Sunday Morning walk
by Ian Bushell
Not a bad Sunday morning, bright and dry, with no wind but a little chill.
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Blue Tits Delay Nesting
We have been watching pairs of blue tits house hunting in our oak trees since February and we predicted an early nesting season for the species. But this period of cold weather with frosty nights may have slowed things up.
Read on to find out why. . .
Double flowers
If you are planting your flower beds and hanging baskets this weekend, keep our dwindling population of pollinators in mind and please don’t plant double flowers.
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The Cycle of Life Continues!
by Simon Knight
After my amazing weasel encounter, which showed the daily fight for survival that happens within the park, and to which many people are oblivious; I was fortunate to witness the opposite of the weasel encounter – this time life being created.
Continue readingButterfly sightings
Already, there are butterfly sightings from the park.
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A gallery of squirrels
We know they are an invasive alien species that inflicts terrible damage on our trees every year – but they are also much loved, long term park residents.
Header picture by Simon Knight
The Cycle of Life
by Simon Knight
I am starting my diary series with one of my most memorable mornings spent in the park.
Continue readingPark nightlife
Wildlife photographer Simon Knight has been sneaking up on our badgers. Click the green button for a little peek into the park’s nightlife.
Header picture: badgers at a bird feeder in Lambrok Close: by Jude Summers
Wild About Gardens
The Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Horticultural Society have set up a website called Wild About Gardens. Its focus is wildlife gardening and it encourages people to use their gardens to help support nature. This year they are all about beetles.
Continue reading “Wild About Gardens”Another astonishing fact
Here’s another astonishing fact from the world beyond the park’s boundaries: in a Japanese laboratory, researchers trained wood pigeons to discriminate between paintings by Picasso and by Monet.
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Chiffchaff or willow warbler
Every spring our readers report the arrival in the park of a small grey green bird with a pale eyestripe and cream underparts. This is either a chiffchaff or a willow warbler and it’s very hard to tell the difference.
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A hunter in the trees
by Simon Knight
My walk in the park was short and definitely sweet last Sunday morning. My first sighting was of a sparrow hawk.
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Here is the second part of our comment on planning application 20/00379/OUT.
Continue readingBuff tailed bumblebees
The aerodynamically unlikely buff tailed bumble bee queens are out of hibernation and, buzzing around between the park’s spring flowers. Here is a video about their surprising flying skills:
Blunt-tailed Snake Millipede
The blunt-tailed snake millipede (Cylindroiulus punctatus) is tiny: it grows up to 25 mm. It is pale brown and its segments are coloured in a way that makes it look striped; it often has darker spots along each side. Its native habitat is the rotting wood and leaf litter of deciduous woodlands but it is just as happy to live in the untidier places in your garden. All millipedes feed on dead plant material, they are essential nutrient recyclers.
Both photographs are by Christophe Quintin.
Long tailed tits are early nesters.
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An irresistibly astonishing fact!
At more than 70 years of age, Wisdom the Laysan albatross has hatched another chick. While we admit that the chances of seeing an albatross in our park run from highly unlikely to nil, some facts are just too astonishing and irresistible to be ignored.
Continue readingWater Voles
There are three species of vole in Britain: the short-tailed or field vole, the bank vole and the water vole, which is the largest of the three and by far the rarest. Water voles (Arvicola amphibius) have experienced one of the most rapid and serious declines of any British wild mammal ever…
Continue reading “Water Voles”Returning chiffchaffs
Has anybody heard our chiffchaffs yet? This is the time of year when they come back from the Mediterranean and Africa to nest in the park and their unmistakeable call is a welcome sign that spring is here. Message or email us if you have heard them .
All these pictures were taken in the park by DKG.
Research has concluded that 42% of people are scared of spiders.
Read on for a little reassurance
The Eurasian collared dove, Streptopelia decaocto, seems ubiquitous: one of the park’s noisiest and most common species. But it wasn’t always so.
How come?Endangered flight corridor
Of the 18 species of bats native to Britain, 13 have been identified in Southwick Country Park, in Southwick Court, and in the green fields between Trowbridge and Southwick. The thirteen includes the rare and endangered lesser horseshoe bat, a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, and the internationally protected Bechstein’s bat, one of the rarest mammals in the UK.
Read on to see how proposed development will harm the bats’ habitat
Nesting
At this time of year, the reserve’s blue tits are looking for nest holes in our old trees. The ash tree at Fiveways harbours a nest every year and the newly fenced oak near at the bottom of the Arboretum seems to have attracted more than one pair already.
Here is a video of a female blue tit building a nest while, outside, the male guards the site from marauders and thieves.
Video from The Nest Box
Header picture by Simon Knight
