St Albans mural aims to brighten up area and raise money for rare birds

PUBLISHED: 09:00 18 August 2018

Anne Suslak

A mural has been painted outside a tuition centre in St Albans to raise money for rare birds in the Galápagos Islands.

Bright Young Things, at 12 Ridgmont Road, organised to have the mural of blue-footed boobies and flamingoes painted across the side of the centre to raise money to protect the endangered boobies’ island home.

Woody Webster, director of the centre, said: “We had a white wall outside Bright Young Things, and we wanted to brighten the area up. We’ve had people walking in saying ‘we love your wall’.

“I designed it and got a painter to paint it. The blue booby is such a rare creature and it’s only in a really small part of the world.”

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Fundraising appeal for migrating geese

AN urgent appeal has been launched to raise almost £300,000 to help provide a home for thousands of migrating geese. 

The RSPB needs to raise the money by the end of this month in order to buy land adjacent to the Solway Firth, to which more than 40,000 Svalbald barnacle geese migrate every winter.

The cash will allow the charity to expand its Mersehead reserve, where around a quarter of the birds settle, by 112 hectares. 

Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland said: “RSPB Scotland Mersehead is an outstanding place for wildlife and now we have the opportunity to make it even bigger and better for some of Scotland’s rarest species, and the many others that make their home there. 

“Throughout the year visitors to the reserve can experience the wonders of nature from the calls of skylarks in spring, and the tumbling display of breeding lapwings, to the iconic sight of the Svalbald barnacle geese arriving in huge numbers at this time of year.” 

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