Get ready for a festive fair and cute show

By Chris Waddell, Learning Officer

As we progress through autumn, our thoughts inevitably turn to the winter ahead and prospect of Christmas looms ever larger.

The festive season is marked at National Museum of Rural Life by our annual Christmas Fair and Foal Show, this year it’s on Sunday 12^th December. As usual, the centrepiece to our event will be a cute collection of Shetland pony foals in the Museum courtyard – some of whom make a special effort with yuletide outfits!

 

Patting a Shetland pony at the Christmas Fair and Foal Show

 

The entertainment continues with pantomime performances throughout the afternoon in the Theatre provided by the ever popular KYBO theatre company. Father Christmas himself makes an appearance in these performances, when he is not to be found next the hearth in the museum, handing out treats to good children (and good adults, should any show up!)

 

Festive crafts at the Christmas Fair and Foal show

 

Some Christmas gifts can be purchased at the craft fair in the Tools Gallery, which features some twenty or so different stands offering locally produced goods. For those youngsters more interested in an invigorating and traditional winter sport we have an indoor curling rink set up by our friends from the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. For those of a more creative frame of mind, some Christmas Craft items can be made in the Learning Centre Craft Room.  All of these activities are set against a backdrop of traditional Yuletide music played for us by the North Wind Street Organ.

 

Farm Explorer rides at the Christmas Fair and Foal show.

 

At the farm, visitors can meet our guest donkeys who come and spend Christmas with us each year. Also, find out what people did for entertainment on Christmas afternoon before the invention of James Bond films by joining in our Edwardian Parlour Games and pomander making sessions. Finally, why not try your hand at stock judging and guess which of our farm animals you think are the best.

 

Farmhouse at Wester Kittochside

 

 

Halloween party at National Museum of Rural Life

By Raymond McAllister, Visitor Services Assistant

This was an extremely busy event with over double the amount of visitors compared to 2009. With nearly 1,800 Halloween revellers joining in the fun, the museum was almost full to bursting!

Spooky Halloween character at the National Museum of Rural Life's party

There were plenty of activities to keep the children busy with spooky games, storytelling, dooking for apples and our ever popular Halloween crafts. The event was certainly a challenge this year with the unprecedented numbers but good fun was had by all.

 

Stargazing, scary games and piglets: the latest news from the farm

By Raymond McAllister, Visitor Services Assistant

On Wednesday 13 October the Museum of Rural Life held its Autumn Stargazing event. This proved to be very popular as we were fully booked and on the night we had a full house of 40. Unfortunately the weather was against us and the sky remained overcast the whole evening. Luckily Lynne from the Clydesdale Astronomical Society came prepared and gave a fascinating presentation on the solar system, so many thanks to Lynne and the society for rescuing the night.

The next event will be our Halloween Party, which takes place on Sunday 31 October from 3pm till 5pm. This should be another busy event, with plenty to keep the kids entertained, including spooky games, Halloween crafts and dooking for apples.

Halloween pumpkins.

At the farm it has quietened down as we have sold off a lot of stock. However, there has been some new life injected into the farm with the arrival of new piglets. The mother in question is Toffee, who is one of the pigs that we kept from last year, so well done Toffee as this is her first litter. At the moment the piglets are still quarantined as they are very small and Toffee is easily upset so we will keep our fingers crossed and hope all turns out well.

Toffee and her piglets.

 

Dairy herd achieves new heights

By Maggie McDougall, Stockperson at National Museum of Rural Life

The National Museum of Rural Life’s Ayrshire dairy herd recently enjoyed great success at East Kilbride Show. They secured four 1st prizes, four 2nd prizes, the group championship rosette and a society medal for best calf in show!

Following this we were invited to take part in the Lanarkshire Ayrshire Herd’s competition for the first time. The competition itself is run annually and covers all Ayrshire dairy herds in Lanarkshire. Judging takes place at the entrant’s farm and the cattle are judged in the field in their natural state.

Award winning Ayrshire in field at Wester Kittochside, National Museum of Rural Life.

The judging this year took place on the evening of the 24 August with the cows selected being the top four in our herd: Kittochside Nora Louise EX90, Ruby EX90, Nora VG79 and Candy VG89. The judging took place in the Longcroft field with the historic working farm as a backdrop on a better dry warm evening than we have seen of late.  This made for a very pleasant evening for judges and visitors from other competition farms.

Two Ayrshire cows grazing in the field at Wester Kittochside, National Museum of Rural Life.

Out of a total of 12 herds in the small herds section, the National Museum of Rural Life fought off extremely tough competition from well known herds to win a respectable 3rd place.

Over the past nine years the dairy herd at the museum has undergone some very positive changes and achieved competition success against herds which have been developed over several generations.

Maggie McDougall feeding hungry Ayrshire calves at Wester Kittochside, National Museum of Rural Life.

