1st Culcheth Cubs Presentation

Tonight we visited the 3rd Warrington East 1st Culcheth Cub pack to give a slightly different version of one of our Young Birders' Club presentations.  

A view of the excellent facilities

Our first impressions of the organisation were very good as the Cubs and Scouts here have their own purpose-built Scout Centre building with plenty of space and facilities. And in addition to Akela, there were also plenty of volunteer helpers to make the activities run smoothly.

Before the young cubs arrived we'd set up six tables on which to do some bird ID activities and on each we left a pair of binoculars, a bird book and some bird photographs.

As the cubs came in they immediately showed an interest in these items and some even started drawing the birds on paper using the photographs.  One particular young man drew an excellent Kingfisher which we'll publish here if he sends it in.

After our usual introduction, we started with the video of a barn owl and kestrel trying to catch a mouse.  We've used this a few times now and it always grabs the audience's attention, especially when the owl swallows the mouse in one!

The Cubs Naturalist's Badge

We then moved on to the main point of our visit tonight, identifying birds.

The cubs are working towards their Naturalist's Badge and they need to be able to identify at least six birds as part of the badge. I think you can probably see where we come in here then!

We'd created a new worksheet with bird pictures on it for the cubs and space to write down two facts about each bird we described.  Martyn, Brian, Tony and George each took it in turns to talk about two common birds, pointing out some of the key features which help identify it.

After each bird was described using a large picture projected on the screen, the cubs had to write down two facts about it, such as its colours, shape and size, beak shape and colour, feeding habits or behaviour.  Breaking the identification down into small chunks of information made it easier for the cubs to remember some of the facts.

After another short video showing a garden bird frenzy around some bird feeders, the 22 strong pack then split up into six groups to work at the tables.

Here they had a quiz where they needed to match some written descriptions of birds to photographs. Each of the volunteers went to a different table to help the cubs and it didn't take long before the room was buzzing with activity.

As each of the cubs completed this activity they were shown how to use the binoculars or spotting scope that we had brought along.  As it was dark outside, we couldn't use the binoculars on real birds, so we'd printed some pictures of birds and put them at far end of the room for the cubs to look at them and practise their newly learnt identification skills.

This was the first time we had tried this activity and, as it went so well, I'm sure we'll be using at all our future presentations.

Finally the pack came back together to check their answers to bird ID quiz and to have a go at naming some of the birds they'd seen through their binoculars.

They all did really well and they were so enthusiastic it was difficult to get them put their hands up to answer the questions instead of shouting out the answers!

As we finished we were thanked by Akela and the cubs and we were presented with a very nice commemorative badge which celebrated the fact that this Cub and Scout Group is 65 years old this year.

This is a testament to the respect that everyone has for the leadership and her volunteer staff here and they are a great model for how a youth group like this should be run.

Everyone seemed to enjoy our presentation, we certainly did and we'd be very happy to go back sometime soon.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge them