What a great idea and fund raiser this has been and all the stimulation of bird watching it has managed to create. The response to this project has been tremendous and shows the amount of interest there is in Dunning’s very own wood.

Everyone who sponsored a bird box in the Wood should now have received their very own Certificate of Ownership which of course they can leave to the next generation. (My goodness I can imagine all those Wills to be changed.) and now there is to be the production of a map, by Bill Howie and John Bancewicz of all the sites of the boxes and their numbers and this will appear on the Web Site. If for some reason you have not received your beautifully made Certificate, {published by Janette Peebles and scroll written by Pat Wright} please contact Bill Howie (684476)

It had been decided to have a designated amount of boxes and 40 was the figure come to not wanting to over house the wood, 39 have been sponsored. The last Bird Box Number 40 was sold at the Auction at our Black Tie Ceilidh Ball and it received a very high bid of £70 which went down after a lot of frantic bidding to Mrs Wilma Marshall of Dalreoch…thank you Wilma for your generosity. Within a few days it was up in its designated tree actually looking just the ticket for some wayward bird seeking a home.

We now have a count of all those boxes which have been occupied by Andrew Thompson and David Oliver of Tay Ringing Group has been here to ring some of the birds so we know just how far they will venture.

Callum Arnold aged 7 from Pandy, near Abergavenny in Wales came all the way to search with his parents and his Granny for his Bird Box No. 17 he became very excited as they kept finding all the other numbers but was over the moon when eventually he spied his with the right number on the side, about a third of the way up a tree. His very own special bird box.

The Income from the Bird Boxes including the Auction one was £910 and the only expenditure was the numbers for the sides amounting to £44:61 which leaves a balance of £865:39 All thanks to Rosemary and Ken Cameron, David Doig and Zenka and Bill Howie for making, weather proofing, selling and erecting them.

Our thanks also to Andrew Thompson and John Bancewicz for their help as well and now together everyone involved is making sure that there is a map of where all the bird boxes have been designated.

The school children have been visiting the wood last week and one of the highlights was looking for the bird boxes and the information which we have on the birds occupying and bringing up their young in Dunning’s own wood became a great learning point for them.

As Dunning Residents ourselves our gratitude to everyone who has taken the time and trouble with this project to make it such a great success.

June 2006.
Elspeth Pentland
Chairman 2004/08.