From the initial six commercial Ayrshire cows purchased it has developed quickly and is now fully pedigreed, prize winning, and classified. In addition our first bull will be going for sale at a forthcoming pedigree bull sale, showing the quality of animals bred at the Museum.

Find out more about the Ayrshire herd at National Museum of Rural Life and what’s happening on the farm on our website.

 

Bat walk No.3

A guest post by John Hawell of the Clyde Bat Group

24 August 2010. The nights are gradually drawing in and we start tonight’s bat walk a wee bit earlier, at 8:30pm. There is a strong and chilly wind blowing from the south-west and the cloud cover is almost complete  - but it’s bright, following a pleasant sunny afternoon, and dry.

We have a small group assembled tonight, just three adults and three children. After the usual introduction we set off. A fox dashes across the road behind us   ~   just a fleeting glimpse. We then hear our first bat at 8:58pm, a soprano pipistrelle. It takes a while before we see it. Only when the bat flies clear of the tree canopy and against the light sky does it comes into view. Soon there are others flitting about.

Red fox from Skandinavisk Dyrepark, Denmark by Malene Thyssen.

Pipistrelles are our smallest and most common species of bat in the UK. In fact we have two species of common pipistrelles that until just a few years ago were considered to be a single species. Bat detectors alerted bat workers to the realisation that some bats were echo-locating at about 45 kHz, while others were echo-locating at about 55 kHz. Further research revealed that the bats looked different - those calling at about 45 kHz had black faces and because of their resemblance to bandits, now tend to be called bandit pipistrelles! The others, because they ‘sing’ at a higher level, are commonly called soprano pipistrelles.

Further research revealed that these two species don’t just look different, and have distinguishably different calls, they behave differently as well. Sometimes the two species are encountered in the same general area but normally one would expect to encounter either one or the other, depending what type of habitat you find them in.

Common pipistrelle by Hugh Clark / Bat Conservation Trust.

Of course, it is impossible to hear these echo-location calls without the aid of a bat detector. The electronic bat detector brings these calls down to a level that the human ear can appreciate. The high frequency calls emitted by the bat are bounced back off any objects in their path. Their brains compute the echoing sound and form it into an audio image of their surroundings. In this way bats can move about freely, and catch their food, even in total darkness.

Despite using high frequency calls, much higher pitched than human beings would ever be able to hear, bats do also make calls that we can hear  – and they have eyes too! Anybody that has stood near a bat maternity roost at dusk on a summer evening will hear bats twittering and chirping in their excitement to leave the roost as soon as it is dark enough. But once bats are airborne, their high frequency echo-location system kicks in and they become silent to our ears, unless we use an electronic bat detector: then their secret world is suddenly revealed to us.

From 9:05pm onwards there are loads of bats about. The bat detectors are busy and the two young boys in particular are excited by the sight and sound of so many bats whizzing about in the twilight.

We encounter another swarm of feeding bats in the farmhouse garden. This is great. From a distance we investigate a bat roost in an old tree but we don’t see any bats emerge  - they are probably all out and whizzing about by now. We hear feeding buzzes through the detectors. The bats are feeding  - on midges!

Common snail (Helix aspersa) by the champ on Flickr.

It is time to move on. As we leave the garden, in the torchlight we spot a large garden snail being closely followed by a large leopard slug. The boys have never seen such things before and they are fascinated.

Leopard slug or Limax maximum part of Blaschka models at National Museum of Scotland.

The full moon is rising higher into the sky as we make our way back through the farm to our starting point. We hear an occasional bat as we proceed but most of them are behind us now, still feeding in the vicinity of the large trees and old buildings. One of the black farm cats joins us now and seems very pleased to see us. We finally finish tonight’s walk at 9:45pm.

 

Bat walk No.2

A guest post by John Hawell of the Clyde Bat Group

17 August 2010. Tonight’s bat walk at the National Museum of Rural Life, East Kilbride is the second in a series of six weekly walks taking place on Tuesday evenings. The walk is scheduled to begin at 8:45pm and it’s a wonderful, calm evening following a pleasant sunny afternoon.

We have seven adults and three children booked onto tonight’s walk and we are very pleased to welcome Anita from National Museums Scotland, in Edinburgh.

After our usual introductory talk and issue of bat detectors, reflective arm bands and torches, we set off. It isn’t long before we hear our first bat twittering through the bat detectors at 9:11pm. It is a soprano pipistrelle echo-locating at about 55 kHz. I am asked  ‘Do I give bats names’? Well no, but very soon we have a ‘Jimmy’ and a’ Fred’ flying round about us! There is great excitement as the bat detectors are increasingly busy with twitters and more bats come into view against the still bright sky.

Anita captures the moment with her camera. The results are excellent – take a look.

