We received this picture and the following mail today, Wednesday December 5th:
These 2 men, both wearing black jackets, one pushing a pram, one with a cream satchel bag: also with 2 all black, skinny lurcher/ ratter like dogs were firing stones or slingshotting the 2 ducks on the pond today at approx 12:10.
Continue reading “Who ARE these people?”
Wood pigeons (Columba palumbus) are our largest and most common pigeon. Gregarious, very adaptable and given to flocking in enormous numbers at this time of year, they are an everyday sight in British towns and countryside.
In towns they seem unafraid but in the park they are shy and wary. Often the first indication that they are there at all is the loud clattering and clapping of their wings as they take off and fly away. Their call is the lovely, familiar background noise of spring and summer.
Of all the mammals on our species list, only the bats and the hedgehogs hibernate. We have found the tiniest piece of evidence that there might be dormice in the park, if so, that would be a third hibernating species.
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.
Yesterday’s plump and cuddly grey squirrel sent us into an afternoon of Google-based research; here are ten things you may not have known about Sciurus carolinensis.
Continue reading “10 facts about grey squirrels”
One of the park’s grey squirrels to cheer us up on a dismal day.
Who did this?
Continue reading
by Sarah Marsh
A new species has been spotted in the Country Park.
Continue reading “Notes from Southwick Country Park”
Come and join us on Tuesday 27th. We meet in the car park at 9:30am; you’ll need sturdy footwear, thorn-proof gloves and a mug. We provide the coffee to put in the mug and there will be biscuits.
There are three species of vole in Britain: the short-tailed or field vole, the bank vole and the water vole, which is the largest of the three and by far the rarest. Water voles (Arvicola amphibius) have experienced one of the most rapid and serious declines of any British wild mammal ever…
Continue reading “Water Voles”
The Friends of Southwick Country Park will be manning a stall at Hope Nature Centre’s Christmas Market this evening. It begins at 6.00pm; come and look us up.
Several readers on our Facebook page have said that they are having trouble finding the right place to voice their objections to Planning Application 18/10035/OUT; this is the plan for up to 65 houses on the field between Church Lane and Southwick Country Park.
Here is a link directly to the right page.
The comments box can be enlarged from the tag in its bottom right hand corner and you get 32,000 characters (about 5,000 words) to have your say. You can copy and paste into the box from most document formats but we haven’t been able to make it upload photographs yet.
The request for personal information looks more intrusive than it is; you need only fill in the boxes marked with a red asterisk. Don’t forget to press the submit button.
Wiltshire Council’s website is a dreadful place; there is always somebody digging up the pipes or knocking holes in the walls. There are whole days when it speaks only in code. For the sake of the park, be brave; find the right page and have your say.
Continue reading “Have your say…”
In May of 2017, water voles (Arvicola amphibius) were identified by Wiltshire’s Countryside Team as resident in Lambrok Stream. Water voles are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. They are protected against:
. . .intentional killing, capture or injury and intentional or reckless disturbance, obstruction, damage or destruction of their burrows.
Continue reading “Protecting the Lambrok”
RPS, acting for a named client, has submitted an outline planning application for the Church Lane site. The Wiltshire Council reference number for the application is 18/10035/OUT. This morning, searching with this reference produced this result:
Continue reading “Another Church Lane planning submission”
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.
Collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto) bred in Britain for the first time in 1955, in Norfolk. Within 20 years they had colonised every county in the British Isles, and had even reached Shetland and the Outer Hebrides.
Continue reading “Eurasian collared dove”Our web host, in its geeky wisdom, has updated us with a new editing suite, parts of which are still under development. Please bear with us; everything is taking twice as long as usual but we have been assured that the result will be worth it.
FoSCP
Lisa Burge’s photograph of a jay in flight prompted some research; we wondered how many jays our park could support.
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.
Beautiful autumn colours by DKG:
Another gallery here:
We need to take carbon out of our atmosphere and hide it where it can’t contribute, as carbon dioxide, to global warming; the process is called carbon capture and sequestration. Above is the power industry’s solution to the problem; click on the link for FoSCP’s solution:
Simon Handley has reported a brown and white magpie in the park, at the top of the Arboretum; this is a rare genetic fault called leucism. Please don’t forget your camera next time you visit; we would love a photograph of it.
The Wildlife Wheel has been there, in the corner of Sheepfield, for almost twenty years. It has aged in those years, changed colour, split and grown a fascinating crop of lichens.
Read on:
Kingfishers come to the park regularly. Many people associate them with rivers and are surprised to see them here, fishing in our little streams.
Read on:
Today, FoSCP submitted the report of their objections to the Schedule of Changes to the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation plan. The plan proposes that land at Church Lane, Upper Studley and Southwick Court should be made available for development; we believe that development at these sites will damage the ecology of Lambrok Stream and subsequently the ecology of the park.
A Brief Description by DKG
Click here to read more:
A tree creeper (Certhia familiaris) photographed in the park on Friday by DKG. Read on:
DKG’s regular report on Tuesday’s work party:
