Camel

The Camel branch committee has thankfully remained steady for many years but we have just lost the services of Simon Ford who has moved to Wiltshire to work. Simon was the National Trust Conservation Manager in this region/ and as such, brought a wealth of experience to our branch. He served the Wildlife Trust on many other committees and was/ with Trevor Renals, instrumental in forming the Knotweed Forum. We wish Simon well in his new job in Wessex region.

Every cloud has a silver lining and ours came in the form of local Botanist lan Bennallick who now works at Allet and has kindly agreed to join our committee. We look forward to working with him.

We had a well attended field trip at St Kew, at the home of Trevor and Hazel Renals where we looked for mammal signs and tracks. We spotted signs of badger, otter and roe deer along with many other flora and fauna sightings.

We have been monitoring the Sladesbridge Flood Alleviation

Scheme which is progressing apace and they do seem to be succeeding in keeping disturbance to the environment to a minimum and blending their work into the surrounding area well.

At our June committee meeting we met at Pentire near Polzeath and had some excellent views of a family of three peregrine falcons on the rocky headland. We also counted twelve razorbills in the sea and on Mouls Island.

Adrian Langdon

Launceston

We are still without a chairman. Most of our effort is being directed to extending coverage of the Launceston Parish-Wildlife Project/ to build up a picture of the wildlife and habitat in each of the parishes in our area. We now have over 80 volunteers keeping a wildlife diary

in five of our 20 parishes. Altarnun is the latest to participate. More parishes will be included once we have learned how to manage these large groups efficiently, to collect/ store and analyse the information and report back to the parishes. If anyone is interested in joining this project then contact

brian@parish-wildlife.org.uk or telephone (01566) 774902. The website www.parish-wildlife.org.uk is growing/ providing more information on wildlife and habitat in our local parishes.

Brian Stringer

Restormel

We had a lovely walk at Lerryn on 5th April. Our good size party with four children started off over the stepping stones. With the help of Bernard Boothby a male pintail duck purple sandpiper and an egret were seen. We also saw signs of roe deer pointed out by Dell. Although too early for the carpets of ramsons and yellow iris usually here/ the celandines/ primroses/ violets and wood anemones put on a good show.

Joyce Gregory

A surprisingly large and optimistic group turned out for our Colan Bluebell meeting in May. Undaunted by the rain the group/ with our leader Dave Thomas squelched its way around Fir Hill Wood to find a good show of bluebells and many other spring flowers. We were also intrigued by the triumph of vegetation over the ruins of the old Manor House and

the remains of the St Columb to Newquay canal. Many of the party said they would return in better weather to take in this beautiful wood.

Dell Netherton

The sun shone at last for our wilderness walk across the Helman Tor reserves and the mad dogs and Englishmen were out in it! A great crowd turned up; maybe some of them were meant to be with the camera group? Apologies to David and Adrian for those that swapped allegiance and for those that were walking in circles and kept bumping into them, I mention no names. Many thanks to Dave Conway for his help and for the interesting talk on the Geology of Breney and Helman Tor.

Kirstie Roots

Death of John Tucker

John Frederick Tucker was an active member of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust giving/ with his wife Cathy, time and expertise helping out on our reserves and with wildlife issues. John and Cathy's knowledge of wildlife/ talks and slideshows will be greatly missed. We offer our condolences to Cathy and family.

Dave Kittow

Peregrine falcon. Photo: Adrian Langdon