We move on and witness more and more bats joining the party. By 9:25pm there is a real buzz about the place. Bats, all of them soprano pipistrelles, are flying in all directions   – some of them come skimming quite close to us now as they fly beneath the tree canopy. It’s brilliant!

Of course, these bats are feeding and, like all our eighteen species of British bat, they eat insects. Pipistrelles specialise in eating midges   ~   lots of them. Apparently a single bat can consume about 3,000 midges in one night! One can’t help but think what a great job they are doing, but at the same time wish they’d eat more!

More questions are forthcoming  - ‘If bats damage their wings can the damage be repaired, and will it leave a scar?’, and ‘Can you identify individual bats, and young from adults, and males from females?’ I’ll try to answer them here. Small holes in bat wings heal up very quickly but larger tears are more of a problem and may never heal properly. Broken bones can have miniature splints applied and will repair as well as if we were treated for such injuries by the National Health Service. Young bats are distinguishable from adults, at least until the young go into their first winter hibernation. Apart from checking the obvious, male and female bats are pretty much indistinguishable to look at, but some of their calls are different.

Like other mammals, bats can sometimes be identified as individuals. Perhaps there is a bump on their face or a particular mark on their wing, and so on. In addition, bats have personalities and it is often the way they behave that identifies them. For research purposes individually numbered tags are attached to the bats.

At last we reach the farm and Mairi the Clydesdale horse comes across the field to welcome us. She seems pleased to see us but alas we have no polos to offer.  Maybe next time. The two black farm cats also spot us and come to say hello.

Mairi the Clydesdale at National Museum of Rural Life

At the farm house garden we hit another hot spot for bats. Again, all of them soprano pipistrelles, but it’s great to see them and hear the bat detectors conveying their otherwise silent messages to us. It has been a really good evening.

Friendly cats at National Museum of Rural Life

We make our way back through the farm to our starting point. There is just an occasional bat now; they don’t like to fly over the open fields. The two cats follow us, both black in the darkness. Not easy to see but we know they are there. Last year we were worried they might get lost if they followed us, and follow us they did. Ewan and his dad used to take them back to the farm in their car afterwards. Not this year though - we’re now wise to their ploy for a free ride!

The walk finishes just after 10:00pm. It has remained calm, warm and dry throughout, and we’ve seen loads of bats - plus the bonus of Mairi the Clydesdale and the two friendly farm cats! We are all well satisfied and bid everybody a good night.

 

Bat walks at Wester Kittochside

A guest post by John Hawell of the Clyde Bat Group

I have been running evening bat walks at the National Museum of Rural Life on behalf of the Clyde Bat Group since 2003. Tonight’s walk is the first of a series of six taking place throughout August and September.

Bats spend about half of their year asleep, in hibernation. Thus for most people interested in bats, it is a summer activity and this evening’s bat walk is typical of how we go about seeing them.

People book beforehand to attend a bat walk and as I arrive to lead the evening walk I wonder who will be present tonight. The walk is fully booked but some folk don’t show up. Nonetheless by 8:45pm I am ready to start and ten people, adults and children are assembled expectantly.

Setting off on a bat walk as dusk gathers at the National Museum of Rural Life

I am especially pleased to see Ewan and his dad from Wishaw. This is the third year that Ewan has attended my bat walks at Kittochside, and elsewhere – he hardly misses one. He even has his own bat detector and digital recorder.

I have my own bat detectors checked over and ready for the evening. Also checked are the lamps and first aid kit. Bat detectors are essential kit for bat workers. They bring the high frequency bat calls down to a level that we can hear and appreciate. Firstly, these calls enable us to detect a bat, otherwise they could easily whiz by in the darkness without us ever being aware of them. Secondly, these calls assist us in identifying the species of bat , and thirdly, the calls indicate what the bat is doing, whether the bat is just navigating about, feeding, or maybe socialising with other bats.

A handheld bat detector is essential for finding bats.

After a short introductory talk, I issue the bat detectors and reflective armbands, the latter for safety reasons, and then we set off up the road. We aim to walk a similar circuit on each bat walk, partly because I have a pretty good idea where we are likely to find the bats, regardless of weather conditions, but also because it allows me to compare results from week to week and year to year.

Tonight we make contact with our first bat, a pipistrelle, just after nine o’clock. We have already listened to a bat recording but suddenly we are listening to the real thing through our bat detectors. It is an exciting moment, but we still don’t see any bats. We wait.

Walking a bit further up the road we hit a bit of a ‘hot spot’ for bats. The bats are now emerging in some numbers from their day time roost site. They are whizzing about beneath the tree canopy and we catch glimpses of them as they fly against the twilight sky. Some bats come so close over our heads they make us jump – wow! This is exciting stuff. The bat detectors keep us informed of their presence and occasionally we hear a feeding buzz, an indication that the bats are feeding – after all, this is breakfast time for them!

Common pipistrelle. Photo © Philippe Boissel.

