Dog poop

Please clean up after your dog

Lambrok Meadow is full of dog waste; people seem to drive to the bottom of the car park, let their dogs straight out into the field and then just walk away while the dog defecates in the grass. It is impossible to walk in the field without walking in dog poop.

Southwick Country Park is a public space, a resource for our families and for local schools. It comes under the same rules as the Town Park and should be open and accessible for everybody to enjoy – but we have had complaints from people because they get dog poop on their clothes and shoes.

Nobody wants to limit anybody’s access to the park but the selfishness of some dog walkers is doing just that; there are families who no longer bring their children here because of the dog poop.

Click here for more posts about the dangers of dog poop

Winter blue tits

During the winter, in natural woodlands, blue tits spend most of their time in oaks, searching for insect food in the trees’ rich ecosystems. At this time of year they turn their attention to the midges, mites and wasps that come to lay eggs in the new leaf buds.

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Rex: Dog of the week

Rex, photographed this morning while walking his human in Village Green. He is a Bavarian Munsterlander crossed with, of all things, a Shar Pei: very, very large, very friendly, not as wrinkly as you might expect.

1.Here is WHSAP Programme Officer Ian Kemp’s postal address for those who do not use or trust email:
Ian Kemp
Wiltshire HSAP Programme Officer
16 Cross Furlong
Wychbold
Droitwich Spa
Worcester WR9 7TA

2. Here is a webpage that has been set up to report on the progress of the WHSAP Examination.

3. The hearings in April will be held in public but only those who have applied to do so will be invited to speak; applications need to be made before 5pm Friday 8th March.


Spotting tawny owls

Has anybody heard or seen the tawny owl that was spotted in the park three weeks ago? We are hoping it is still here, perhaps with a mate, looking for nest sites.

Tawny owl calls are unmistakeable, the classic too-wit-too-woo, but their camouflage is excellent and they are difficult to spot against a background of tree bark. Here is a short video from YouTube to help with identification.

Contact details, if you have anything to report, are here.

More about tawnies:

Tawny Owl

Snowdrop factoid

Did you know that snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) are not native to the British Isles? They haven’t even been here a long time. They were brought from the continent in the 16th Century and introduced into Elizabethan gardens.

The first printed reference to snowdrops in Britain can be found in Gerarde’s Great Herbal, published in 1597, and they were not recorded in the wild until 1778, in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

 

This is the robin that sang for the Friends of Southwick Country Park as they hacked their way through the thicket of bramble and blackthorn at the rear of the car park on Tuesday morning.

Robin’s song

First snowdrops

Ian Bushell has sent us a picture of the first snowdrops, taken today on the wooded side of the path along the edge of Lambrok Meadow. Lovely!

Volunteer – Tuesday 29th

Our next work party is on Tuesday the 29th of January. We meet in the car park at 9.30am; come and join us. The Met Office says it will be very cold but dry and the BBC thinks it will be very cold and wet; wrap up warm.

The Met Office says it will be very cold but dry . . .

You will need sturdy footwear and thorn-proof gloves. Bring a coffee mug; we will supply the coffee to put in it and there will be biscuits.

We are looking forward to meeting you. . .

Our chiffchaffs will already have started the long journey back to their breeding sites in the park. They have overwintered in the warmth of southern Europe or northern Africa and are making their way home in a leisurely way with lots of stops for fuel; the males are the frontrunners and they need to arrive fit enough to find and fight for a territory.

They will begin arriving in March; their song (chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff) is one of the first signs of spring.

Pictures by DKG

Related posts:

“Migration”

“More about migration”

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