The object of the day was to clear a stretch of land in order to make habitat for the Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix), which is a type of bird that is very rare in Luxembourg. Partridges spend most of the time on land, so it is even more important to give them as much habitat as we can.

The day began at 9.30am and ended at 3pm. It started with Marie explaining that we were cutting trees; she showed us how to use the tools to do so and where to find them. Marie also showed us the boundaries of where we could cut to. I still wasn’t sure why we were cutting down lots of trees though, but I went along with it, nevertheless.

What more would a scout want than a saw or a pair of giant clippers and fire? Seeing as we are Explorers and we are ‘responsible’, we are asked to chop trees and put them onto a fire! I think that most of us turned up to fill in hours for our Merite Jeunesse award but we all enjoyed it. Some people are doing their Bronze and some already Gold.

Later on, one of the people who was organising the event, explained why we were doing what we were.

I think that it was for a good cause and it meant that we were outside for a long period of time. But perhaps, if there had been more of a goal, for instance if we had been put into teams and made it into a competition it could have been even better. I got this idea when a couple of us were laughing at the two fires the male leaders were making. We were laughing because their fires were less superior to ours. Let’s just say we made sure they knew that. But then again we had Marie, so that helped. Whatever fire Marie helped, would suddenly be the best, so one of the helpers thought that Marie had ‘magic fingers’.

Anonymous, aged 14

If you would like to participate in our 8 February event for the Grey Partridge, please register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/get-fit-by-nature-for-the-grey-partridge-2014-tickets-6745033577

photo (c) Marek Stepanek