Countryside Students turn up the heat....

Countryside Management students Angus, Jo, Sam and Elly try the team approach to making fire by friction. As part of an enrichment activity linked to their course students have learned how to make fire by friction using the bow drill method. They spent the morning selecting appropriate material such as elder and willow to make the drill and hearth of their fire kits and then whittled a bow from green wood before putting everything together to try and make fire.

 

 

Countryside Students Stock Fence....

Countryside Students continued to help out on the college estate. This week saw students putting in gates and constructing stock proof fencing to keep the colleges 1000 North Country Mules out of the neighbouring estates.

Greg, Dan and Ryan can be seen driving the posts in and then checking they are straight with a spirit level. There are plenty of opportunities for the countryside students to gain real landbased practical experience on the colleges 450 hectares.

 

Pleasant Pheasant Egg Hunt...

Countryside Management students recently successfully completed a project rearing Japanese Quail but keen for more experience they have now started to prepare a batch of Pheasant eggs for the incubator.

In January the students caught wild pheasants on the college estate just as keepers all around the country would have been doing in preparation for rearing the next season’s pheasants. These pheasants were then housed in pens built by the students and fed a high protein diet to ensure they produce good quality fertile eggs. The birds have been laying since the beginning of April and about 80 eggs have been collected over the last ten days. These eggs have been washed and sterilised and are now in the incubator and will hatch in 24 days’ time. You can see Greg and Dan carefully putting the precious eggs through this process in the pictures below.

 

 

 

Practical Work at Bush Walk Woods SSSI Proves a Success for Wildlife

From an agreement with the Ginpat Charitable Trust and Natural England (NE), Higher and Further Countryside Management students have been undertaking practical and survey work at Bush Walk Woods SSSI - an 8 acre section of a much larger ancient woodland.

Designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest by virtue of the unusual woodland plants found at the site, staff agreed a management plan with the owners and NE which is methodically being implemented. With spring now finally here, the woodland thinning and ride clearance work has resulted in a profusion of common spotted orchids (pictured) and regrowth of the hazel understorey. Indeed, selective thinning rather than sporadic coppicing is the key to reducing the main ecological limiting factor at this site - lack of light.

Dormouse nest boxes have also been set out in the wood in the hope of finding some of these rare woodland critters - check back to the blog to see if any found when the boxes are checked in June!

Countyside Students Continue to Build Bridges!!

This week the second group of countryside students took on the bridge building task. Again the group took to the challenge with energy and enthusiasm expected of those planning practical careers in the great outdoors. Angus took on the role as team leader doing a fine job organising the rest of the team and ensuring everyone knew what they were doing. Elly and Joe didn’t stop despite the onset of blisters while Phil and Sam made rapid progress in dismantling the handrails.

Countryside Students Tractor Driving Skills Continue to Improve....

The countryside Students have been back out in the tractors this week. The group practised their driving with trailers attached and demonstrated how to tip rubble safely. Abbey and Brady can be seen chugging across the yard with Brady providing expert advice to an already very compitent Abbey!

 

Deer Management at Bush Walk Woods

Extended Diploma Countryside Management students have recently prepared deer management plans for a local woodland. They have carried out regular surveys of the wood including the use of ‘trail cam’s’ (remote cameras which can be positioned in the woods and will record movement of wildlife) to determine which deer species are present and their approximate numbers.

 

 

 

They have found that there is a healthy population of Reeves Muntjac present in the woods and have recently submitted plans which would ensure that the deer population does not negatively impact on the sensitive ground flora and planned coppice work in the woodland.