Devon

All second year students taking pathways in animal and environmental biology participate in a one-week residential field course held over the Easter vacation in North Devon.

The field course forms an integral major theme in the module Practical Biology. The emphasis is on direct fieldwork experience with the aim of developing an understanding of factors which control the behaviour, distribution and abundance of organisms. You will carry out fieldwork investigations, learn identification skills and complete a fieldwork project.

Our base at Watermouth, near Ilfracombe, provides access to a wide range of habitats and organisms. For example surrounded by parkland and broad-leaf woodland we are in easy reach of rocky shore, sand dune, salt marsh and estuary habitats in addition to high altitude oak woodland, moor, and coastal valley. These habitats are home to fascinating British wildlife, and provide opportunities to observe the behaviour of various birds of prey, including buzzards, peregrine falcons, tawny owls and the occasional red kite, breeding fulmars, badgers, and red deer.

Fieldwork investigations include classic studies into the distribution and abundance of intertidal organisms of the rocky shores, sandy beaches and freshwater streams of North Devon, the ground flora of an oak woodland, distribution of rabbit warrens in sand dunes, habitat preferences of songbirds in woodland and parkland, factors affecting vigilance in feral goats and the social behaviour of Exmoor ponies. You will choose exercises from the range offered based on your pathway and individual interests. In addition you will complete a two-day project on the topic of your own choosing. Individual projects can be completed on mammals, birds, invertebrates or plants in the locality.

The accommodation and travel costs of the field trip are subsidised by the department. The cost of the 2010 field course was £30.

For further information, please contact Dr Andrew Smith
Email: andrew.smith@anglia.ac.uk