By Ian Bushell
Southwick Country Park has a number of veteran oaks and ten ancient oaks. There are no hard and fast rules about when and why an oak tree becomes classified as veteran or ancient; in different environments and soils oaks grow at different rates and girth is only an indicator. Here the underlying Oxford clay provides an excellent medium and the trees are large and shapely.
Continue reading “The Park’s Veteran Oaks”
A robin (Erithacus rubecula), by DKG, among new hawthorn leaves.
A message from a park user:
” Hi, I was walking back Friday evening when I saw the teenagers that were doing it. There was a group of mixed aged teenagers 2 boys were destroying the one side and another 2 trying to jump on the south side. They had a cable tied to the panels and tried pulling them off with their push bike. They stopped when I started to approach them. I rang 101 and the police came straight out and went to inspect. The police saw them and they ran off. I gave a statement that night but unfortunately no body was caught.”
Thanks; our community police will probably know who they are. Lets hope we can put a stop to this.
It must be summer, the vandals are back.
Continue reading “The vandals are back”
While our female blue tit incubates her eggs and the male visits to feed her, here is a look back to 2016 when DKG staked out another nest in a different oak tree.
All the pictures are by DKG
Below is the full story of this year’s nest:
Tuesday 16th April was the date of the final session of public hearings on the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan Examination; it was held at the Civic Centre in Trowbridge.
Continue reading “WHSAP hearings finished”
The blue tits have been seen at their nest. There was a message from DKG yesterday afternoon:
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UPDATE – JANUARY 2019 by Ian Bushell
Background. The following programme of actions was taken as an outcome of the review of the park on 27th January 2013 by the Wiltshire Countryside Team and Friends of Southwick Country Park .
This is an update of works carried out during 2018, a review of the park in general, and suggestions for possible future progress in 2019.
by Sarah Marsh
The Friends met up one Saturday morning in March to join in the annual Great British Spring Clean. This is the third year we have done a thorough litter pick whilst the vegetation is at its lowest, and we can get into areas not accessible in the summer months.
Continue reading “Good News from the Park”
holly blue, large white and orange tip
Butterfly count
Ian Bushell walking round the park with our Countryside Officer, Ali Rasey, spotted a large white, a male brimstone, two male orange tips, a speckled wood, a small tortoiseshell and a holly blue. That is four more species for our spotter’s list
small tortoiseshell. speckled wood, brimstone
Either we have misread the blue tits’ timetable or the nest has been abandoned. During his last two visits to the nest site, DKG has not seen the birds at all.
Continue reading “What has happened to the blue tits?”
This is ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), a little blue flower so common as to be almost invisible. It grows all over the park and flowers at any time of the year.
Continue reading “Ground Ivy”
There has been a lot of noisy forestry work going on in the park for the past few weeks. We have had both enquiries and complaints.
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Usually the butterfly population of the park is estimated by walking transects during the summer. This means regularly walking a set route through the park, on days of butterfly-friendly weather, and counting the number of species and individuals within a certain distance of that route.
Continue reading “Butterfly list”
A picture of Cardamine pratensis sent by Ian Bushell with this message:
” . . .Milkmaid flowering on the Lambrok bank very near the boggy area. ”
Does anybody else call it milkmaid? I call it lady’s smock; is it another of those plants with many different names, like ragwort?
Tell us in the comments below if you have a different name for it.
Cardamine pratensis conservation status UK: Common and widespread
Dudley, dog of the week; a beautiful fox red labrador who has trained his owner to be one of the park’s picker-uppers. Cheers Dudley.
More dogs:
Photographed by DKG
Snake’s head fritillaries are classified as Vulnerable on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain.
By DKG
A chilly start to the day with a cold North Easterly breeze greeting the FoSCP in the car park.
Continue reading “Wednesday’s work party”
Photographs of sunset in the park from C.J. Seymour
A message and pictures from DKG.
Click here for the rest of the story
This is Chris Hogg, the warden of the nature reserve at Widbrook Wood. He attended our last committee meeting and explained that he is trying to build links between all the small conservation groups in west Wiltshire; a venture we approve of at FoSCP. He has asked us to post a message.
Click here to read Chris’s message
Yesterday morning’s FoSCP work party, armed with saws and loppers and marching up the hill past Simpson’s Field, saw a pair of goldcrests (Regulus regulus) in the conifers by the path. Goldcrests are Britain’s smallest bird; a tiny flash of yellow against the dark green of a pine tree.
Continue reading “Goldcrest”
An Official Notice!
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Ian has reported a coot (fulica atra), a new species for the park. Coots are small black waterbirds, close relatives of moorhens. Both species belong to the family Raillidae.
Continue reading “A new species”
FoSCP’s response to Newland Homes’ proposal for the site at Upper Studley.
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 