Marine Mammals and Birds

Our young people residentials deliver a wide-ranging, enriching experience and give you the chance to develop a range of transferable skills. This can be great to include in higher education and job applications.

Around core themes of nature and landscapes, active learning, and personal and social skills, our courses promote nature connection, environmental understanding and responsibility, health and wellbeing, working well with others, resilience and curiosity.

If you are a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award participant, this course is also an ideal way to complete the Residential section of the award

See our Residential FAQs page if you’d like to know the answers to our most frequently asked questions.

If these course dates do not suit you, we run similar courses at many of our other centres.

As an Approved Activity Provider for DofE, our opportunities meet all the requirements for DofE. We do however always recommend checking suitability with your DofE assessor before booking a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Residential.

Day 1

Arrive 12 pm

Welcome to the centre and the Introduction and Icebreaker challenge.

After a welcome and a tour of the centre, we will take part in some icebreaker activities.

Evening: How birds fly - Hair and feather analysis

Have you ever wanted to know how birds fly? During this session, you receive a brief lecture on bird physiology, followed by a microscopy session looking at different bird feathers.

Day 2

Marine mammal and bird classification and identification

We will begin the day with a workshop on the key ID features of the various marine mammals and birds, followed by the opportunity to get up close with some marine mammal and bird skulls. As a group we will then make an ID guide for us to use throughout the week.

Island tour
After lunch we will have a tour around the beautiful island of Cumbrae, taking in it’s amazing vistas and stopping to observe local birds and mammals.

Evening: Creative Marine Conservation

How can sharing conservation messages help influence change in our marine environments? Participants consider the impact of raising awareness before creating their own messaging to engage audiences to marine issues.

Day 3

Ecotourism and marine mammals and birds

The day will begin with a lecture on ecotourism related to marine mammals and birds, followed by a discussion on the ethics of these activities to help clarify your views and strengthen your understanding of the issues.

Diet analysis and behavioural field experiments

Using a sea floor camera, we will gain a greater understanding of the diet of our local marine mammals and birds. This will be followed by conducting some behavioural observations of local seabird and assessing the impact of anthropogenic stressors on feeding.

Evening: Otter tracking and signs

We will spend the evening learning how to track and identify the signs of one of the island most elusive marine mammals. After a lecture on the key ID features we will go on a walk to see what signs we can find in our local area.

Day 4

Day trip to Wee Cumbrae

We will take a boat and explore the wild uninhabited island of Wee Cumbrae. En-route we will have a chance to spot some local cetaceans and seabirds, before arriving an putting some of our new otter tracking signs into practice! There will also be the opportunity for some shore-based observations with the resident seal population.

Evening: Campfire
Sitting around a roaring campfire, we will exchange memories of the week, toast marshmallows and take part in a quiz!

Day 5

Otter scat analysis

We will conduct

Mini projects
Participants will conduct a mini project on a topic or question that they found interesting that week. Displaying their findings on scientific posters, everyone will present these posters to the group to share their findings.

Depart at 3 pm

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  Expert Tuition
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  Free Wi-Fi
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  Full Board Accommodation
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  Hot and Cold Drinks
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  In Course Transport
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  Picnic Lunch

We want to ensure participants get to share their experience with those of a similar age. Please consider what age the attendee will be on the course date you choose and check they fit in the age category for that date when booking. (Please see each individual course at the bottom of this page for age ranges).

When you book, it is essential that you enter the age and attendees name in the Order Notes at the checkout.  If the attendee is under 18, the booking must be made by a parent/guardian.

When attending the residential dates which welcome 16-18 year olds, all participants will be expected to follow the behaviour and conduct rules which will be in place to safeguard young people.

Prior to the course, you will receive the following:

• A full kit list. Any technical equipment required will be provided so you will just need typical kit for a residential stay and being outdoors.
• An introduction to the staff delivering the course and information about the centre so you know what to expect on arrival.
• A detailed itinerary for the course, including arrival and departure instructions. On some courses there may be the opportunity to book a train station pick up and/or drop off.
• A photo consent form.
• The expectations of young people attending our courses.
• A form to share any specific dietary or medical needs.