A new picture of a squirrel from DKG and, from our archive, two more posts about squirrels
WHSAP Hearings.
The Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan Examination is entering the second week of hearings. The Friends of Southwick Country Park spoke on Thursday (04/03/2019) of last week about the importance of the Church Lane site to the ecology of the Lambrok and the park. We tried to point out Wiltshire’s obligation under SEA Directive 2001/42/EC and the National Planning Policy Framework (2019) to properly assess the ecology of the Lambrok as it runs through the sites at Church Lane, Upper Studley and Southwick Court.
Continue readingLatest blue tit news
A message from DKG during the week
A long stay observing and photographing the Blue Tits. I am certain they have young. They were both frantically entering and leaving the nest all the time I was there. Still no sightings of the Green Woodpeckers but I did see a Great Spotted Woodpecker, although I was not quick enough to get any photos.
Click on any picture to open the gallery
Arboreal sex
The park, at this time of year, is full of pollinators carrying pollen from tree to tree in a kind of reproductive frenzy.
Continue reading “Arboreal sex”
More pictures of the park in bloom; these are from C.J.Seymour.
Thanks Chris.
First flowerings
Pictures from Ian Bushell of the snake’s head fritillaries in The Race and the wood anemones in the copse at the bottom of Sheepfield.
The Return of the Phantom Digger
The Phantom Ditch Digger is back!
Continue reading “The Return of the Phantom Digger”Slow worm
Mail from DKG
“At the end of the last work party we made our first check of the year on the slow worm mats . The small coppice in Kestrel Field, and the Arboretum were checked; not expecting to see any this early in the year, we were pleasantly surprised to find a solitary slow worm warming itself under one of the mats. This was the same mat where we found the grass snakes in 2017. Hopefully more will be found as the summer approaches.”
Pictures by DKG and Suzanne Humphries
Click here for more about our slow worms
More dog poop!
Mail and pictures from DKG
This was the scene which greeted me this morning next to the picnic area and in view of the new signs regarding dog fouling.
Yes, the bag contained dog poop!
DKG
Click here for more about the park’s dog poop problemJackdaw
An old ash tree at the top of The Race has been cut back by tree surgeons because it was very rotten in places and branches had fallen during the winter. It was considered too dangerously close to the path to be left to fall down and rot away at its own speed.
Read on to see what was foundThe blackthorn is in flower
The park’s hedges have burst into blossom and the park is looking wonderful. The show will only last a few days; come and see before it vanishes.
continue for More picturesWork Party Report
by DKG
Another beautiful sunny day greeted the volunteers meeting in the car park for today’s tasks, assisted by Richard from the Countryside Team. Quite a few tasks were highlighted and most, if not all, were completed by the end of the morning. These included;
Continue reading “Work Party Report”
A closer look at weeds
Red dead Nettle
This is a red dead nettle (Lamium purpureum), the commonest of weeds. It flowers for most of the year in untidy vegetable plots, roadside verges and, in this case, country park car parks. Nobody gives it a second glance but its flowers, hidden among its topmost purple leaves, are extraordinarily beautiful.
Are you a picker upper?
Turn the page for this week’s champion picker upperWoodpeckers
Great spotted and green. . .
read on for more about the park’s woodpeckersYesterday, somebody clicked a button somewhere on the website and became our 700th follower. Welcome, whoever you are.
Work Party
Next Tuesday, the 26th, is a work party day; come and join us. We meet in the car park at 9.30am and we work until midday. You will need sound and appropriate footwear and a mug.
The Countryside Team provides the tools, thornproof gloves and the coffee to go in the mug. There will be biscuits.
Enhancing biodiversity
Protection does work.
Protected areas, national parks, nature reserves, and local wildlife areas do conserve biodiversity. In 2014, research undertaken by the universities at Exeter, Monash and Stellenbosch found that protected areas have significantly improved biodiversity. Plant and animal populations are measurably larger and there are more species inside the protected areas than there are outside: a wonderfully straightforward conclusion that everybody should be using to direct conservation policy.
Vernal Equinox
Yesterday was the vernal equinox so today is the first day of 2019 that is longer than the previous night. The days will get longer and the nights shorter until the summer solstice: June 21st or thereabouts. For the park this is a time of extraordinary growth.
Continue readingFoSCP’s response to the Trowbridge Bat Mitigation Strategy
This morning we made our formal response to the disastrous proposals for Southwick Country Park in Section 9 of the otherwise excellent Trowbridge Bat Mitigation Strategy. This is a link to our representation documents.
Great tits are very loud at this time of year. They sit high in the trees, like this one in the willows by the decorated bridge, and shout. It is a distinctive repetitive call like a creaky gate. Listen out for it.
marsh marigolds
common frog
Yellow flag iris
Boggy Patch Update
Mail from Ian this morning:
“Checked boggy area yesterday, coming on well and no more interference.”
This is excellent news. While it may look like nothing more than a muddy patch at the moment, the flora and fauna that inhabit boggy patches will soon move in. We are hoping for iris and marsh marigolds, frogs and caddis fly larvae. If we get the flora right, the water voles will graze there on sedge and rush leaves.
Click here for a really cute video of watervolesSouthwick Nature Reserve
At the beginning of 2014, FoSCP and the Countryside Team submitted a proposal to Natural England that Southwick Country Park be declared a Local Nature Reserve. We know this was done with Wiltshire Council’s permission because we couldn’t have done it without; they are the landowners. A management plan for Southwick Nature Reserve was drawn up.
Continue reading “Southwick Nature Reserve”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 