my true love sent to me…
…two turtle doves. We have collared doves and woodpigeons by the dozen but no turtle doves. Sorry.
Continue reading “On the second day of Christmas”On the second day of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
a partridge in a pear tree. The park’s partridges are Perdix perdix, the grey partridge, not the pretty little North American plumed partridge, Perdix plumifera, sitting in our Christmas card’s pear tree. Neither does the park actually have any pear trees: cherries, plums, sloes, apples and pedants aplenty but no pears at all. Nevertheless…
Christmas greetings from the Friends of Southwick Country Park.
Christmas robins
A Christmas Eve gallery of the park’s robins, photographed by DKG.
Mistletoe
What would Christmas be without mistletoe? There is only one species of mistletoe native to Britain, Viscum album, but there is none growing in the park. We would love to see it established here but we are not sure how we would go about it.
Continue readingSolstice
Today is the day after the shortest day: the year has turned.
Continue reading “Solstice”Ivy
Here are five things you may not have known about the ivy in your Christmas wreath.
Continue reading “Ivy”Holly
Over the years the Friends of Southwick Country Park have planted many holly whips in the hedges around the park’s fields.
Continue reading “Holly”PROJECTS PROGRAMME
Background
by Ian Bushell
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. It is intended that this is a living document: a record of previous projects, tasks undertaken, an update of works carried out during 2020, and a review of the park in general.
Continue reading “PROJECTS PROGRAMME”
Not a partridge in a pear tree…
but a wood pigeon in a willow tree.
A wood pigeon in a willow tree, fluffed up against the cold of Wednesday’s bright, frosty morning.
Real or fake?
A lot of people buy artificial Christmas trees in the belief that it benefits the environment, but environmentalists and energy analysts disagree. We need only look at a single element of the hundreds of thousands of artificial trees that will be put up and decorated this Christmas: they are all made of plastic.
Continue reading “Real or fake?”
Camouflage
Some of our residents are really quite hard to see. Here are some of DKG’s pictures of the well-camouflaged.
Header picture: public domain.
Anthropocene
Here’s a terrifying fact culled from Scientific American this week: human-made stuff now outweighs all the Earth’s biomass. This is a new and significant milestone in humanity’s dominance of the planet.
Continue reading “Anthropocene”Candlesnuff fungus
A tiny candlesnuff fungus, Xylaria hypoxylon, growing in the rotting wood and moss of the old willow tree (number 5477 ) by the footpath alongside the Lambrok Tributary.
Continue reading “Candlesnuff fungus”Planning application 20/09659/FUL
Newland Homes have applied to build 50 houses on WHSAP site H2.5 at Upper Studley.
Continue reading “Planning application 20/09659/FUL”Marsh fritillary
Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is trying to buy habitat for the critically endangered marsh fritillary butterfly. Please, read their appeal and consider donating.
Continue reading “Marsh fritillary”
Contractors have cut the hedge between the central path and the pond. It does look a bit brutal at the moment, we know, but all these stumps will make vigorous new growth in the spring.
Winter festivals
Many of the evergreen plants in the park have traditionally been used in the celebration of winter festivals. As the days grew ever shorter and colder, winter must have been a frightening and dangerous time for the early human cultures of northern Europe.
Continue reading “Winter festivals”
Clever corvid
Here’s a clever carrion crow (Corvus corone) bringing a piece of dried bread, from a bird table somewhere in Studley Green, to soak it in our pond until it is soft enough to eat.
Stinking iris
Clive Knight has sent us pictures of the beautiful scarlet seeds of Iris foetidissima growing in our woods.
Continue readingTawny owl facts
Since our report that there are tawny owls in the park, we have had several more from park-going night owls and early risers. Here are some tawny owl facts:
click here for tawny owl factsFlea circus part 3
by Barbara Johnson
After reading how chemicals used in flea treatment can damage and pollute our waterways, I asked a vet for information and asked if he could suggest an alternative flea treatment.
Continue reading “Flea circus part 3”The winter thrushes
Fieldfare (Turdus pilarus) and redwing (Turdus musicus), migratory thrushes from mainland Europe, are common winter visitors to the park. They are easily confused; here is a video to help you distinguish the two species.
Header picture: Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) by Teresa Reynolds (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Mycena pseudocorticola
by Simon Knight
I was looking for fungi recently in the park, but because it’s now getting late in the fungi season, I wasn’t finding anything that interesting. I was about to head home when the moss on a nearby oak tree caught my attention.
Continue reading “Mycena pseudocorticola”Church Lane fields
Three well camouflaged roe deer in the Church Lane fields, photographed yesterday: a doe and her kids. Typically, a pair of roe kids is one of each sex, and here, the male is in the middle of the group; you can just see the buttons covering the pedicles, the places from which his antlers will grow.
Continue reading “Church Lane fields”Otter
Here’s an interesting thing:
among mammals, otters have the thickest fur. In every square inch of a Eurasian otter’s skin, there are around half a million hairs. For comparison: the average dog has 15,000 hairs per square inch and the average human, only 1,000.
