22 Jun Mr Meehan Heritage Walk
Donegal Heritage Council Trip: Biodiversity
On Wednesday morning, excitement filled the air before our class trip to Rathmullan Nature Reserve and the beach. Before we left the school, Aengus Kennedy from The Heritage Council, gave us a fascinating talk on the wonders of nature. He taught us about biodiversity, which means different living things. He told us that wasps have a purpose in life, to eat green leaves and protect oak trees. Afterwards, we gathered our belongings and headed for Rathmullan Nature Reserve.
After the short journey on the bus we reached the forest, where we left down our bags and began our exciting adventure. We explored diverse parts of the forest including the non-native and native parts. In the non-native part we found trees such as the beech that isn’t native to Ireland so they don’t support many forms of life. In the native part we found trees such as oak, holly, ash, birch and rowan that are native to Ireland so they support several forms of life. Here, Aengus gave us another informative talk about insects such as froghoppers, which hide from wasps in cuckoo spit. Soon it was time to move on to Rathmullan beach.
After lunch beside the beach we ventured down to the shore where we found barnacles and limpets on the pier. We collected shellfish such as scallops, mussels, crabs, cockles and oysters. We had fun smashing shells with rocks and made sand. We collected more shells and crabs by the rock pools until it was time to move on to the sand dunes.
When we finally reached the dunes after our long walk, we studied the different types of leaves and grass. Aengus taught us about some of the 32 species of butterflies and 101 species of bees. Afterwards we caught moths and butterflies with our nets and finished off with a game of Knock Your Heads Off! I thoroughly enjoyed the day but I was also glad to finish a long day of exploring.
By Aimee Bonar
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.