This is hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), first cousin to the giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) which the Daily Mail tells us has invaded Virginia, USA, and will blind us all.
Continue reading “Hogweed”
Hogweed
Song thrush
Listen to the song thrush:
Lambrok Stream threatened
Lambrok Stream is the heart of the park’s ecosystem; the residential development proposed for Church Lane threatens its well-being.
Housing proposal for Church Lane
RPS is preparing a planning application for a residential development in the field between the park and Church Lane; the field is shaded yellow in the map above.
Butterfly count 21.6.18
On 21st of June, Hugh, Ian and Sarah G walked a regular transect through the park in order to survey the butterfly numbers.
The vandalism spreads
At half term, there was more damage to the trees in the copse at the top of Village Green, fortunately nothing fatal this time but still significant. There was evidence of a camp. The rough grassland, left for wildlife, where we have been planting native daffodils, had been trampled flat in places. We picked up the litter and hoped it was an isolated incident.
Buzzard
This is the park’s buzzard. It has come to the park for some years and hunts regularly here and across Southwick Court’s old parkland. Buzzards breed when they are three years old but this bird is always seen alone.
LBJ
The world is full of little brown birds. Small and brown seems to be some kind of default programme for birds and accurate identification can depend on an extra millimetre in a brown tail feather or the exact shade of a brown eye-stripe. Until they are otherwise identified, the RSPB calls them all LBJs: little brown jobs.
Midsummer sunrise
Sunrise on the summer solstice by DKG.
“A few photos of the sunrise on June 21st. The sky was producing some lovely cloud textures, a lovely dawn chorus as usual….”
Click on the first picture to open the gallery:
A red squirrel?
We received this, by email, from Simon Handley:
Dear FOSCP,
My good lady is convinced that she saw a red squirrel in the park the other day. I saw it too (a fleeting glimpse) and at first I thought it was a chipmunk (??!!) and then thought it seemed a lot redder than grey. Is this possible? It was along the path along the stream between Lambrok Meadow and the large pond. Be grateful for your thoughts.
Kind regards
Simon & Sarah Handley
Beautiful demoiselle
This is a damsel fly: a beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo), another species indicating the unpolluted quality of the water courses in Southwick Country Park .
Meadow browns
A message from Ian B on Tuesday of last week:
“Had a walk around the park this afternoon and did a bit of a butterfly transect. The park is looking good. I saw 3 speckled woods, 7 small skippers and 43 meadow browns – the latter were in perfect condition as though they had just hatched – the majority of the meadow browns were in Village Green.”
Peacock caterpillars
Ian found and photographed this nest of peacock butterfly caterpillars on Tuesday.
Hundreds turn out for special NHS parkrun in SCP
Last Saturday Southwick Country parkrun celebrated the 70th anniversary of the NHS. Hundreds of runners took part, many of them in fancy dress.
This is Cathy Warner photographed by Martin Pearce (flickr credit: dungey2002) and FoSCP is willing to bet real spending money she’s not in fancy dress; she’s running in her work clothes. Well done Cathy; well done everybody.
Here is a link to an article in this week’s Wiltshire Times.
A common spotted orchid, photographed today by Julie Newble.
More orchids here
The structure of orchids
We sent DKG, and his macro lens, to look at the common spotted orchids in Village Green.
Reasons to scoop poop: £1,000
This is the fourth and last of our spring campaign lectures about scooping poop in the park. Scooping poop may save you a £1,000.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 