Ragwort is extraordinarily successful; all the “injurious weeds” named in the 1959 Weed Act are.
Continue reading “Ragwort”Ragwort
Bullfinch
Bullfinches are regular visitors to the park. Despite the male’s glorious colouring, they are quiet, retiring types, rarely seen; DKG took this picture early on Saturday morning when the park was pretty much empty of visitors.
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Song thrush
A song thrush, busy feeding a nestful of babies somewhere in the park.
Read on for conservation status and a recording of its songThe Park’s Veteran Oaks
By Ian Bushell
Southwick Country Park has a number of veteran oaks and ten ancient oaks. There are no hard and fast rules about when and why an oak tree becomes classified as veteran or ancient; in different environments and soils oaks grow at different rates and girth is only an indicator. Here the underlying Oxford clay provides an excellent medium and the trees are large and shapely.
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A robin (Erithacus rubecula), by DKG, among new hawthorn leaves.
A message from a park user:
” Hi, I was walking back Friday evening when I saw the teenagers that were doing it. There was a group of mixed aged teenagers 2 boys were destroying the one side and another 2 trying to jump on the south side. They had a cable tied to the panels and tried pulling them off with their push bike. They stopped when I started to approach them. I rang 101 and the police came straight out and went to inspect. The police saw them and they ran off. I gave a statement that night but unfortunately no body was caught.”
Thanks; our community police will probably know who they are. Lets hope we can put a stop to this.
The vandals are back
It must be summer, the vandals are back.
Continue reading “The vandals are back”2016’s blue tit nest
While our female blue tit incubates her eggs and the male visits to feed her, here is a look back to 2016 when DKG staked out another nest in a different oak tree.
All the pictures are by DKG
Below is the full story of this year’s nest:
WHSAP hearings finished
Tuesday 16th April was the date of the final session of public hearings on the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan Examination; it was held at the Civic Centre in Trowbridge.
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The blue tits have been seen at their nest. There was a message from DKG yesterday afternoon:
Continue readingSCP – PROJECTS PROGRAMME
UPDATE – JANUARY 2019 by Ian Bushell
Background. The following programme of actions was taken as an outcome of the review of the park on 27th January 2013 by the Wiltshire Countryside Team and Friends of Southwick Country Park .
This is an update of works carried out during 2018, a review of the park in general, and suggestions for possible future progress in 2019.
Good News from the Park
by Sarah Marsh
The Friends met up one Saturday morning in March to join in the annual Great British Spring Clean. This is the third year we have done a thorough litter pick whilst the vegetation is at its lowest, and we can get into areas not accessible in the summer months.
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holly blue, large white and orange tip
Butterfly count
Ian Bushell walking round the park with our Countryside Officer, Ali Rasey, spotted a large white, a male brimstone, two male orange tips, a speckled wood, a small tortoiseshell and a holly blue. That is four more species for our spotter’s list
small tortoiseshell. speckled wood, brimstone
What has happened to the blue tits?
Either we have misread the blue tits’ timetable or the nest has been abandoned. During his last two visits to the nest site, DKG has not seen the birds at all.
Continue reading “What has happened to the blue tits?”
