Post on 22-Sep-2020
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.
The Sark Watch Newsletter
Art at Forest Schools 2
Bring Your Camera Eperquerie Walk
3
Spring Litter Pick 4
Bird Box Building 5
Clean Up for Summer 6
Moth Display 7
Dolphins and Dates 8
Inside this issue:
Sark Watch
Editorial Team
Katie Knight
Joyce Adams
Esmee Byrne
Mrs Cottle
Spring 2015 Volume 1 Issue 4
Watch Out Sark!
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 photo-
graphed last summer
on Sark.
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 re-
cording the different spring flowers they found at the Seigneurie Gardens.
Page 2
Art At Forest Schools
“I learnt how to draw flowers. I had to make
sure I looked very carefully when I drew the daf-
fodil. 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 care-
fully and concentrate. I used a white pastel
crayon to make the purple lighter and match
the colour of the flower exactly.”
Katrina
“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
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 mar-
veled at a beautiful double rainbow over Brecqhou which proved very difficult to
photograph.
Bring Your Camera February Walk
Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 1
Getting ready
to go.
It seemed too early
for any bugs and cat-
erpillars but there
were plenty of sea-
birds circling overhead
and gathering on the
rocks below.t
A flotilla of bikes head for the north. Cameras at the ready!
After a lovely walk and with lots of photos taken we all headed home, just in front
of the rain!
A litter pick was organised for the
last day of the spring term and, de-
spite the drizzle, a large group of
Sark Watchers set off at 3.30pm af-
ter 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 Fri-
day 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 col-
lected on the way but the group was very impressed with the lack of litter. On arriv-
ing 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.
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 discus-sions held on where to place them. Research said that they needed to be sited 2 to 4 me-tres 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.
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 col-
lecting 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 ti-
dier with space for the plants to grow over the coming months.
Reporting by Katie and Joyce.
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 2014. 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
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!
Find out more by checking for news and reports on the
Sark Watch Facebook page
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