Shipwrecked at Shoalstone

Pupils from Brixhams Eden Park Primary School enjoyed good weather for visits to Shoalstone Beach. These were follow ups to visits in school where the pupils learnt about Shipwreck Survival and ways to live sustainably on a deserted island while they awaited rescue. Pupils learnt about ways to fish, what they could eat and where they could make a shelter.
All the students got really stuck into the visits at Shoalstone, they hunted for plants and animals they would potentially be able to eat if stranded on a shoreline. They found lots of edible crabs, prawns, some very large blennies and gobies and many types of seaweed. Students identified their finds and we showed them some other types of shellfish that would be suitable to eat. They also thought about where to build shelters and gather materials from. A great time was had by all and it was really good to see local children learning so much about the amazing marine life that surrounds us in Brixham. Thanks to their teacher Mr Maine for making it happen.
On a serious note if you want to gather your own shellfish or other food to eat from seashores, be very careful where you collect from, as shellfish accumulate pollution in the flesh you eat. Also make sure you can definitely identify plants and animals before you eat them, some may be rare and protected!

Whats That Bird?!

Photo: Black Redstart

Staff and volunteers greatly enjoyed a course on Bird Identification last week run by local bird 'guru' and all round wildlife expert Mike Langman. The course involved practical skills in aiding the huge subject of bird ID. Mike taught us simple methods of sketching birds to aid identification, we all found this a really interesting exercise - Mike asked us to draw a sketch of a Puffin from memory then we checked our drawings with an image. This was really effective in showing us the detail required to draw the bird, even though we all knew it well, there were many details in the markings that we were unaware of. Sketching is a great aid in the field to help you identify birds when you get back to a book, it also really makes you look very closely at the markings and colours of the plumage that you might otherwise miss. In the course we also learnt about bird calls, a great way to identify birds at this time of year when all you often see are birds passing overhead without landing, especially on Berry Head. We did plenty of practise out on Berry Head, and everyone went away feeling more confident in their identification skills, and fired up to get out there and enjoy the fantasic array of wild birds seen at this time of year.
Mike is also a very talented wildlife artist, producing artwork for many books and visitor centres please visit his website at www.mikelangman.co.uk

Work With Us!

We have recently secured funding to allow us to carry out the 'Berry Head On the Edge' project and we are looking for a Project Officer, Trainee Supervisor and Access Officer to work with us on the project.

Berry Head On the Edge is a broad-ranging programme that will conserve the site’s key heritage assets for the future, ensure that visitors have good access to the site and information about it, and involve the local community in its conservation and ongoing management. Under the project we will:

• Relocate the Visitor Centre to a central location and combine it with the Guardhouse Café to encourage more people to access information about the heritage.
• Convert another building into a Learning Centre for use as a base for school and other groups.
• Convert the former Visitor Centre to a Training Base for trainees and volunteers.
• Renew interpretation across the site, making it more accessible for all visitors.
• Remove landscape eyesores and modern paraphernalia.
• Extend the opportunities for people to engage with the site through volunteering, training and events.
• Make the site more accessible for people without a car and promote Berry Head more actively to the local community.
• Clear invasive scrub that is choking the rare plants and extend a conservation grazing scheme across the whole site, using a primitive breed of sheep.
• Repair the Forts and associated buildings, mainly by removing invasive vegetation and stabilising loose stonework.
• Install a bridge across the moat into the Southern Fort to demonstrate how it originally functioned.
• Install a traffic management system to prevent unauthorised vehicles accessing the site, which is one of the main causes of erosion and disturbs the tranquillity of the site.

The bulk of the capital works in this programme will be carried out over a one-year period from Spring 2009, whilst the community engagement and events will be ongoing.

For more information about each of the positions, and to apply, click here