Wildlife at Chandlings

At Chandlings we are very lucky to have extensive grounds providing different habitats for plenty of wildlife.

We also have a pontoon, a birdhide and a wildlife camera giving us many opportunities to see the animals around our school.

Wildlife Camera

Below are the animals that we have luckily managed to capture footage of at Chandlings.

Pontoon

Mrs Biggs has been lucky enough to see a snake swimming across the pond. There have been many species seen and identified at the pontoon including:

Newts

Tadpoles

Pea Mussels

Water Boatman

Pondskaters

Midge Larvae

Caddis Fly Larvae

Coot

Mallard

Heron

Water fleas

Bluebell wood

A couple of slow worms have been spotted around the grounds. The one in the picture below was seen by Mr Foster in the Bluebell woods.

thames water freshwater pollution

Year 3 and Year 5 took part in a citizen science programme to see if the ponds were polluted with sulphates or nitrates. Luckily, they found out that the ponds are free from pollution providing a safe habitat for the living things.

Crayfish

Dr Henry Bennet Clarke, an expert on Crayfish in the Thames Valley, visited Chandlings to see if Signal Crayfish were present in our ponds. He laid some traps with the eco-committee. Sadly, Crayfish were not present but we caught some water beetles. Luckily, Dr Bennet Clarke brought in some Signal Crayfish for us to look at and we learnt about invasive species.

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