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