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