We were very excited to be invited along to one of Castle Espie’s ‘Junior Wetland Rangers‘ workshops. They will be running throughout Saturday’s in August and the last one is on Saturday 27th August 2022 so you still have some time to book in. They run from 12pm until 1.30pm.
The workshops are all about helping to care for and learn about protecting our beautiful wetlands. We’ll talk you through what we did from arriving at Castle Espie to home time.
Arriving at Castle Espie
There was plenty of parking (Mummy and Daddy love it when a venue has good parking and it’s free). The lovely receptionist told us what we would be doing throughout the workshop and gave us our Junior Wetland Rangers Record Book and a pencil. The shop has so many lovely items to purchase, we brought home a lovely plant. This is where you will get your seed so you can feed the ducks and the geese (it’s ยฃ1.50 for a good sized bag).
Close Encounters Tour – from 12pm – 12.30pm
The first part of the workshop, 2 of the lovely staff took us outside and showed us the different types of ducks and geese. They had empty eggs which we got to hold and examine (so interesting). They then took us into ‘The Duckery‘ where we got to see the ducks more closely and got to give them a little stroke on the head too. It was really interesting learning about the different breeds.
Mini Keepers and role play 12.30pm – 1pm
We really loved this part of the workshop as the lovely lady talked us through how the Mummy duck (which can be called a ‘hen’) builds her nest. We started by pouring stones on the ground then we made a circle of twigs and small sticks which we then covered in moss. Next we lay down feathers so that made the nest warm and soft for Mummy duck to lay her eggs and wait until they hatch. The lady said it takes around 28-30 days to hatch.
After we built our nest, it was time to clean it all up so we worked as a team, put the feathers back in the box, then the moss, we picked up the sticks then used the shovels to put all the stones back in the wheel barrows nice and tidy. Who knew tidying up could be fun?!
Make a recycled plant pot 1pm – 1.30pm
The third part of the workshop involved us walking round to the Gardener’s Bothy where the lovely lady showed us how to make a plant pot from an old newspaper. We took a strip of newspaper, wrapped it around this cool wooden device she had then folded in the end then used a circle shaped thing to seal it tightly (it was very cool!) She then gave us each some soil and a seed to bring home. I (India) picked a pea seed and Maxwell choose a sunflower seed. We’re excited to watch them growing!
The Kingfisher Kitchen
After the super fun workshop was finished, we made our way to the coffee shop which has so many yummy things on the menu (we’ve included a picture of what’s on offer). Maxwell wasn’t feeling too hungry so had some crisps and an apple juice. I had a sun dried tomato, pesto and mozzarella ciabatta YUM with a chocolate milkshake ! Daddy had a sweet chili chicken ciabatta with a caramel slice and Mummy had the potato and leek soup which she said tasted amazing!
Finishing off the day
Castle Espie is such a beautiful place to visit! It is a lot of fun walking through and feeding the ducks by hand. They love to eat the seed from you and there are so many of them just walking about.
After we had run out of seed we went through the gate and there is a really beautiful walk to do with lots of things to see a long the way. Unfortunately it started pouring down, we waited for about 15 minutes in the glass building for it to stop but it was on for the day so we had to quickly run back to the main building again.
There are lots of lovely lookout points a long the walk so we definitely have to make another visit so we can do the whole walk from start to finish and we really want to feed the ducks again as that was so fun!
The staff told us that they hold special events at Halloween and Christmas too so we will definitely have to check those out! We’d definitely recommend taking a trip to Castle Espie and joining in with their Junior Wetland Rangers workshop, it is a lot of fun and so interesting learning about all of the ducks and geese, not to mention the beautiful walk, scenery, delicious food and very cool things in their shop!
A massive thank you to Castle Espie and NI 4 Kids for arranging this awesome day out for us, we had a lot of fun!