Nest boxes at SRUC, Elmwood Golf Course

The golf course is often left with pallets from deliveries and these began to build up in quantity. Greenkeeping students practical classes used the pallets and other waste materials to make a bug hotel, hibernation piles and a swan island in one of our ponds. The bug hotel was made out of 2 pallets and filled with logs from the tree compartments and cones to provide insects and solitary bees a place to live. The hibernation pile was created with 6 pallets piled on top of each other and the gaps were filled with waste wood before being covered with waste turf to give it a more natural look and provide the animals that use it with some shelter. The swan island was made from a large pallet that was boxed off and filled with waste plastic bottles to aid with buoyancy and was then floated out into the middle of our largest pond to give swans a safe area to nest in. An artificial sand martin nest site has also been built on site to compliment the natural sand martin nest site.