by David Feather
This is not a slogan to free a political prisoner; it is just information that a few of the apples in the Community Orchard next to the allotments are ripe for picking.
Continue reading “Free Apples”Free Apples
Reclassifying grass snakes
The UK has three species of snake, the adder (Vipera berus), the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) and the grass snake, recently re-classified as Natrix helvetica.
Continue readingNamed storms
We are promised a damp start with heavy rain and strong winds for this week’s Wednesday work party. This is the tail-end of Hurricane Lee made manifest in Southwick’s nature reserve, what the Met Office likes to call Atlantic-dominated weather.
Continue reading “Named storms”Become a citizen scientist
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom. It has planted over 55 million trees since 1972, owns over 1,000 sites covering over 26,000 hectares and guarantees public access to its woods.
Continue reading “Become a citizen scientist”
Don’t forget to visit our stall at Southwick Show today for all your white elephants, bric-a-brac, sundries and secondhand books.
The Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend.
The Big Butterfly Count
Butterfly Conservation’s annual Big Butterfly count begins today, Friday 14th July, and ends on Sunday 6th August. Have you joined?
Continue reading “The Big Butterfly Count”
Tidying up Studley Bridge
The new bridge between Studley Close and the far end of Lambrok Meadow has been renamed, Studley Bridge, and given a thorough tidying by Wednesday’s workparty. Thanks guys!
Dedicated to DKG
There is a new interpretation board next to Village Green pond, dedicated to the memory of Dave Galliers, known to his many followers as DKG, our in-house photographer until his death in 2020.
Continue reading “Dedicated to DKG”On Thursday, travellers broke the locks on our gates and set up camp in Simpson’s Field. Wiltshire Council and the police acted swiftly and the group left on Friday night for a more appropriate site. But there are reports of human faeces in the hedges and edges of Simpson’s Field and in the little triangular field at the top of the hill. We will do our best to clean up after our uninvited visitors but if you are walking dogs or children, please take extra care in these areas.
Fencing water vole habitat
Next week, work will begin on fencing part of the tributary stream that runs at the bottom of Village Green.
Continue readingBird flu
Bird flu, like any other flu, comes in different strains, most of which cause few or no symptoms in infected birds. But since October 2021 a very virulent strain of H5N1 has swept around the world causing serious disease and many, many fatalities among both farmed and wild bird populations.
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Disease resistant elms
Progress report
by Ian Bushell
On April 10th we checked the fifteen Dutch Elm Disease Resistant trees, donated by Peter Shallcross and Frank Crosier, that we had planted in April 2021.
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Puddle Corner
by Clive Knight
Phil, Frank, Peter White and I have started to clear the grass that has overgrown the edges of the path that cuts out the flooded bit by Puddle Corner. We were surprised to see how far the grass has encroached onto the path. We estimated that clearing both sides has opened up the path by around 80-90cm. We haven’t reached half way but hope to finish next week.
Continue readingLyrids meteor shower
You should be able to see the Lyrids meteor shower between now and Saturday April 29th. It will reach its peak at the weekend on April 22nd and 23rd, and your chance of seeing shooting stars then will be high if there are no clouds because the new moon falls on April 20th and the sky will be at its darkest.
Take a nighttime walk in the reserve and go hunting shooting stars.
We’re on the BBC!
Mail from Ian Bushell to @bbc.co.uk: April 12 2023
Continue reading “We’re on the BBC!”
Send in your snow pictures, please.
© Ian Bushell
Woodland camp
There is always a gang of children, sometimes junior schoolers, sometimes older, playing somewhere in Village Green woods. The personnel changes as one by one gang members lose interest in sitting round a damp campfire, drinking mix-up or smoking what somebody sold them as top quality weed. But new arrivals come to fill the empty places and the gang continues.
What have they been up to?Planning Applications Results
Planning applications 18/10035/OUT for site H2.4, and 20/09659/FUL for site H2.5 have been accepted, while application 20/00379/OUT for site H2.6 has been rejected. The livestream is still available on Wiltshire Council’s website.
This is the letter that the Friends of Southwick Country Park have sent to the Strategic Planning Committee and local councillors, a last plea for sanity before the Committee meets on February 22nd to consider Planning Applications 20/00379/OUT, 20/09659/FUL and 18/10035/OUT.
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Planning applications
On Wednesday, February 22nd, three planning applications for land adjacent to the reserve will be decided by Wiltshire Council’s Strategic Planning Committee. The meeting will be held in the Council Chamber at County Hall, Trowbridge, BA14 8JN and it will begin at 10.30am.
Continue reading “Planning applications”Sheep worrying
Is your dog a sheep worrier?
On several occasions in the past ten days, dogs have escaped the reserve through the hedge at the northern boundary of Village Green and chased sheep in the fields beyond.
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What a difference a day makes!
After sending yesterday’s pictures of the wetland scrapes in Lambrok Meadow, our in-house photographer Simon Knight went back to the reserve to find all its water features, scrapes, ponds, ditches and streams, full to overflowing. Go carefully out there.
Continue readingSCP-LNR
SOUTHWICK COUNTRY PARK LOCAL NATURE RESERVE
PROJECTS PROGRAMME SUMMARY UPDATE – FOR 2022
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 (FoSCP). It is intended that this is a living document: a record of previous projects and tasks conducted and an update of works carried out during 2022, a review of the reserve in general, and suggestions for possible future progress.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 