The wetland has started to grow as can be seen with the two elongated patches in the centre of the photo. Though not visible from the air, these patches are part of a greater submerged patch. The grass is high enough to stand above the water and makes the wetland harder to define from directly above. Scroll down for more detailed photos of the area of land underwater. As I sit here to write this blog I am really wondering where the last few weeks have gone! We are now over two weeks back at school and the juggernaut of Scoil Íde is running again at full pelt with children settling into new routines, playing in new yards and of course getting down to work during the day. It's been great to see all the familiar faces - both children and colleagues - after the Summer break. I have thirty-two in my class which is called Heaney 6th (all our classrooms in the senior building of the school are named after famous poets) and at this stage I have them well briefed of our mission. We have certainly hit the ground running in the first fortnight:
The quality of the images never ceases to amaze me and this time was no different. Graham took multiple angles of the wetland area. Some examples below. For a fly-over video clip click here. The weather has been mixed over the last four weeks. There have been some very wet days since school started back again with over 13mm falling on Friday 9th Sept. The children will remember it as a particularly wet day for 6th class P.E. (hockey & rugby). Our wetland will only grow from here on as monthly rainfall averages increase from now until they peak in December / January and begin to decrease in February. We examined the data table below for patterns / anomalies during maths this week. The yearly totals point towards a definite shift towards a wetter climate, but this was too short a view so we googled some other data. Found an interesting graph on the rank of hottest years. Warmer global temperature = wetter climate for Ireland. See below. In the next few weeks we plan to carry out a few investigations in the wetland before it submerges any more.
Along with this we will continue to log the weekly rainfall and depth of the water. No doubt other opportunities for learning will present themselves in the meantime. More to come in October!
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(Click here for video aerial footage.) Our second drone flight and the last one of the Summer before we are into Autumn! The lush and intense green of the grass that we have photographed from above on the first two flights will no doubt begin to fade from now on. The big Oak that reigns supreme over the wetland area in the bottom left of the photo is still at its best for another few weeks. As the saying goes "make hay while the sun shines" and the wetland got its annual cut when hay was saved during the relatively dry week leading up to this photo. We always think it funny that so much takes place in the Bishop's Field, from rugby, athletics, and P.E. classes, to mountain biking, kite-flying, rocket launching and, as we see here, hay-making! The contour of the wetland which was so visible in the July photo, is now much more subtle in the absence of the grass. Perhaps when a sward of grass comes back the pattern will re-emerge. Interestingly, there has been a good bit of rain in the last two days and two small wet areas have emerged from the low points of the field (we may not have noticed if the field hadn't been cut). So it looks like our 'Winter wetland' as we call it may yet turn out to be a bit of a misnomer. This is happening in the Summer at the driest time of the year so we can be sure that the wetland will only grow in the months ahead. These patches drew a lot of attention from birds as can be seen from the photos below. And a closer view zoomed in. Quality suffers - apologies! The children will be back to school in the next fortnight so it will be all systems go then. We need to devise a system of gridding the wetland area using timber stakes. How to place the stakes with a good level of accuracy will be the first thing to think about. As can be seen from the pics above the area is quite expansive with just the Oak tree as a nearby reference point. Looks like we'll be needing our compass, tape measure and wellies. The wood for the stakes has arrived and we are cutting them to size and tapering them at the bottom. A busy few weeks ahead as the school year 2016/17 gets underway in about a fortnight's time. For September's photo the lush green should return to some extent as the grass grows again. Until then fingers crossed for some fine weather!
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April 2017
From the air...
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