ANOTHER great idea was started in Ludlow.

Children from Ludlow have been taking part in a drawing campaign to highlight the benefits that getting closer to nature can do for health and wellbeing.

It is a project that proved to be so successful that now it has been extended throughout Shropshire to help people who are struggling with issues such as isolation.

This comes at the time when birds are starting to seek nest sites and begin the task of raising families. Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s Feed the Birds project, which matches volunteers to those at risk of social isolation through bird feeding, has adapted and continued to operate throughout the pandemic.

Ludlow Wildlife WATCH group supported their local scheme by asking children to draw birds to give to the recipients of bird feeder kits distributed to hundreds of households during the first lockdown.

These proved so popular it was decided to produce a chart of common garden birds to give to participants throughout Shropshire.

Schoolchildren from Rushbury and Whixall primary schools got drawing too, resulting in a delightful double-sided A4 identification guide. “Everyone smiles when they look at it!” says Diane Monether, Feed the Birds project Co-ordinator.

Bird feeder kits and ID charts have now been given to more than 750 households in Shropshire including care homes, people shielding, the elderly, key workers, young families; people struggling with debt or mental health problems; people whose day care centres were closed and people living in rural areas, isolated from their families.

It is hoped that more volunteers will join the scheme.

Please contact her dianem@shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk if you’re interested and would like to know what is involved. To find out more visit shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/feedthebirds.