The interviews for the trainee ranger programme were held in March; 73 applied and four people were successfully selected for the year long training programme. The Stone Mason contract was also awarded, and local stone mason David Carlisle will be starting the repair work to the Scheduled Ancient Monuments on Berry Head in April. The trainees will be assisting with this work under close supervision; this will be a really unique opportunity to learn the art of lime mortar work.
Beehive Construction have been edging the car park with wooden sleepers. This is so the car park is secure when the bollard is installed at the end of March, this is to restrict vehicle access to the site.
The volunteers have been finishing the last of the scrub cutting on Berry Head; the nesting season is now starting so there will be no more blackthorn clearance until October. They have also been cutting the dead stems of Japanese Knotweed at Sharkham Point, so that the fresh re-growth can be sprayed later in April. This invasive plant grows rigorously and nothing can grow underneath it so we want to try to get rid of it from the site.
Back on Berry Head – speed bumps are going to be put in on the road from the car park down to Shoalstone Pillars. This is a narrow lane, we have had ongoing problems with cars racing through it – particularly at night, causing disturbance to local residents. This will be happening on the 18th march so the road will be closed for one day.
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The view from Berry Head National Nature Reserve.
This site gives regular updates from the Rangers at Berry Head on wildlife sightings, events, projects, ways to get involved and anything else that comes to mind.
Berry Head is a limestone peninsula rising 200’ (65m) from the sea, forming the southern arm of Tor Bay in South Devon. It is a 100-acre National Nature Reserve, holding nationally rare plant and animal species and is also a Country Park that forms the main recreational area for the nearby town and port of Brixham (population 16,000).
The site holds two well-preserved Napoleonic War-era Forts and important Second-World War heritage and lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and on the South West Coast Path.
The rare plants that grow on its thin, dessicated limestone soils form a community that is not found anywhere else in the UK. A colony of Greater Horseshoe bats lives in caves in the limestone, a species that is protected by international statute because of its rarity and the steep decline in its numbers across the UK.
The colony of Guillemots breeding on the cliffs is the largest on the Channel coast and the most southerly in the UK. At the same time the Head is hugely popular with walkers, day-trippers, fishermen, rock-climbers, naturalists, historians and picnickers, making it one of Torbay’s top ten most visited attractions.
To find out more visit www.countryside-trust.org.uk
Berry Head is a limestone peninsula rising 200’ (65m) from the sea, forming the southern arm of Tor Bay in South Devon. It is a 100-acre National Nature Reserve, holding nationally rare plant and animal species and is also a Country Park that forms the main recreational area for the nearby town and port of Brixham (population 16,000).
The site holds two well-preserved Napoleonic War-era Forts and important Second-World War heritage and lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and on the South West Coast Path.
The rare plants that grow on its thin, dessicated limestone soils form a community that is not found anywhere else in the UK. A colony of Greater Horseshoe bats lives in caves in the limestone, a species that is protected by international statute because of its rarity and the steep decline in its numbers across the UK.
The colony of Guillemots breeding on the cliffs is the largest on the Channel coast and the most southerly in the UK. At the same time the Head is hugely popular with walkers, day-trippers, fishermen, rock-climbers, naturalists, historians and picnickers, making it one of Torbay’s top ten most visited attractions.
To find out more visit www.countryside-trust.org.uk