The Park is Good for our Health
by David Feather
Did you know that this week is Mental Health Awareness Week? I didn’t until recently. You might well ask how it connects with the Park?
Continue reading
Jay
A jay has been seen on several early-morning occasions, hopping about just inside the reserve’s main entrance.
Continue reading “Jay”
Pesticides and soil biodiversity
A meta-analysis of nearly 400 research studies has shown that pesticides are damaging the soil’s vitally important ecosystems. Researchers have warned that we must be more careful about considering the organisms that live in the soil when we assess the environmental impact of pesticides. A UN report published in December 2020 found that, without urgent action to halt degradation, the future of our soils looks bleak: it takes thousands of years for new soils to form.
Continue readingWild garlic
The wild garlic is just coming into flower.
White letter hairstreak
An adult white-letter hairstreak was identified in the reserve in 2017 by an expert observer. This is a real rarity, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species, a feather in our caps and the impetus behind our drive to plant disease resistant elms.
Continue reading “White letter hairstreak”It’s Hedgehog Awareness Week
During this year’s Hedgehog Awareness Week, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society is asking people to turn their gardens into safe havens for hedgehogs. Our gardens are a stronghold for hedgehogs, perhaps the key to their survival as a species, and we can make their lives so much easier with just a little effort.
Wildlife watching requires patience
by Simon Knight
One of the special features about the park – or any wild place – is that if you go there at the correct time and have the patience to stay still, be quiet and just really look and listen, you will find that there is life all around you.
Continue readingRed dead nettle
This is a red dead nettle (Lamium purpureum), the commonest of weeds. It flowers for most of the year in untidy vegetable plots, roadside verges and, in this case, nature reserve car parks. Nobody gives it a second glance but its flowers, hidden among its topmost purple leaves, are extraordinarily beautiful.
Broad bodied chasers
Dragonflies were among the first winged insects to evolve, around 300 million years ago, long before there were dinosaurs. Back then oxygen levels in our atmosphere were much higher than they are now, and dragonflies evolved into giants with wingspans like eagles. Now, the emperor dragonfly, the largest of Britain’s 36 dragonfly species, has a wingspan of a mere 11cm.
Continue reading
Bird table ID
The header picture is a male chaffinch (CC0).
The brown rat
The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is an incredibly adaptable animal; it can be found almost anywhere in the UK, including our nature reserve. All it needs is shelter and food.
Continue reading “The brown rat”Slow worm
In the spring of 2013, some 500 slow worms were translocated from a development site in Holbrook Lane, Trowbridge, to three sites in Southwick Country Park. Leo Wirtz, the then-leader of the Countryside Team, and his deputy Ali Rasey, set up the move with Windrush Ecology, who were the environmental consultants at the Holbrook Lane site.
Continue reading “Slow worm”
Bluebells
Simon Knight has sent us pictures of bluebells and says that this weekend, they will be at their best. Come and see.
Seven facts about seven spot ladybirds
ONE: There are about 5,000 different species of ladybirds in the world but only 47 of them can be found in the British Isles and the seven spot ladybird is the most common of them and one of the biggest.
Continue reading
Bullfinch
Bullfinches are regular visitors to the park. Despite the male’s glorious colouring, they are quiet, retiring types, rarely seen; this picture was taken early one Saturday morning when the park was pretty much empty of visitors.
Continue readingWhirlpool Ramshorn Snail
Another new species
by Ian Bushell
During the working party tasks last Wednesday, when the Friends were trying to clear the stream of obstructions – mostly logs and other bits of timber thrown into the stream probably by children playing – something caught my eye.
Continue reading “Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail”Butterfly season
Message from Ian
Speckled Wood, Peacocks, Orange Tip and Brimstone knocking about.
Continue reading “Butterfly season”
There is a pair of spotted flycatchers hunting from the hollow oak tree in the corner of the little triangular field between Simpsons and Fiveways. Keep an eye out for them; they are an increasingly rare sight.
Spotted flycatchers are on the RSPB’s Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern
Blackcap
The British Trust for Ornithology has been collecting data about the migratory behaviour of blackcaps.
Continue reading “Blackcap”Sixteen spot ladybird
The ladybirds are leaving hibernation.
Continue reading “Sixteen spot ladybird”
Wiltshire Police’s Rural Crime Team have asked us to remind you to keep your dog under control when there is livestock nearby. Letting your dog chase or attack livestock is a criminal offence.
Primrose surprise
In 2019, SSE cleared the trees and understorey from beneath their power lines where they crossed the park. It made a bit of a mess, particularly in the area of the blackthorn tunnel, but there have been advantages, too.
Continue reading
Red kites again
Message from Ian, Sunday April 18th:
A Red Kite appeared over Sleepers Field and settled briefly on top of the Oak in the hedge between Sleepers and Cornfield before continuing towards Lambrok Meadow. I spoke with a nearby walker who said it joined up with another over Kestrel Field; we seem to have a pair that have included the park in their territory!
Continue readingThe Bees’ Knees
by David Feather
It seems as though Marks and Spencer thought that they were the Bees’ Knees by setting up beehives in farms around the country, to produce honey for M&S sale. This is part of their Farming with Nature Programme.
Continue reading “The Bees’ Knees”
