The ‘Butcher Bird’ or Red Backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) is normally classified as a ‘rare passage migrant’ on Dartmoor and according to the RSPB is listed in the red category, this means the species has the highest conservation priority thus needing urgent action. I must confess that I have never …

Personally speaking, the thing I hate most about modern Dartmoor is the encroachment of bracken, it is getting a serious problem for many people. Walkers hate it as on hot summer days the last thing you want to have to do is wade through shoulder high bracken and then spend …

One of the key habitats of Dartmoor is the Blanket Bog and living in the plant communities of these areas is the Bog Asphodel. The plant is classified as a ‘Key Indicator Species’ for Blanket Bogs, this basically means it; “is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on …

Having just watched the Dartmoor programme of Ray Mears’ ‘Wilderness Walks’ where he went in search of the rare Blue Ground Beetle (Carabus intricatus) I thought as it’s a ‘legend’ it had better have it’s own page. Why is it a Dartmoor ‘legend’? Primarily because it is Britain’s largest native …

It is not very often that a new aspect of Dartmoor appears but in the case of blueberries that is exactly what has happened. Farmers and landowners are constantly being told that diversification is the only means of survival in the shrinking agricultural industry and in Lustleigh somebody has successfully …

“The Bluebell is the sweetest flower That waves in summer air: Its blossoms have the mightiest power To soothe my spirit’s care.” Emily Bronte In 2002 the English Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) was voted Britain’s most popular flower and so was adopted as the national flower of Britain. As with most …

“When winter comes in earnest to fulfil His yearly task at bleak Novembers close, And stops the plough and hides the fields in snows; When frost locks up the streams in chill delay And mellows on the hedge the purple sloes …“. John Clare – The Shepherd’s Calendar – 1827 …

To this day I can still remember when, as a boy, Granfer would produce the dreaded ‘yeller pail’ and I was told, “go fill ‘un bwoy.” There wasn’t much I hated doing but filling that sodding ‘yeller pail’ used to ‘hack I orf’ no end because it meant one of …

“Oh, yet, ye solemn Altars! while I feel The shadowy spells of power that round ye dwell.” J. E. Reade -1843 “On the left within a farm enclosure is Bel Tor, which although only a small pile, is sufficiently interesting to call for notice. A gate in the wall will …

On the 8th of September 2014 it was revealed that the pelt found in the Whitehorse Hill kist was that of a Brown Bear (Ursus arctos). The three year interval between finding the grave and identifying the pelt has been due to the fact that normal DNA testing has been …