A new use for peat ......

As a family we went on our summer holidays to Dingle in the west of Ireland - fantastic (Cornish coast with mountains).

The accompanying photo was taken outside the main supermarket in Dingle - it shows a display of BBQ 'charcoal' and briquettes made from peat and supplied by a public limited company Bord na Mona.

Bord na Mona used to run a power station in Ireland fuelled by burning peat but this has now been closed because of it environmental impact - habitats and CO2 emissions.

Very surprising / shocking therefore to find peat being sold for BBQs and an open fire fuel. We are spending huge amounts of effort within the Trust trying to conserve our peatlands so that they act as carbon sinks in the fight against climate change. See here for example. Ho hum

Early Harvest

This winters programme of woodland work has got off to a flying the contractor starts work for about 5 weeks tomorrow in Rectory wood on the Castle Drogo Estate.

Normally we like to start work a bit later in the year however the threat of Phytophthora more commonly known as 'sudden oak death' has forced our hand.

This disease, follow link for full information http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pramorum, is moving rapidly across the country and is finding a
sporulating host in larch. This means it not only kills the larch but reproduces releasing millions of spores into the air. Other trees once infected by the spores just die. The problem is once larch is infected it is subject to strict control by the Forestry commission. Infected larch will have a felling order put on it and the resulting timber is subject to all sorts of licences governing its movement and use. This results in a significant loss of value

To prevent our larch getting infected and subsequently infecting the surrounding trees and to prevent a significant loss in income we have decided to advance our felling plans and fell all the larch.

This will mean our replanting programme will speed up and that our wood chip boiler will be kept supplied.

After a dry summer we hope there will be less disturbance and mud in the woods and on the tracks. One or two of the footpaths will need to be shut for short periods for your safety while trees are felled close to them.

If you are walking in the woods please take care, keep pets under close control and take notice of the signage it is there to keep you safe.

I would like to apologise if your enjoyment of our woods is spoiled by the work.

Drogo Bee Bizziness

My last news was on the arrival of our bee hives at Castle Drogo. The bees were in big hives called Dadnant’s when they arrived from Buckfast Abbey. The equipment for these is hard to get and the size of the equipment makes it very difficult to handle. So one of the tasks we set ourselves was to move the bees into National hives. This is probably the most common type of hive and all the related equipment is readily available and easy to handle even for beginners.

After leaving the bees for a week to get used to their new surroundings, orientate themselves and find new nectaring sites we opened the hives and checked to see if all was in order.

We found plenty of bees, lots of stored honey, lots of sealed brood, grubs and eggs. This all means that the bees are working well bringing in honey and that the queen has been busy producing lots of new bees. It is quite significant that there are eggs seen as this means we know the queen is there or has been in the last 3 days (the eggs take three days to hatch into a grub) even if we do not see the queen herself.

We also got a good feel for the temperament of the bees.

Hive 1 had rather fussy, smaller black bees that did a lot of buzzing and flying about but did not really try to attack us, this hive had stored loads of honey in the brood box with not much brood and little honey in the super, we named the queen Ambrosia.

Hive 2 had very quiet, calm, larger more yellow bees who hardly took any notice of us at all, there was lots of brood in the brood box and lots of honey in the honey super we named this queen Golden.

The nature of the bees in the hive is controlled by the queen. A very nasty, aggressive hive of bees can be transformed in a few weeks to a calm, cuddly hive by getting rid of the nasty queen and replacing her with a calm one. It is really amazing how the character and behaviour of different hives can vary.

To get Ambrosia and Golden into National hives we put National brood boxes with lovely new wax foundation, to build new cells on, on top of the Dadnant brood boxes so the queens could move up into the new box.

We checked them a week later and they had started filing the National with honey. Next plan find the queens and put them into the National and keep them out of the Dadnant with a queen excluder.

We checked a week later and could find no eggs, bit of a panic, had we lost the queens? So we removed the queen excluders.

We checked a week later and there were eggs in the Dadnant. Clearly the queens had not wanted to be on the nice new comb so had stopped laying until allowed back into their comfy old Dadnant.

Bees do have a habit of only doing what they want to do. As the year is rapidly moving into autumn we decided to leave Ambrosia and Golden where they are till the spring and then try and move them.

The next job is to take off the honey harvest at the end of august.

Cornwood Show, Ivybridge

Well, the weather might have been fog and drizzle but the spirits were high. The South Dartmoor NT team from Plymbridge, Pete and Steph and Sarah from the Lydford Gorge shop combined with Jeff the NT recruiter to put on a valiant display at this lovely rural show on Saturday.

The tent offered kids drawing and colouring and making hazel whistles in front of a display of all that the plym Valley can offer visitors from stone circles to charcoal, cycling to peregrines, wildlife to woodlands and a whole lot more.

For more information see http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/

Rural Crafts and Skills Day - Finch Foundry

Saturday 21 August, 11am-4pm: Free live demonstrations of many traditional West-country crafts and the opportunity to buy hand-made items. Normal admission charges apply. Further information on 01837 840046 or finchfoundry@nationaltrust.org.uk.

New barn at Parke going up

The new barn at Parke in Bovey Tracey is going up quickly. The barn will be occupied by the Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust and used as their HQ from mid September. Will be great to see Dartmoor ponies grazing away at Parke. Updates will follow.

