The third and final walk as part of the Wild About Calstock project took place at Cotehele last month on the chosen theme of ‘Hidden Wildlife’.

The walk saw children from Calstock and Stoke Climsland primary schools joined by members of Sensory Trust’s dementia-friendly Walk and Laugh Group.

The artist, Ellie Robinson-Carter invited everyone to document the walk with a shared single-use camera to create the images for the third Photobook in the Wild About Calstock series. The participants thoroughly enjoyed the nature-based activities arranged by Bryony James from the Tamara Landscape Partnership. The first activity was a woodlands walk looking for signs of wildlife using tracking and identification charts.

Having explored the woodlands, the attention then turned to the recently established intertidal habitat at Cotehele. There was much debate about whether the unfamiliar birds that could be seen on the mud flats were ducks or waders!

Rob Price from the Environment Agency then engaged the participants in an informative discussion about climate change and the national significance of the River Tamar as one of Britain’s great rivers.

The walk ended on the Quay where Rob took a water sample from the river and there was great anticipation to see what creatures were in the pot! These included a leech, a worm and a snail - creatures that can survive in water that is of average river health.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the walk and their responses capture the mood of the intergenerational group walks:

“It was really, really fun, because I got to go outside and have fun with my friends. “The older people were very nice, they told me about where we were, and we took a picture together.

“I learnt about how the gap in the bank is there to help stop floods, and also about the wetlands in Cornwall.”

The photobooks will be displayed in an exhibition and book launch at Calstock Arts on March 20.