May is a month already bustling with weird and wonderful traditional customs celebrating Spring, so was there room in the calendar for a new one? Andy Bailey from Dartmoor’s Moor than meets the eye scheme believes so. On Sunday 19th at 11am, a small crowd started to gather at the entrance to Yarner Wood to mark the start of the Spring Woodland Festival. Andy was joined by a giant flying pied flycatcher, a band of merry musicians and colourful flockRead more
TIMBER!
On Saturday 23 March at the Moor than Meets the Eye event, ‘TIMBER! Trees, Tools and Tall Tales’, we felled two conifer trees. But why are woodland conservation charities chopping down healthy trees? TIMBER! was all about telling that story. When you walk into Pullabrook Woods, it’s worth looking at the two sides of the valley, on the left are closely planted conifers, with a dark understory of bramble and bracken. On the far slope, across the burbling stream isRead more
Transforming the Reservoir – Work Completed!
Starting work in December, a small team have been busy installing floating rafts, planting willow and felling trees around the reservoir in Yarner Wood. The reservoir has been transformed from the straight edged concrete pool that was once uninviting to people and wildlife. This is an overview of the management work that has taken place in this watery corner of the National Nature Reserve. American signal crayfish surveys – good news!As mentioned in the previous blog, the focus in autumnRead more
Yarnia comes to Yarner
Over 80 people braved the rain one wet Saturday before Christmas (8th December) to take part in the Yarner Wood Christmas Pantomime Walk, to discover that there really is “more than meets the eye” to Dartmoor’s woodlands, even in the winter. They were treated to performances from colourful pantomime characters, who all looked strangely familiar, as they entered the world of Yarnia through an old upcycled wardrobe. Once in the land of Yarnia everyone had to work together collecting natural treasure to defeatRead more
Pearls of Wisdom
Thursday was definitely not ideal butterfly weather- cold and wet –which was a shame after such a beautiful start to May. But a brave bunch of us gathered in the beautiful location of Yarner Woods at the Woodland Centre to meet Megan Lowe from Butterfly Conservation and to learn more about the ecology and field identification of two of our early rare moorland butterflies the pearl bordered and small pearl bordered fritillary Over the sometimes torrential rain which threatened toRead more
Up with the birds
Fresh off the back of the Woodland festival lectures was a chance for people to get out and visit the National Nature Reserve and see some of the wildlife we’d been talking about the day before. Billed as a Beginners guide to the Dawn chorus this was definitely a more gentle way to ease us into the joys of early morning birdsong with a relatively leisurely 7am start. We were greeted by gentle sunshine easing through the trees and creatingRead more
East Dartmoor Woods blog 