Under the Big Blue Sky

I thought I'd be really clever, be up with the lark (well 6am on Saturday morning is quite good for most people), get to my PC and put an entry on the DartmoorNT blog about what happened last night.

Under the Big Blue Sky guys arrived at Dewerstone for a couple of evenings wild camping and NT Rangers Pete, Rion and Gus went down to help them set up. Superb fine weather made everything especially great.

Tents were set up, a fire was lit and all was meticulously recorded on video by everyone concerned.

By the time darkness fell we had all eaten an excellent supper and as it was past my bedtime, I left them to their own devices and located a shower and comfy bed at home.

Imagine my disgust then when I thought I'd be ahead of the game first thing today and get something on the web first, only to discover that Tweets , Blogs, goodness knows what else social media had been flying round the ether for the previous 6 hours! They had all been up to the Dewerstone at one am and told the world (well those who were listening) what they were up to.

Well, that is the purpose of Under the Big Blue Sky - to help young people see what fantastic outdoor places National Trust have and all the amazing things they can do with National Trust.

Begrudgingly, I have to admit that all this Tweet stuff is pretty impressive!

Hope they all enjoy abseiling off the Dewerstone, geocaching, wild food foraging and skinning & cooking rabbits today - just a few of the things Pete's got up his sleeve for them.

Woodland Explorer Day - Parke

Wednesday 18 August, 11am-4pm: Go wild in the woods - build dens, follow the nature trail, light a fire, toast marshmallows and make popcorn, plus other kids woodland activities. Child £3 (children must be accompanied by an adult). Meet at National Trust office below the walled garden. Wear suitable footwear and bring a picnic if you want. Booking advisable (weekdays only) on 01626 834748 or dartmoor@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Moth Night - Plymbridge Woods

Thursday 19 August, 8.30-10.30pm: Join the ranger in the Plym Valley catching and identifying moths. Adult £4, child £2 (children must be accompanied by an adult). Meet at Plym Bridge grid ref SX 524 585. Booking essential (weekdays only) on 01752 341377 or dartmoor@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Perseid meteor shower - watch it at Castle Drogo in the Teign Valley

Thursday night should be a great night for watching the Perseid meteor shower.

Click here for more info on the Perseids

Click here for the Castle Drogo / Teign Valley star guide

Click here for the NT star map

Family Mini Beast Day - Finch Foundry, nr Okehampton

Saturday 14 August, 11am-2pm: Walk around the foundry garden looking for mini-beasts and bugs. Hunts start at 11am, 12 noon and 1pm. £2 per child (suitable for ages 4-12). Please bring a sweep net or bug viewer if you have one. Normal admission charges apply. Booking essential on 01837 840046 or finchfoundry@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Living in Plymbridge Woods - nr Plymouth

Thursday 12 August, 1.30-3.30pm: A guided walk looking at life in the valley from the late nineteenth to mid twentieth century, using photographs and personal recollections. Adult £4, child £2 (children must be accompanied by an adult). Meet at Plym Bridge grid ref SX 524 585. Booking essential (weekdays only) on 01752 341377 or dartmoor@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Pond Dipping - Parke, nr Bovey Tracey

Wednesday 11 August, 2-4pm: Discover the life in the leat with the aid of nets and microscopes. Child £2 (children must be accompanied by adults). Meet in the main car park, grid ref SX 805 786. Booking essential (weekdays only) on 01626 834748 or dartmoor@nationaltrust.org.uk

Turf sofa comes to Castle Drogo

In recent months the Trust has produced a number of 'turf sofas', to be displayed at various properties over the summer period. Each of these sofas contains over 14 bales of hay and 20 metres of turf, all sewn together using 500 'stitches'.

The idea came from a remark made by one of the National Trust's founders, Octavia Hill, who, famously, said that she wanted the nation to treat the outdoors as their very own ‘outdoor living rooms’.

We were, therefore, delighted to take delivery of one of these sofas, last week, that had previously been on display at Wembury Point. After its journey this sofa was a bit dry and in need of some TLC but, already, there are signs of improvement and fresh grass is sprouting.

We do hope that you can find time, over the coming weeks, to come and try our sofa out for size - it certainly beats sitting in front of the telly!

Bountiful beautiful butterflies

This is one of the best times of year to see a really good range of butterfly species on the Teign Gorge around Castle Drogo. Have a look around the garden to see butterflies nectaring or walk along the paths around Piddledown common and Sharpe Tor.

On my regular monitoring walk yesterday I saw 13 different species of butterfly. Ranging from the common Peacock and Red Admiral to the less common small Skipper and Grayling.

The Grayling have been doing well over the past few years. They have benefited from our gorse burning work which provides areas of bare ground in the full sun which they love to sit and bask. This is a strong fast flier so is best crept up on to watch as it sun bathes characteristically leaning over to show the side of its shut wings to the sun. Unlike most butterflies who open both wings to bask. Be quick though it is really well camouflaged so easy to miss unless you mark where it landed carefully.

Unusually 2 of the most common species seen at this time of the year the pretty little Gatekeeper (shown right) and the Meadow brown are only about in very small numbers so far. Possible victims of the very cold winter and the snow?

Other species of note are the wonderful Silver Washed Fritillary, (see blog from last year), the Green Hair Streak, a 2cm flash of metallic green, and the Small Skipper often seen darting up from grass stalks on the paths, easily mistaken for a moth as it often sits with its wings folded flat.

Happy spotting.