We continue up the road to the farm, then make our way back to the starting point at the Museum and are finished by 10pm. We encounter a few more bats as we proceed, all of them pipistrelles, but most of the bat activity is behind us now. We find a couple of toads wandering across our path – we stop to pick them up and admire them, then leave them in peace. All in all it’s been a good evening, enjoyed by all and, amazingly, it stayed dry throughout!

You can find out more about evening bat walks at the National Museum of Rural Life here.

 

Go Wild in the Country

By Chris Waddell, Learning Officer

The Go Wild in the Country sessions at National Museum of Rural Life have got off to a very promising start this year. We are currently just over half way through the programme and have already surpassed our visitor numbers for the whole of the 2009 summer session.

The sessions are operating on a weekly cycle and are as follows:

Sundays are Bug hunting day, which allows our young charges to see what creepy crawlies, wrigglers and wigglers can be found in the museum grounds.

A toad found on a bug hunting expedition. Photo by Elspeth Durkin.

Mondays are Den building days, where children learn to make shelters using poles, branches and other stuff we find lying around!

Den building at the National Museum of Rural Life.

Tuesday are Orienteering sessions, where youngsters can find out how to navigate around the countryside, and Wednesdays offer digital photography sessions, allowing children to take digital snapshots of the landscapes, plants and animals at Wester Kittochside then make postcard prints of their favourites to take home.

One of the pictures taken during a photography workshop at the National Museum of Rural Life.

On Thursdays we add to our Big Natural Nature Mural. Using natural materials, our visitors are gradually transforming a wall of our Learning Centre into a big piece of environmental art. Fridays are Ranger walk days, where people can pick up skills and learn about the countryside on one of our guided walks.

Saturdays bring Enviro-art sessions, where kids take part in an environmentally themed art or craft session. Throughout the summer we’ve been making green man masks, little leaf people and vegetation sculptures that Andy Goldsworthy would be proud of!

Green Man masks made on Enviro-art day.

Enviro-art is about using natural materials to make something creative.

The following are only two of the many positive comments we have had so far:

‘Brilliant visit, especially the photography course. We will definitely come back again’; (scored us 10/10 on feedback card)

‘Very interesting and informative ranger walk. The ranger was very patient with children’ (10/10)

 

Stuck in the stocks and walking with bats!

By Anita Briggs, Digital Media Content Creator

Life as Content Creator in the Digital Media team at National Museums Scotland certainly offers variety as I work with such a diverse collection over several sites.  I need to be knowledgeable in all things animal, vegetable and mineral on a world wide scale.  One minute I can be investigating a rare Pied Tamarin specimen from Brazil and then I can be looking at the facial reconstruction of an Ancient Egyptian Queen.

Facial reconstruction of the Queen from the Qurneh burial.

Recently, I’ve been close up and personal with some characters that were taking part in our Slice of Life sessions. These historical characters, played by actors, tell visitors all about life in their day. The Punishment Wifie was first. This 17th century gossip describes the various different punishments meted out for misdemeanours during the reign of James VI. I visited her as she was performing next to The Maiden (our very own beheading machine).  I spent some 10 minutes stuck in the stocks while videoing the Punishment Wifie in action – it was not the most comfortable experience I’ve had but it did attract a quite a large crowd.  Next, I met with Douglas Hamilton, Amateur Geologist, he certainly rocked!

I’ve also been finding out a bit more about the bat species we have at National Museum of Rural Life, During August and September, a series of Evening Bat Walks takes place to monitor the two species we have at Wester Kittochside, the Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and Soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus).  Pipistrelles are the most common British bats, and a single pip can eat 3,000 tiny insects in just one night!

Common pipistrelle by © Dave Fincham

 

Heavy Horse Show

By Chris Waddell, Learning Officer

Once again, the Heavy Horse Show at the National Museum of Rural Life at Wester Kittochside was a great success. This event – a perennial favourite – is one of the biggest heavy horse events in Scotland.

Despite some rather grim weather on the morning of the event, almost 2,200 visitors attended to watch the 11 different judging classes for the Heavy Horses and further sections for Shetland and Highland ponies, as well as a donkey class. The overall Champion on the day (i.e. the animal judged to be best across all classes) was a Shetland pony called Kerryston Theodore owned by Ken and Ann Scott of Kellas.

A participant at the Heavy Horse Show tucks into a snack.

As well as the impressive array of horses, donkeys and carriages on show, there were numerous other activities on the day such as face painters, stilt walkers, craft workshops and various stands selling local produce.

In the afternoon, the sun showed its face and the afternoon rounded off very pleasantly with satisfied visitors (and staff) having enjoyed an excellent event.

In the ring at the Heavy Horse Show 2010. Photo © Dan Petre

Clydesdale pulling a cart at the Heavy Horse Show. Photo © Dan Petre.