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In our third Sark Watch newsletter we celebrate
Harry Knight achieving his Hedgehog Award after tak-
ing part in our Autumn Litter Pick and Katie and Joyce
being the first two ‘Sark Watchers’ to achieve their
Kestrel Awards. We also investigate what has been
happening to our school field and celebrate a summer
of dolphin magic in the waters around Sark.
Harry at Forest Schools
The Sark Watch Newsletter Beach Clean 2
Autumn Litter Pick 3
Kestrel Awards 4 & 5
Who Is To Blame? 6
Sark Adventurers 7
Dolphin Magic 8
Inside this issue:
Sark Watch
Editorial Team
Katie Knight
Joyce Adams
Mrs Cottle
Autumn 2014 Volume 1 Issue 3
Watch Out Sark!
Fun at Forest School
Sark Watch members in Class 1 have been having
fun at Forest Schools this term as part of their
topic on Witches and Wizards.
They particularly enjoyed splashing in puddles on
the way to the Forest School Site and then making
mud witches to decorate the trees.
Alfie admires his witch A happy mud witch But who is hiding in the bushes?
Sark Watch was keen to take part in the Great British
Beach Clean as we did last year. Miss Mills registered us
and a group of 11 children and 8 adults set off for Dixcart
Beach after school on Thurs 25th September. Working in small groups we
spread out across the beach in search of litter. Our most interesting finds were
probably an old ink cartridge and a pair of shoes. We also found pieces of green
glass in various stages of being worn down—some were incredibly smooth.
There was a hole that looked like a fire pit filled with burnt beer cans, probably
from a beach party.
Page 2 Watch Out
The closer to the rocks we were, the more rubbish was found. It looked like peo-
ple had sat by the rocks and left their rubbish there. There was also more rub-
bish at the top of the beach along the high tide mark. We found approximately
8kg of rubbish which was one full black sack.
We recorded every piece of litter found so it could be recorded as part of the GB
beach survey. At 5pm we walked back through the woods, past the dead rat
and Stocks Hotel where we left our black litter sack.
Beach Clean at Dixcart
What we found
Glass
A barbeque rack
Polystyrene packaging
Ink Cartridge
Wet Tissue Wet paper
Beer cans
“We were amazed by how
little litter was found on
one of the most popular
beaches on Sark after a
very busy season which
included several beach
parties!”
Report by Katie Knight.
On Saturday 18th October we did a litter pick. Lots of locals
came to help including 2 visitors. We all had a route and found
lots of litter even though there were lots of bins. It was very
smelly!
Gemma and Harry went through the Meadows and through
the Avenue. In the meadows they found beer cans, a mudguard
and plastic pint cans and in the Avenue they found plastic and
cardboard packing.
Joyce, Katie and Mrs Cottle went on the north block and found lots of beer cans
and bottles, mostly they think, left by local adults and some sweet wrappers.
Two visitors, Wendy and Melissa, went on the road to Little Sark and the vine-
yards by the mill. On both routes they found cans and bottles of beer and sweet
wrappers.
Miss Mills, Georgia and Cerys went to forest schools and they mostly found bot-
tles but some paper. Jo Birch went to the east near the lighthouse and found
bottles and cans and paper.
Richard and Lene went to Beauregard and the Monument by Beauregard. They
found bottles, cans and wrappers and by the Monument they found boat stuff.
When everybody had finished we had a photograph by Sue Daly and hot choco-
late at the island Hall.
Autumn Litter Pick
Page 3 Volume 1,
The Watch Group were disappointed by the amount of lit-
ter we found, especially bottles and cans. We even found
bottles embedded in the ground. If the litter found had
been sweet wrappers it was more likely to be dropped by
children, but the litter found indicated that it was adults
that were causing the most litter on Sark.
We have sent a report to the Sark Islander to encourage
people to put their empty bottles and cans in the bin or
take them home.
Getting ready
to go.
Finding bottles
under the
trees.
Report by Joyce Adams
Two members of Sark Watch have completed their Kestrel Award, sharing their
work with the group and with David Wedd when he visited from Alderney. Here is
some of the work they have done for their award.
