Watch Out Sark! Spring 2015 Volume 1 Issue 4. The Sark Watch Newsletter

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1 Watch Out Sark! Spring 2015 Volume 1 Issue 4 The Sark Watch Newsletter The school hall was packed on Wednesday 25th March with family and friends to see Joyce and Katie receive their Kestrel Awards and watch their presentations detailing all the work they have done to achieve the award. Katie s mum said It took an amazing amount of courage to stand up and talk to a room full of people. I couldn t have done it when I was 9 years old. I am so proud of her. Katie s brother received his hedgehog award so it was a real family celebration. Inside this issue: Art at Forest Schools 2 Bring Your Camera Eperquerie Walk Spring Litter Pick 4 Bird Box Building 5 Clean Up for Summer 6 Moth Display 7 Dolphins and Dates 8 3 Sark Watch Editorial Team Katie Knight Joyce Adams Esmee Byrne Mrs Cottle The audience arriving. Receiving their awards. Joyce plans to study butterflies for her Ranger Award and hopes to be lucky enough to see the silver studded blue. Katie plans to study hedgehogs and will be asking people to let her know of sightings in their gardens. This hedgehog was photographed last summer on Sark.

2 Art At Forest Schools Class 1 have been busy looking for signs of spring in their Forest School lessons and enjoyed a morning art lesson just before the Easter break. They had set off in the rain but luckily the sun came out so they could enjoy observing and recording the different spring flowers they found at the Seigneurie Gardens. It was enjoyable sitting looking at the flowers. I drew the daffodils, there were lots of them. Each flower was a little bit different. I also drew a red flower. I was pleased with my work. Ruairi I learnt how to draw flowers. I had to make sure I looked very carefully when I drew the daffodil. I noticed the orange in the middle. Cameron I was a bit worried when we set off in the rain but it stopped by 11am. I enjoyed drawing the purple primroses. I had to look really carefully and concentrate. I used a white pastel crayon to make the purple lighter and match the colour of the flower exactly. Katrina Page 2

3 Bring Your Camera February Walk Getting ready to go. A flotilla of bikes head for the north. Cameras at the ready! On Friday 27th February the Sark Watch group headed off to the Eperquerie with cameras with the challenge of taking really good photo of the most interesting thing we could find. There were early signs of gorse bushes coming into flower and beautiful shapes made by ivy against the rocks. We also watched the rain falling on Guernsey and marveled at a beautiful double rainbow over Brecqhou which proved very difficult to photograph. It seemed too early for any bugs and caterpillars but there were plenty of seabirds circling overhead and gathering on the rocks below.t After a lovely walk and with lots of photos taken we all headed home, just in front of the rain! Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 3

4 A litter pick was organised for the last day of the spring term and, despite the drizzle, a large group of Sark Watchers set off at 3.30pm after the school s end of term Easter assembly. The group split into four groups with one group heading north to L Eperquerie, one heading for the Avenue, another for the back roads to the Lighthouse and the last group heading for the Beauregard Pond. This is the pond that is used every Good Friday for the island children [and adults] to sail their boats so it was important to make it as litter free as possible. A few cans, bottles and sweet wrappers were collected on the way but the group was very impressed with the lack of litter. On arriving at the pond one can could be seen floating in the water. As the only member of the group wearing wellies, Joyce volunteered to go and get it and did a great job of not falling in! All the groups returned to the island hall for hot chocolate and biscuits and to see what had been collected. All together one bin-bag full was all that was found, mainly consisting of cans, empty bottles, crisp packets and sweet wrappers.

5 Saturday 7th March saw the first practical workshop of 2015 when a large group of Sark Watchers met at the Forest School Site to make bird boxes. Many thanks to Sam, dad to Phoebe and Alfie, who had done his research and arrived with ready cut kits for seven boxes. He explained that he had made the entrance holes 30mm in diametre and this would accommodate birds such as blue tits, great tits and tree sparrows. Robins prefer an open front [or the top of a propped up garden spade where one nested last year in the Seigneurie Garden s potting shed]. With the help of Sam, Simon and Richard the boxes were soon constructed and discussions held on where to place them. Research said that they needed to be sited 2 to 4 metres up the tree, with a clear flight path to the box and facing between north and east to avoid strong sunlight and the wettest winds. Phoebe, Cerys and Adam and Harry and Finn with their completed boxes. The morning concluded with hot chocolate and biscuits around the fire together with a planning session for next week s clear up and maintenance morning for the Forest School site.

6 On April 18th 2015 residents of Sark and the Art for Living Group from Guernsey came to help clean up the flower beds and the road by the Island Hall. Sark Watch members Katie, Joyce, Harry, Cerys and Phoebe together with their mums joined the volunteers. Half the helpers worked at the back of the hall and the rest worked on the front. Paul Williams and his tractor took all the weeds and branches away. At the front helpers were digging up the weeds and the helpers at the back were trimming the large shrubs. It has been a long time since the beds had been weeded and the plants trimmed so everything was very overgrown to begin with. Harry loading the tractor Volunteer helpers from Guernsey As the beds were cleared Phoebe did a great job of collecting all the lost balls from school playtimes which she left by the front door, ready for school on Monday. The whole thing took just over an hour and the area now looks much tidier with space for the plants to grow over the coming months. Reporting by Katie and Joyce.

7 By Esmee Byrne Over the Easter holidays I set up an exhibition about moths on Sark at La Societe Sercquaise Heritage Room. Me and my mum took some photos for the display and I wrote a page of writing for it. We put the Sark Watch logo and the piece of writing at the top of the display. My favourite part of doing the display was doing the bubble writing for the title. It will be on display for several weeks so that visitors can read about the moths seen on Sark. The exhibition shows how many different types of moth we found in the moth trap in our garden between March and November We found seven new moths for Sark. Setting up the display The finished display We have set the moth trap up again in my garden. moth trap in our garden at home. It has been a very exciting spring so far as we have identified two moths that have not been seen on Sark before. The Satellite Moth in March and the Brindled Orchre in April

8 The Dolphins Are Back! There has been much excitement on Sark as a large pod of dolphins have again been seen. On 16th April over 30 were swimming just outside Maseline Harbour and followed the Sark Viking, our cargo boat, out of the harbour and towards Herm. We really hope that the dolphins will stay again this year to thrill tourists and residents alike! From 6th April 5 bays in 5 days Challenge. We are hoping that Sark Watch members will have a go at the challenge during half-term 25th April Wildflower fortnight begins with walks to Little Sark, Greve de la Ville, Derrible & the Hogsback, Dixcart Woods and L Eperquerieover the two weeks. 21st & 22nd May School and Watch camp at the Seigneurie Gardens Find out more by checking for news and reports on the Sark Watch Facebook page