her in good hands!
Sarah also has a team of volunteers who were keen to learn all about Generation Wild. Thankfully the rain dried up in time for us to sit outside and gather round the nest for a project briefing. In a quiet moment before they arrived, I perched on a rock and ate some lunch, watching a human family with three youngsters clamber into the nest and start flapping their wings. They chirped and sang “I'm a bird, I’m a little birdy” while Mum took their pictures. Everyone loves the nest - including visitors who aren’t taking part in the Generation Wild experience - and the nature activities on the posts work well for general visitors too.
Sarah introduces Ava to volunteers
The most interesting part about creating Generation Wild for WWT Llanelli is creating all the materials in dual language as some of the primary schools teach and learn in Welsh. Thankfully Sarah is a Welsh speaker, so she’s been able to check our translations and consult with books by the Welsh TV naturalist Iolo Willians for language consistency. Niamh O’Donnell, an audio producer from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama undertook recording Ava and all her creature friends in Welsh, so the experience will be equitable in both languages. Ava’s even learned how to squawk with a Welsh lilt now!
Dual language signs at WWT Llanelli