On Saturday the 13th April I made a fruit cake. I got the ingredients out of
the cupboard.
I weighed out the raisins and the sultanas then the butter, flour and eggs
and whisked it all together.
I put brown sugar in it. I also put cocoa powder in it.
I poured it into a cake tray and put it in the oven.
I waited for 1 hour until I took it out of the oven. Then I had to wait for it to
cool down.
Then I made a dip in it so it looked more like an birds nest.
Then I mixed cocoa powder and milk in a bowl and I spread it on the cake.
Then I put a Mikado chocolate biscuit stick and some crushed flake on the
cake.
On Friday the 18th of April I went down to the duck pond and sold lots of raffle tickets to win my cake. I raised £90 for Sark Watch. The winner of my cake was Jane Armorgie I hope she liked it and enjoyed eating it.
Joyce made a bird box out of wood and painted it brown. Her dad helped with the measuring and the sawing. She helped him. Joyce put it on the back of her shed. At the moment the bird box is empty.
How it started. Making the box. The finished box.
Katie Made a butterfly house for part of her Do It! Challenge. Here
is how she did it.
I was given a butterfly house kit for my birthday.
I made the butterfly house, it has some special feeder painted in colours to attract
butterflies.
It also has a place inside to put twigs for the butterflies to sit and rest.
I put the butterfly house on my shed where it is sunny and warm.
We had a hawk moth chrysalis in it
Throughout September and October we have watched as gulls and crows
have systematically ripped up the turf and caused the chaos which is
going to take months to repair in time for next summer.
Why have they done this? They have
been searching for food [and getting fat!]
Some people are blaming chafer bugs
which grow into adult chafer beetles.
Some are blaming leatherjackets which
grow into crane flies. Certainly the school
sees lots of crane flies on the school walls
during September each year.
Both bugs have the same effect. As they mature, the grass above begins
to discolour and turn yellow. The birds see this and begin to rip up the
turf looking for the bugs. Before you know it, your once lovely patch of
grass has turned into a muddy mess!
It has been fascinating to watch the birds at work. Gulls are extremely
strong and have worked hard, finding lots of food. Once they have ripped
the turf away, crows have moved in to eat the bugs too.
The once beautiful Millennium Field, used by the school at playtimes, by
the sports club for cricket, hockey and football matches and by the is-
land for events such as the annual Sheep Racing is now an eyesore with
large patches of mud and destroyed grass.
Chafer bug Leather-
jacket
Crane fly on
the school
wall
On Thursday 9th October Class 2 Sark Adventurers went on a ‘Welly Wander’. Before we set off we had to put sellotape around our wellies so things would stick to our wellies and then we could see what we had collected when we got back to school. Mainly we collected dead grass and a lot of dust!
We went on a long wander including walking along the Avenue and towards the Mill but then we turned round and came back to school because it start-ed to rain. While we wandered we looked for signs of autumn and saw some apples in a tree and different flowers.
In the afternoon we went back outside to inves-tigate puddles. We measured the puddles with a tape measure and also found out how deep they were using a stick.
After that we had lots of fun jumping in them!
By Martin and Georgia.
Apples in
the tree
Hydrangea
flower head
Ivy flowers
in the hedge
Horse Chestnuts
in the Avenue
Dolphins Around Sark
There has always been the possibility of seeing dolphins around Sark with occa-
sional sightings for a day or two. Then the dolphins disappear again for months.
This year has been different and a pod of dolphins has been around Sark almost
continually since June right up until the end of October. The best place to see
them has been just outside Maseline Harbour where the dolphins have enjoyed fol-
lowing the Sark ferries. Boat trips with George Guille have also enjoyed getting
close to the dolphins although some taking part in kayaking activities have become
a little nervous when inquisitive dolphins have got a little too close for comfort! As
one visitor said, ‘I never realised they were so big!’
Mother and calf
Visitors and locals alike have enjoyed watching these beau-
tiful creatures and just hope that they make a return for
2015.
All photographs by Sue Daly
Find out more by checking for news and reports on the
Sark Watch Facebook page