Chimpanzee Sanctuary Staff at Aigas

We have had a packed season so far; the education staff have been busy with lots of school trips,

birthday parties, creating new programmes and designing our new brochure which will be out soon.

But now summer is finally upon us! Long days, warm weather and of course, the school holidays! So

if you are looking for something a little different to try this July & August then why not come along to

one of our family events. We have lots going on throughout the holidays so we’re sure you will find

something that suits your interests. These events provide a great opportunity to get outdoors as a

family and enjoy our natural heritage. There is so much to see and do at Aigas and with our expert

ranger team on hand to guide you we’re sure you’ll have a super summer adventure!

Family events

24th June - Garden Open Day

2nd July - Nature Detectives

12th July - Shelters & Survival

20th July - Woolly Socks & Wildlife

22nd July - Garden Open Day

26th July - Horrible History of Aigas

29th July - Fun & Games at Aigas

31st July - Rock Pooling & beach Art

at Rosemarkie

2nd Aug - Glorious Golden Eagles in

Strathconon

9th Aug - Aigas Scrapheap Challenge

Christine Nyange from the Chimpanzee

Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust

(Uganda) was over visiting the Field Centre

this Spring. She met several of the local

primary schools involved in the Uganda/

Scotland Link-Up Programme run by Aigas.

The pupils had fun with Christine as she

taught them how to make beads out of

paper. A great example of eco-art! Pictured

here are the Link-Up pupils from Teanassie.

News Bites

Bead making with

Christine Nyange from

CSWCT

We’ve received our Green

Flag Award!

New Wildcat Kitten

emerging from nest box

Baffling beastie found by

Conon Bridge Primary

pupils!

New Woodland pro-

gramme a huge success

with Cradlehall Primary

Aigas is a great place to

visit in the Autumn too!

This years Beaver kits

out and about

Spring/Summer 2012 Newsletter

Sharing the wonders of the natural world

Want more information on

any of the events? Email us

at naturedays@aigas.co.uk

or call us on 01463 783670

and we can talk things

through.

A Summer at Aigas Field Centre

www.naturedays.org.uk naturedays@aigas.co.uk Tel:01463 783670

As always the summer term

is the most popular for

school trips. We were fully

booked by mid April this

year!

So far we have been really

lucky with the weather and

most groups have experi-

enced Aigas in the sun-

shine. The most popular

programme this term has

been minibeasts! Pupils

(and staff) just can’t seem

to get enough of them and

our ranger team are often

put to the test with the bi-

zarre beasties found.

The pupils from Conon

Bridge Primary School found

one such beastie and the

rangers had to ask Sir John

for help with the identifica-

tion. Turns out it was a Birch

Sawfly; magnificent crea-

ture!

Pond dipping is perhaps the

favored activity and this

term we have caught a re-

cord number of newts—

much to the delight of all

the school children involved!

Moving away from magnifi-

cent minibeasts, we have a

new programme running

this year; Trees & Wood-

lands. Cradlehall Primary

were the first to sample the

programme and had a su-

per day out with the rangers

discovering lots about all

sorts of terrific trees. Pupils

said the best bit was learn-

ing about the woodland web

and getting all tangled up!

Do remember that Aigas is

open for school visits all

year round! The Autumn

months boast wonderful

scenery and lots of interest-

ing wildlife too! Drop us an

email or give us a call to

find out more about bring-

ing a school or nursery

group.

We are very proud to announce

that we have received our Green

Flag award!

All the staff at Aigas work ex-

tremely hard to make the Field

Center an eco-friendly and sustain-

able place to live and work. One of

our biggest downfalls was manag-

ing waste. However, our eco-

centre co-coordinator Kate Thomp-

son has done a wonderful job of

ensuring we monitor all waste ap-

propriately. We now work at reduc-

ing our waste as well as disposing of

it in a sensible manner. Such meth-

ods include; composting, recycling

as much as we can and feeding any

food leftovers to the Aigas chickens.

Don’t forget that we can help your

school achieve Green Flag status!

Give us a call to find out what we

can do to help.

Green Flag Award

Lady Lucy feeding the Aigas chickens

leftovers from the day

appears nervous to begin with but

then starts to jump and pounce and

run all over the place—an animal

enjoying itself.

All the birds are also doing well. In

the Magnus House we have a live

feed to a Great Tit nest. Although the

pair have only managed to hatch one

chick it is now looking very healthy

and doesn’t appreciate mum trying

to incubate it any more!

We can also announce that Lilly, our

adult female beaver has given birth!

One kit has been spotted out of the

lodge but fingers crossed there may

be more.

The Aigas animals have been putting

on a rather exciting show of late.

Firstly we have our new Wildcat kit-

ten, which is just beginning to take

its first steps out of the nest box. It

has now been spotted playing which

is super as it gives the staff a chance

to see that it’s all in good health. It Is

still pretty wobbly on its feet but

we’re sure that will improve with

practice!

We also have a new Pine Marten

visiting one of the hides. The last few

nights the rangers have seen a

young animal, we think a yearling,

coming down to feed at the hide. It

Animal Up-date

School Visits

Searching for

minibeasts

in the Aigas woods.

A Pine Marten at Aigas

www.naturedays.org.uk naturedays@aigas.co.uk Tel:01463 783670