We think we already have enough volunteers but if we need more, we will ask here, on Facebook and on parkrun’s social media. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Maintenance in the car park
Who did this?
Continue reading
Notes from Southwick Country Park
by Sarah Marsh
A new species has been spotted in the Country Park.
Continue reading “Notes from Southwick Country Park”Wednesday work party
By DKG
Apologies but only a few photos from Wednesday’s work party. A Collared Dove enjoying the early morning sun and a Dunnock in a bramble bush, the latter not very sharp.
Tomorrow is the second Wednesday of the month: a work party day. Come and join us; we meet at 9.30am in the main car park and we work until midday. Bring thornproof gloves, sturdy footwear and a coffee mug. Looking forward to meeting you.
Tuesday work party
Tomorrow (Tuesday 30th October) is a regular work party day. Please come and join us; we meet in the car park at 9.30am and work until midday with a pause for coffee; there will be biscuits.
You will need sturdy footwear and thorn proof-gloves; the tools will be provided. The Met Office says it will be very cold.
The Lone Oak is showing its age; it has dead and dying branches and parts of the trunk are being hollowed out by fungus. We have decided that it should be allowed to get on with being several hundred years old, providing habitat for a whole new spectrum of species; we are not going to interfere. Instead, we have fenced around the tree to keep our park users safe.
The alternative would be to chop bits of it off, in order to protect the picnicking public from falling branches. This summer it became quite the thing to picnic under the Lone Oak, a tribute to its elder status.
The tree will live a long time yet; the fence will mellow, warp, acquire its own little ecology, rot away and be replaced long before the tree is done. An ageing oak tree is a wonderful resource of nesting holes, rotting wood for beetle larvae and a hundred species of fungi, a prop for climbing plants, a garden of mosses and ferns.
With luck, the Lone Oak will stand in Cornfield for centuries to come.
.o.
Pictures by DKG
October work party
Words and pictures by DKG:
Apologies, for not getting these photos posted earlier. It was not only Ian having a senior moment on Wednesday (Ian forgot the work party; turned up late. Ed.) for some reason my camera was not set up correctly when taking photos that day. I have had to delete several as they were not suitably exposed. There were other errors, even though they seemed ok when I looked at them after shooting. I have managed to improve these to some extent in Photoshop to make a reasonable photos.
Click here to see the results:
A letter from a park user
Dear friendsofscp,
I am on your mailing list and during the summer I visit the park with my husband and dog a minimum of 5 days a week. Sometimes every day. Not sure what will happen during the winter as days get shorter and work gets in the way.
Ragwort work party
Four people and a springer spaniel called Buddy came to last Sunday’s ragwort pulling work party. This was really discouraging.
Criminal damage
The bench by the decorated bridge has been damaged and will probably have to be replaced. One of the supports has been snapped right off. There is no sign of rot in the wood; it must have taken considerable force to achieve. A bench like this one, and its installation, costs £500.
It’s ragwort pulling time
We need your help.
Our farmer has cut down a lot of the summer’s ragwort in the park’s three big fields but there is more that will have to be pulled by hand. If we are to avoid the regular use of herbicides in the park, we have to accept that pulling ragwort by hand will become an annual chore. We need lots of volunteers.
Dot Moth
A dot moth (Melanchra persicariae) caterpillar on a spindle tree, seen and photographed by DKG while the FoSCP volunteers cleared the undergrowth around the young trees at the top of Sheep Field. Spindle is not recorded as one of this caterpillar’s food plants, but sallow is, and hazel, nettles, docks and several other species growing in that plantation and its understorey.
SCP work party or “Lost in the undergrowth”
By DKG
A few photos from Wednesday’s work party. A walk around before meeting up was once again very quiet and eerie, hardly any sign of the park’s birds or wildlife. They must be on their hols as well. Quiet, that is, apart from an annoying, continually yapping dog in the distance.
Summer work party
Words and pictures by DKG:
A few photos from Wednesday’s morning in the park. Work included clearing grass around the fruit trees, taking up the mats, and checking the guards and stakes. We removed the fruit to ensure stronger growth next season.
…
clearing grass around the fruit trees
clearing ragwort at the top of Sheep Field
grass and nettles adjacent to the path
…
Overgrown grass and nettles adjacent to the path from the allotments’ main gate were cleared. We also cleared small areas of ragwort on the allotment boundary and the plantation at the top of Sheep Field. We bagged it and put it into the back of the little Wiltshire Council van to be taken away. Click for more
Drought
This is now the longest continuous period of drought since 1976. The park’s paths are dusty, the grass is brown and crunchy underfoot, some of the trees are shedding leaves in an attempt to stop water-loss and the streams are shrinking.
Rag Week
The heatwave has brought the ragwort into flower early. There isn’t a lot of it, but it’s blooming beautifully; threatened by drought, it will seed rapidly and each plant can produce as many as 150,000 seeds. So….. it’s time for all those who complained about the spraying in the spring to turn out to pull ragwort.
Thanks to the farmer
Our grateful thanks go to the park’s tenant farmer. He has done us proud.
Reasons to scoop poop: £1,000
This is the fourth and last of our spring campaign lectures about scooping poop in the park. Scooping poop may save you a £1,000.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 