Email from friendsofscp@outlook.com to Rich Murphy, Tree and Woodland Officer.
Hello Rich,
Is it vandals or deer that have damaged this tree so badly? We suspect deer but it would be unusual at this time of year when there is so much new grass around. We defer to your expertise.
FoSCP
Common spotted orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, in the woods around the edge of Village Green
A nest of peacock butterfly caterpillars found in the park by Isabelle Newblé, aged 9, and photographed by her mother, Julie. Well done both of you!
With the loan of Hope Nature Centre’s mobile water tank (thank you Caroline) and armed with as many watering cans and buckets as we could muster, FoSCP set about watering the new hedge in Simpson’s Field. Not quite a work party, more a socially distanced rescue mission.
Ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) growing next to the little tributary stream, between the Decorated Bridge and the Dog Pond.
Continue reading “Ragged robin”
This year, the annual competition to send in the first picture of our common spotted orchids has been won by Sarah Gould.
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It’s June and we are nearly half way through 2020. Here is the round dozen of species that have been identified in the park for the first time this year.
Continue reading “Half time score”
A message and pictures from Julie, regular park-user:
Saw these little mini molehill type structures on the path next to the pond. Under the ones already disturbed there is a little hole. It’s possibly ants or something but thought I’d send them in anyway. Do you know what made them?
Read on to solve the mystery
The peacock caterpillars in the nettles in Simpson’s Field are growing fast.
Continue reading “Peacock”
Who burned all the ash poles in the wood at the top of Village Green?
Continue reading “Who burned the ash poles?”
DKG has sent in beautiful pictures of a tiny green-brown warbler; does anybody know if it is a chaffchaff or a willow warbler? Neither is a rarity and both are known to nest in the park but we really have trouble telling them apart.
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A picture from seven year old Amelia Newblé of the four-leafed clover she found in the park. Thank you Amelia.
Please don’t light fires in the park; our woodland is tinder dry.
Continue reading “Woodland fire”
By Sunday morning, after people had anticipated the easing of lockdown and celebrated it with picnics and Saturday night parties in the copses, the park was strewn with rubbish. Ian and Pat, on their regular Sunday morning stroll, picked up dozens of empty drinks cans and enough general trash to fill a big black bin bag.
Continue reading “Weekend littering”
Common frog tadpoles (Rana temporaria) in the little pond under the Decorated Bridge.
Continue reading “Tadpoles”
Our fields are beautiful at the moment: full of yellow buttercups.
Please do send us pictures of the flora and fauna you come across in the park, particularly if you don’t know what it is. We are happy to help with identification. To encourage you, here is our Messenger conversation with Julie about the caterpillars she found and photographed.
Continue reading “Messages about moths”
In the last ten days, three new species of invertebrates have been discovered in the park, photographed and identified by experts: an azure damselfly, a tent web of small eggar moth caterpillars and a brown argus butterfly.
Continue reading “A third new species”
The park’s yellow iris are in flower, always worth a visit.
On Sunday, Julie Newblé sent us pictures of caterpillars in a tent-web she found strung between blackthorn twigs in the hedge at the top of the Arboretum.
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ONE: Though their typical nest site is a hole in a tree, blue tits have been recorded nesting in all sorts of places: letterboxes and street lamps, inside a crack in a wall or a drainpipe, under a cast iron drain cover and, of course, in garden nest boxes.
Continue reading “Five facts about blue tits”
An azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella) photographed in the park by DKG last week.
Continue reading “Azure damselfly”
Common swallows (Hirundo rustica), returned from their long migrations, come hawking over our fields and ponds in search of insects at this time of year.
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This week has brought a report of the first of the summer’s meadow browns.
Continue reading “Meadow brown”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 