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GKC Wild Learners today embarked on a mini adventure with Countryside Ranger Gavin as we investigated the amazing world of mini beasts. Working within the greenspace within the college learners worked hard to find a variety of mini beasts. We looked closely at snails, worms and beetles and some small and large spiders using a range of very cool pieces of equipment kindly supplied by our countryside ranger friends. The adventure begins......

We arrive at our tree planting site where Ian taught us how to plant and protect the young trees we were planting. Even jumping on the spade it was tricky to get it in the ground.

Arriving at our site. First we light the Kelly Kettle for a hot drink. Then we collect out tools for the day and move off to our work site. Today we will be planting trees and looking at the next weeks job Coppicing some hazel tress.

It was a sunny Somerset morning, the Wessex home education group all met at Canwood, an 118 hectare, private rewilding project based near north Brewham in Somerset owned by Ben Goldsmith . We met Simon Nash, an incredible ecologist working for the rewilding of Canwood, we set off following simon as he took us around canwoods beautiful grounds, we first looked at one of the seven newt ponds on Canwood, these ponds or ‘scrapes’ fill naturally and home multiple species of wildlife and also acting as a drinking source for other animals. The newts spend most of their time out of the ponds and roam a few kilometres. Ben goldsmith took on canwood in about 2012 and has promoted natural tree growth, this means letting the land scrub over with brambles and bushes which protect the naturally grown young trees from deer, these trees grow from seeds that have fallen from other trees or are dropped from birds claws these trees are more resilient and stronger . The damage that young trees get that have been planted by people is massively different from the naturally grown trees that are protected by brambles etc the brambles and bushes that protect the naturally grown tress also give a good home for smaller birds such as robins . As we carry on around canwood we can hear the peaceful song of a Robin and Simon tells us about the importance of leaving hedges to grow out, and not to cut them, they are a refuge for a large array of wildlife. The grounds are full of crab apple trees, field maple trees and silver berches and grand old oak trees border the land, on one of these oak trees we found a door mouse box and on another a bee home box . Simon and Ben lead the group on to the winding stream that beavers now inhabit. The beavers have been very busy damming the stream, this stream is the headwater of the river frome, they have dammed the stream in multiple places leaving little trails of bark stripped branches and teeth marks from gnawing on logs, they started this work about four months ago. Pencil shaped tree trunks are left from where the beavers have taken down the top part of the tree, these trees can be quite chunky and wide and it was incredible to see how they have done it. There are about five active pairs in this area and a pair at canwood, they are about 80-90 cm, these beavers are very territorial and control about 1-2 kilometres. We then found the beavers ‘lodge’ which was located on a small island in the middle of a large natural pond, there is a chance there will be kits in spring April/may, the lodge is fairly new and carefully built Many other animals have been introduced into canwood such as deer, Scottish wildcats, wild boar, Tamworth pigs, chickens and longhorn cattle. The group werelead to the Scottish wildcats and shown where they live, at the moment canwood have two male wildcats and are hoping to bring in two new females for the possible chance of young which is very exciting! The wildcats range over several kilometres and are also very territorial. Ben and Simon are hoping to let their longhorn cattle roam over the land and in future have a heard of wild exmoor ponies.

On January 22nd - we learnt how diffrent trees, leaves, wildlife and plants cope in the winter and start preparing for spring. How some leaves have a wax like coating on them - so they dont die - evergreen is a perfect example. We also learnt how some inscets keep warm in winter, like ladybugs - they all huddle up in a crevice of a tree. Why some plants stick or spike on you - it is the spread its seeds.

On January the 22st - we focused on learning on how nature prepares for spring and how it copes in winter. We also talked about how some animals migrate to diffrent countries depending on the time of year it is. We saw a few plants that had already started budding which was really crazy!

This week we where putting up posters in the wood saying, please put your litter in the bin. The last few weeks we were making them and putting vibrant pictures on them, it was really fun! Hopefully there won't be as much litter as there was in the woods now! It has been very windy and we hope they don't blow down!

during my branching out we learned how to safely make a fire and how to safely put them out and how to make sure we leave no evidence of a fire so we conserve the area we used. We done that because if other people had seen there was a fire they may start their own and they may not be as skilled in keeping the fire contained and will cause more damage to the surrounding area