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Pond
Dipping
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With a
great many people enjoying their school summer holidays by making a visit to
Holkham, our education team here have been busy presenting an array of fun and
informative educational activities around the estate & on occasion enjoying
a spot of time off after our busy summer term!
There
has been a series of Discovery Days held in our fantastic Walled Gardens, with
young visitors trying their hands at mini-beast hunting, designing pine cone
creatures, making bug houses, biodegradable plant pots & simple birdfeeders,
planting beans, sowing seeds & special highlight dissecting owl pellets. Our
pond dipping in the lake has once again been very popular with visitors
catching an array of wildlife in their nets – the highlight have been baby
fish, damsel fly larvae, dragonfly larvae, water boatmen, cased caddis fly
larvae and even a water scorpion! Special thanks to our volunteers Gail, Linda
& Rose for helping us throughout the summer.
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Trailer
Tours
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Our
fabulous new Trailer Tours have proved very popular and the 32-seat trailer,
towed by the 7th Earl’s wonderful old Massey Ferguson 135, has been
filled with happy visitors who have enjoyed seeing parts of the estate that are
not normally seen by the public. We’ve been sharing their knowledge of the
heritage and traditions of Holkham’s farming history, as well the modern,
eco-friendly and conservation minded methods of farming today. Visitors on the
tours also get an insight into the forestry management here and the farming
company’s forward thinking diversification, which now includes the solar farm
and the biomass anaerobic digester up at Egmere. A huge vote of thanks must go
to our dedicated volunteer tractor drivers, Richard and Mike.
Our
Adult Education has continued with our monthly Walking Women group & Guided
Walk of the National Nature Reserve both popular. August is an exciting month
for us as we also explore the creatures of the night on Bat Walks within the
Parkland. Despite some drizzle (you can’t help the British weather!) we’ve
managed to see & hear (using bat detectors) Soprano Pipistrelles above our
head which has been a magnificent experience for all. Thanks to Keith &
Sonya from Norfolk Barbastelle Study Group for their help with leading these.
Behind
the scenes we’ve been busy working on developing our Secondary School Programme
& our new Exhibition Field to Fork which is opening in April 2106. There’s
never a ‘quiet time’ in our job just a different focus to our work!
Sue
Penlington Education Officer
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