Under the heading of A Better Biss Approach (ABBA), Wiltshire Wildlife’s Water Team have been conducting a series of events designed to bring the waterways of the Biss Valley to public attention. Yesterday Alice and Nick from the Water Team came to Southwick Country Park for a River Day, to take a group of children and adults dipping in the Lambrok Stream.
Ian Bushell joined them and has sent in this report:
Continue reading “River Day”
Just a reminder that we are still looking for the missing panel from the decorative bridge. Have you seen it?
Here is a link to the details:
Drop in through the afternoon to help to look after your local river and learn about the secret world below the surface of the Lambrok Stream!
We will be clearly visible from the Frome Road car park entrance. Please wear suitable outdoors clothing. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.
For further information contact Abigail Leach on 01380 736066 or AbigailL@wiltshirewildlife.org
For updates on the event please check Twitter @WiltsRivers
Somebody has used the Carved Seat in Kestrel Field as a fire place!
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There is a small green tent in Sleepers Field. If you are passing and feel so inclined, a friendly word to the effect that camping is not allowed in the park might move the campers on before officialdom arrives.
We have passed the pictures to PCSO Till and to the Countryside Team.
Thank you
FoSCP
Beautiful images of a meadow brown taken in the park last night, at the end of the year’s longest day, by Chris Seymour.
Email from a park user on Monday:
Read on to find out more:
Before the end of June, the park’s tenant farmer will be cutting the grass for hay and for silage. The work will extend over several days but which days and for how long will depend on the weather. When the work is due to begin, Wiltshire Council will put up notices at all the gates to warn park users, and on the website we will try to keep you posted.
Please be careful when there is farm machinery in the fields, particularly if you have children with you, and please, please will dog walkers take extra care. Our farmer knows how the park is used and will keep his eye open for children and exuberant dogs but most of the work will be done by contractors who may not be expecting either.
Stay safe.
FoSCP
A Walking for Health group from Frome sweeps purposefully past our Wednesday work party; they are on their annual outing and probably heading to Hope Nature Centre for their lunch.
Counting hedgehogs is not easy and the best information we have about hedgehog populations is always an estimate.
Continue reading “Counting hedgehogs”
We have a phone for text and voicemail but posted the wrong number to our contacts page. We apologise, not just for the original error but also for the many weeks it has taken us to notice.
The correct number is 07744 708798
FoSCP
Elena Aschiopoaiei has emailed her pictures of rain-soaked larch cones in the park.
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Park users often send us their photographs of the park: larch cones in the rain, their children or grandchildren playing in the woods, butterflies on the point of escaping from the picture, first flowerings, blurred birds and fabulous views of the sunset. We would love to be able to publish more of them
Continue reading “Photographs”
Please pick up after your dog.
We hate to nag but last weekend was particularly bad; there were complaints from several people:
Continue reading “Scooping poop”
During the Easter holiday there were little children seen playing in the park, apparently unattended by any adult. In particular, two little boys, maybe six or seven years old, were seen playing all by themselves on the bank of the stream by the wooden bridge. The weather had been very wet and the water level was high, certainly high enough to drown a small boy.
Continue reading “Keeping children safe”
Judy’s dynamic warm up group; new runners out in the park for the first time with their coach, Judy. Well done all!
On two occasions in the last week or so people have been seen flying drones in the park. On both occasions, dangerously close to walkers, the car park and the main road.
Continue reading “…and no drones”
Mail from Park Watch
friends ofscp@outlook.com
Just wanted to report the riding of a quad bike in the field by Lambrok. One adult Male riding with a small toddler included.
What really happens to the plastic bottles thrown away in the park?
One or another of the Friends walks around the park pretty much every day and picks up rubbish as he or she goes. Most of what we pick up is plastic and most of the plastic is in the shape of bottles.
Here is a short video to explain what happens to a plastic bottle after it is thrown away.
It has been Mental Health Awareness week all week and we only just noticed.
Continue reading “Mental Health Awareness Week”
At the beginning of this week, the UN’s Global Assessment has highlighted the impact that we are having on the natural world.
Continue reading “Global assessment”
Our suggestion that we set up a Park Watch along the lines of a Neighbourhood Watch brought in a double handful of volunteers, all of them regular park users. They said that they wanted to help or that they hated to see the park spoiled in any way; nearly all said the park is a special place for them.
Continue reading “Park Watch update”
Dog of the week, Coco, who has trained Joyce to pick up not just for himself, but sometimes for other less fortunate dogs whose humans have failed them. Well done Coco for your altruism – and a gold star for Joyce, dog owner of the week.
The vandalism in the park began earlier this year than last but at least it began with the destruction of infrastructure rather than with the killing of trees, as it did last year.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 