Ellie Krefting with her winning poster

Group photo

Dave Coles, Curator at Beale Park, in Lower Basildon, Berkshire, visited the pupils at Englefield C of E Primary School, in Englefield today, to announce that Ellie Krefting, aged eight, is the winner of the Park’s poster competition, which was run by Primary Times Magazine designed to help promote “National Nest Box Week” and Beale Park’s start of season on February 14^th, 2011.

Ellie’s artwork will be used as the basis to create the Park’s advertising and poster campaign in support of the British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO) UK initiative “National Nest Box Week”; an annual event which encourages people to build a nest box for their garden and to “Give a bird a home”.

As part of the prize, Ellie and her fellow classmates have been invited to Beale Park to spend the day with Dave and his team, to learn about some of the rare and endangered birds which live in the Park, to visit the bird hide and to have a go at building some nest boxes.

Dave said, “Ellie’s design was spot on.  She has brought our message to life beautifully by illustrating the building of a nest box with a bird waiting alongside, ready to move in.  We are hoping that such a clever design will inspire local youngsters to join us during our two week campaign – the first week being “National Nest Box Week (14^th – 21st Feb) and the consecutive week which is half term.”

Dave continued, “Such initiatives enable us to support a worthwhile campaign as well as educating and creating an interest in the importance of conservation amongst children.”

He added, “By working closely with the BTO, we are able to assist with essential conservation work, while maintaining our own projects and supporting many others alongside.” 

National Nest Box Week

The campaign is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Britain’s leading bird research charity, whose work involves studying the many different types of common and garden birds to see how many there are and how they are doing.  

The BTO started “National Nest Box Week” 11 years ago, with the aim of making us think about the birds that we see and to remind us to help them, by encouraging us to build and put up nest boxes for them to live in, which enables them to breed and promotes the conservation of our wildlife.

Activities for National Nest Box Week at Beale Park

Visitors will be offered the chance to make their own nest box in the Park (£5 additional per person) on 15^th, 16^th, 17^th, 22^nd, 23^rd & 24^th February from 2-4pm and leaflets from the BTO will also be available to the public, explaining why nest boxes are so important and with instructions on how to make a box at home.