South Brent and Ivybridge Local Group

Local Group Activities

• Monthly walks and one autumnal indoor presentation.
• Fundraising activities include Street Collections (for which volunteers are always welcome) and table-top sales.
• Voluntary work in Lady’s Wood where we monitor dormouse and bird boxes.
  
• DWT Nature Reserves in our area include Lady’s Wood, Andrews Wood and Wembury Marine Reserve.
• For more details about upcoming events visit the events webpage We do not organise events specifically for children but they are welcome to attend our events free of charge.

Contacts

• John Hodgson  01364 642007
• Eileen Blockly  01364 72320
• Margery Evans 01752 892984
  

Anybody wishing to join the committee will be most welcome. The informal monthly committee meetings are held at a member’s house. The highlight of our meeting is our exchange of nature notes! One of the advantages of being on the committee is that we spontaneously arrange outings for committee members – for example to the Somerset Levels and the Isles of Scilly.

Latest News - help needed with street collections

Bats, snowdrops, wild daffodils and farm conservation – these are just some of the lovely events this group organises each year.  But did you know that this volunteer group are also fabulous fundraisers? Each year, they raise more than £1,000 for DWT. Help them raise more money and hold a tin for an hour or two in a street near you.

DWT would love to hear from anyone who would like to help this Local Group collect money.  The group is organising street collections in South Brent, Kingsbridge, Ivybridge and Totnes over the coming months.  If you would like to get involved visit the Volunteer Opportunities webpage for more details.

Some of our favourite wildlife places

• Prawle Point - Parking in East Prawle village or at coastal NT car park. Café and pub. Many footpaths but some steep. Good place for migrants. Best place for cirl bunting. Also raptors, stonechat, occasional Dartford warblers.

• Other good coastal sites - Start Point, Bolt Head, Soar Mill Cove and Bolberry Down, Revelstoke Drive at Noss Mayo, Aylmer Cove and Westcombe Beach, Slapton Ley and Beesands.

• Buckfastleigh - Colonies of greater horseshoe bats. Watch them on summer evenings emerging to feed, but so as to avoid disturbance, watch from the church car park and not on the footpath.

• Wembury Voluntary Marine Reserve - National Trust pay car park and DWT information centre. Flowers, butterflies, raptors and seabirds. Another good spot for cirl bunting.

• Hembury Woods, Buckfast - National Trust free car park. Wild daffodils in March. Goosanders.

• River walk at Yealmpton with snowdrops in February.

• Lady’s Wood (DWT), South Brent for bluebells and dormice.

• Plymbridge / Cann / Shaugh woods (NT). Peregrine watch, nightjars and wood warblers. Many footpaths.
  

Rivers and Estuaries. Spoilt for choice! Here are a few of our favourites:

• Kingsbridge Estuary. West Charlton marshes. Hide overlooking reeds and estuary. Good for waders, Brent geese, red-breasted merganser. Often kingfisher.
  

• Snapes Point overlooking Salcombe estuary. Circular walk. Another good spot for cirl buntings.
  

• In Ivybridge and Ermington there are good views of dippers, grey wagtails, goosander and sometimes otters.
  

• River Avon. Walks in South Brent. Walk from old station at Loddiswell along the old railway track.
  

• Saltram. NT estate by the River Plym. Walks through woodland, farmland and above the estuary.
  

We have hardly touched on Dartmoor here – there are too many places to mention. Perhaps a few exceptions being:

• New Bridge leading to the Dart Valley DWT moorland reserve.
  

• Burrator - Plenty of walks, with historical interest too.

• Cadover Bridge - Plenty of birds including sand martin.
  

• The Avon Dam.
  

• Bench Tor
  
  This is a brief and selective list of some of our favourite spots for nature watching in this area.