4th March, 2011
Spent the weekend in Sharpham, location: Totnes, Devon, beside the River Dart in the heart of a Valley.
Weather: Overcast, cold, grey with some sunny spells.
OS Grid Reference: 50.408882,-3.653192
Saturday 5th
Exlpored around Sharpham estate, walked into the woodland and climbed up a steep bumpy grassy slope that seemed almost vertical to remove many tree gaurds with a knife that were no longer needed.
Sunday 6th
Woke up at 5.30am to go on a boat ride along the River Dart to catch the morning sun rise. unfortunatly the day was cloudy and overcast. We didn't see many birds apart from Canada Geese and Common Guls and wood pidgeons.
After the boat ride we set out to look for badger trails, learnt how to tell if a badger set was being used or not by the defined 'D' shape of the hole and other clues such as scratch marks and droppings. We laid out a mix of nuts and syrup and set it under a stone, we then tied a camera motion sensor to a tree and left it there over night. Next morning we went to see what footage we saw and it was a success!
We noticed that the badgers seemed to come out around the same time, mostly after sunset, around 8:30pm.
After the badger trails we were given spades and went and done Hazel tree planting. Once we dug the hole, planted the few month old hazel tree, we then had to flatten the soil around it and put on the plastic tree gaurds that would then stay there to support their growth for the many years to come. I really enjoyed this aspect of the conservation weekend and named the four hazel trees I planted, Tree beared, Bilbo, Howel and Kiki. We then had a spot of lunch, cheese and pickle on the menu for me then shortly after set off home. This was when the sun came out.
Sightings of Fauna:
Great Tit
Buzzard
Canada Geese
Wood Pigdgeon
Common Gul
Badgers
Cow
Sheep
Sightings of Flora:
Hazel Tree
Common Oak
Rhododendron
Dafodiles
Snow drops
