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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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!
The disappearance of the wall brown (Lasiommata megera) from areas of southern England has mystified conservationists for two decades.
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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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Bank Holiday Monday 26th August at the Southwick Village Hall and Playing Fields.
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By David Feather
If anyone is wondering about the Wiltshire Housing Plan and its proposals for the area off Church Lane, it seems that you will have to keep on wondering for some time more. We have not forgotten about it and are watching “progress”. The wheels of bureaucracy grind on very slowly but hopefully this will be of advantage to those of us who love Southwick Country Park. We need to ensure that the planners get it right.
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Ian Bushell, Hugh Wright and Mark Bushell conducted a Butterfly Transect in the park on Wednesday.
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21.08.2019 at 09.33 Fb message from Sarah Chum Millard
Hello, I think I’ve spotted the missing panel from the animal bridge. It’s in the water upstream from the bridge. At first I thought it was tree roots. Unfortunately, I wasn’t dressed for a paddle. Hope you can retrieve it
There are six species of social wasp that are native to Britain and this is a good time of year to identify them.
Continue reading “Wasp time”
Pigeons are known to have been domesticated for more than 5,000 years. They are mentioned in cuneiform writing on clay tablets dug up in Mesopotamia and in hieroglyphics on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs. There is a growing belief among archaeologists that pigeons were, in fact, the first birds to be domesticated, more than 10,000 years ago,
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Thought for the day!
First, pick your sloes; there are plenty in the park. Some recipes insist that you shouldn’t do this until after the first frost which is believed to sweeten the sloes but we don’t think it’s essential.
Continue reading “Sloe Gin”
Under the heading of A Better Biss Approach (ABBA), Wiltshire Wildlife’s Water Team have been conducting a series of events designed to bring the waterways of the Biss Valley to public attention. Yesterday Alice and Nick from the Water Team came to Southwick Country Park for a River Day, to take a group of children and adults dipping in the Lambrok Stream.
Ian Bushell joined them and has sent in this report:
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The Big Butterfly Count 2019 ended last weekend on August 11th. Citizen scientists made an amazing 104,294 counts and logged their finding on Butterfly Conservation’s website. Here is a link to the RESULTS MAP.
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The tools for Wednesday’s work party were handed out in the rain and FoSCP, wellied and waterproofed, splashed off to their morning’s tasks in company with Countryside Officer Alison Rasey and Tree Officer Richard Murphy .
Continue reading “Working in the rain”
Just a reminder that we are still looking for the missing panel from the decorative bridge. Have you seen it?
Here is a link to the details:
The Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) is one of our commonest birds; it is very widely distributed, with an estimated population of eight million breeding pairs.
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Skippers are a family of Hesperiidae in the order of Lepidoptera; because they are diurnal, we generally called them butterflies but many authorities class them as a group intermediate between butterflies and moths. They are called skippers because of their rapid and darting flight.
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 