Two years ago, in the first week of March, there was a pair of barn owls in the park. They hunted over Lambrok Meadow and the field between Lambrok Stream and Church Lane where a developer plans to build 45 houses.
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Has anybody heard our chiffchaffs yet? This is the time of year when they come back from the Mediterranean and Africa to nest here 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.
The park’s grey squirrels are invasive aliens, brought here during the 19th Century, when the possession of rare and exotic species of plants and animals was the height of fashion. Grey squirrels, native to eastern North America, were first released into the wild in Britain, at Henbury Park, in Cheshire, in 1876.
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The otters that come to Southwick Court moat are probably a female and maybe her last year’s cubs; they will have come to feed, via the Lambrok, from the Biss or even from the Avon. Planning application 20/00379/OUT does not show how the Lambrok is to be bridged without interrupting the otters’ route.
Continue reading “Bridging the Lambrok”
While reviewing our species lists, we found that eleven species of our Lepidoptera are UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species!
Continue reading “UK BAP Priority Species”
While rummaging through our species lists looking for ammunition to throw in the direction of Planning Application 20/00379/OUT, we found a 2018 record of a small heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) hidden in the Lepidoptera section. The small heath is the park’s third UK BAP Priority Species of butterfly.
Continue reading “Small heath”
The Ecological Survey and Report that was submitted with Planning Application 20/00379/OUT says this:
Continue reading “More about 20/00379/OUT”
Of the five species of Britain’s black corvids, four have been seen in Southwick Country Park park: crow, rook, jackdaw and raven.
Continue reading “How to tell corvids apart”
Most of the Friends of Southwick Country Park are retirees, all of us inclined to begin sentences with: When I was a child….
Continue reading “Splatometer”
Here’s an interesting data set from the British Trust for Ornithology.
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Planning application 20/00379/OUT’s Ecology Survey and Assessment Report has been arbitrarily divided into six separate documents. This makes it very difficult to read, particularly as the contents page is in the first document and thereafter there are no page numbers. Stick at it, though; we have found it as interesting for its omissions as it is for its findings
Continue reading “More on Application 20/00379/OUT”
An expedition into our archives produced this post from February of last year, and a beautiful picture of a goldfinch high in an ash tree taken by DKG
Continue reading “Goldfinch”
Changing temperatures are initiating plant growth earlier and earlier every year. In the park, there are already primroses in flower.
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Before the end of February, the park’s rooks will have started collecting building materials for their nests. Here is a video that shows us what kind of behaviour to look out for:
Video by Film Studio Aves;
Header picture (CC0) pixabay.com
While exploring in our species lists, we found a report of a white letter hairstreak butterfly (Satyrium w-album), reported in 2017 by an expert observer. This is a real rarity, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species.
Continue reading “White letter hairstreak”
Unlike the dormice of yesterday’s post, grey squirrels can’t hibernate; their metabolism won’t let them put on enough weight to sleep through the winter.
Continue reading “A squirrel factoid”
We have seen signs that there are dormice somewhere in the park. At this time of year they will be deep in hibernation.
Continue reading “Dormouse hibernation”
Birds of Conservation Concern Red List
According to the RSPB, there are 67 species of British birds now on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List, more than ever before. The Red List are those birds that need urgent conservation action if their falling populations are to survive our environmental emergency.
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There is a male bullfinch in the hawthorn hedge between Sleepers and Cornfield. He has been spotted on a couple of occasions this week.
Continue reading “Bullfinch”
We usually write about the park but today we are branching out a good half-mile, as far away as the junction between Frome Road and Manor Road on the A361.
Continue reading “Blackbird singing in the dead of night”
Grass is very hard to digest and most of the animals that eat it have evolved complicated digestive systems to deal with it.
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Foxes have scent glands on their feet to mark well-used trails so they can follow them easily at night.
Picture by Peter Trimming (CC BY 2.0) commons.wikimedia.org
