Sunday walk

FoSCP members, Ian and Pat, walk in the park with Pat’s dogs early on Sunday mornings. Pat, our champion litter picker, picks up the rubbish other park-goers have left behind, while Ian surveys the fields and woods for first flowerings, new species and the occasional damage, and reports back to HQ. Here is last Sunday’s bag:

“…Bullfinch in the hedge near Stoat Oak, native Daffodils in flower and Stinking Iris leaves at bottom of Kestrel Field near to the pond…”

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[1[ Bullfinch ‎(Pyrrhula pyrrhula);‎ [2] Native daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus); the flowers [3], seeds [4] and strap-like leaves of Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima)

Lambrok at Risk

by David Feather

Unfortunately, what is clear about the proposed development at H2.6 and the other two proposed housing sites (here and here) in the South of Trowbridge Community Area is that the original studies done for the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan (WHSAP) proposals were woefully inadequate. Now Wiltshire Council is involved in a poorly evidenced defence of the selection of this site and others in the area, and the developers are taking full advantage of this fact.

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Birdlife in an Old Oak

By Ian Bushell

I nipped up to the park this morning to see how the contractor was getting on with the chestnut fencing around the Oak we have been clearing in the Arboretum, near the entrance. Spring is just around the corner and some of the lives that the old Oak supports were evident.

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Pussy willow

A goat willow’s flowers, or catkins, known as pussy willow because they look like furry grey kittens’ paws, appear in February, one of the earliest signs of spring in the park.

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Mail and photographs from Chris Seymour:

Good afternoon, just wanted to share my photos with you of my frosty walk around the park this morning. Stopping at my favourite spot by the pond 🙂

Kind regards

Beautiful photographs; thank you, Chris.

Rooks in February

Before the end of February, the nature reserve’s rooks will have started collecting building materials for their nests. Here is a video that shows us what kind of behaviour to look out for:

Video by Film Studio Aves;
Header picture (CC0) pixabay.com

It might be cold but the robin at Fiveways is still singing.

Both pictures of the Fiveways robin were taken by DKG in 2019.
Recording by Beatrix Saadi-Varchmin CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) xeno-canto.org

Archaeological Sites in Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve

by Barbara Johnson

When researching the history of Southwick for our Neighbourhood Plan, I contacted the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, where the Data Manager provided details of numerous archaeological sites throughout Southwick and also a map giving the position of each site.

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