This is a drone fly (Eristalis tenax), named for its mimicry of a male honeybee.
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Impact of Housing Development on the Lambrok
by Barbara Johnson
A Neighbourhood Plan is able to put forward sites for future housing development. As part of Southwick’s Neighbourhood Planning process, we have to review sites in Southwick that have been included on Wiltshire Council’s Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) map, plus any other sites that come forward. Collectively, it is known as a ‘Call for Sites’.
Continue reading “Impact of Housing Development on the Lambrok”Blackberry and apple jam
The park is full of ripening blackberries, all free from the contaminants of vehicle exhaust. Here is a recipe for blackberry and apple jam.
Continue reading “Blackberry and apple jam”Speckled wood
A speckled wood (Pararge aegeriais) on hawthorn berries photographed last weekend by DKG.
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More about oak galls
Yesterday’s picture of an artichoke gall among oak tree leaves produced questions and enquiries from our readers via Messenger, Facebook and our website’s below-the-line comments column. Here is more information about oak gall wasps.
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An artichoke gall on an oak tree photographed by DKG last week. The artichoke gall wasp (Andricus foecundatrix) lays its eggs in the leaf buds of an oak tree; the egg and the growing larva produce chemicals that force the tree’s extraordinary outgrowth.
Pygmy shrew
The smallest mammal in the world is the bumblebee bat but the Eurasian pygmy shrew (Sorex minutus), a park resident, comes a close second.
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A gallery of the park’s many grey squirrels taken by DKG.
SOUTHWICK SHOW AND CAR BOOT
The Friends of Southwick Country Park spent a very hot Bank Holiday Monday at the Show and Car Boot on the village sports field. An annual event, which we have used three years running to raise funds for the Park.
Continue reading “SOUTHWICK SHOW AND CAR BOOT”Orthoptera
By Ian Bushell
One of the quintessential sounds of summer is the chirping of grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera). They are found all over the park, but probably the best places to see them are those areas of longer grass or bramble beside the many paths.
Continue reading “Orthoptera”Tuesday work party report
Tuesday Work Party Report
A warm and dry morning this Tuesday, 27th Aug, greeted the FoSCP for our meet up in the car park, along with Richard from the Countryside Team; a nice change from our previous two work days which were very wet. With the holiday season still in full swing we did not have our normal complement of friends so the number of tasks to complete had to be reduced.
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This is common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica); it is a plant that grows all over the place but nobody ever seems to know its name. As the park’s summer wildflowers go to seed, the fleabane is a welcome splash of colour beside the paths.
Continue readingThis morning, somebody clicked a button and became our 800th follower. Welcome, whoever you are!
Wall
The disappearance of the wall brown (Lasiommata megera) from areas of southern England has mystified conservationists for two decades.
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Where are Southwick Country Park’s bats?
By Ali Rasey
Some of you have been on our bat walks over the last few years. We have heard (using bat detectors) and seen many different species of bats, including noctules, serotines, pipistrelles, Myotis species, and brown long-eared bats. There is also a record of a greater horseshoe bat (very exciting) – but we haven’t heard or seen that on our bat walks. The best time for us to see/hear bats I think is in August and September; at this time juveniles as well as the adults are flying, and sunset is earlier so the bats are out earlier in the evening.
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