As part of National Biodiversity Week 2026, Shannon Town Community Wetlands hosted 7 school groups.

Our first, Scoil na Maighdine Mhuire from Newmarket-on-Fergus and their teacher Eoin Guilfoyle joined us at 9:30 on Mon 18th May.

After a quick safety talk our ecologist Rachel Dowling explained what biodiversity is and took the students to stand under our four oak trees where she explained how such trees propogated.

She then passed a stick around as a microphone inviting the students to use it to introduce themselves and say which animal they like most.

They were then given clipboards listing some animals and plants in the Wetlands for them to find.

Rachel also explained which birds they can hear around them. Especially, the Willow Warbler and how the abundance of willows in the wetlands makes it so attractive to them.

The pupils were then off exploring to find the animals and plants listed on their clipboards..

Rachel also explained the ecology of the two large ponds on our Wetlands site. Both currently have very low water levels and are covered in bull rushes which make great nesting material. However, willow saplings are starting to encroach into the ponds.

This was followed by a pond dip by Rachel. Where the youngsters were invited to match the invertebrates to the pictures on the card. Rachel also explained the importance and life cycle of some.

This year we had plenty of tadpoles and larvae from dragonflies, damsel flies and may flies.

To wrap up the 90 minutes visit, our chair, Olive Carey gave a talk about how the wetlands are run by and for the community and presented their teacher Eoin with some biodiversity themed booklets for their school library.

Myself and John assisted on the day.