Bees buzz in two different ways.
Continue reading “BUZZ!”BUZZ!
Enchanter’s nightshade
Message from Clive to FoSCP and Ian : Mon 15/07/2024 11:54
Quiet on the reserve today with heavy showers. But as I was walking through one of the cut-through paths. I noticed these flowers. It comes up as Enchanters Nightshade on my recogniser app. If that is so, I understand that it is common but I had not seen it here before.
Clive
No Mow May
Have you joined Plantlife’s No Mow May Movement yet?
Continue reading “No Mow May”
Snowdrop
The snowdrops are coming up, pushing pale green shoots up through the mud and leaf mould. They look fragile and delicate but they are driven by powerful forces triggered by the lengthening days and even the frost we are promised next week won’t slow them down.
Continue readingWorkparty
From white elephants to daffodils.
Some of the £145 we raised on our White Elephant Stall at Southwick Flower Show on August Bank Holiday Monday has been spent on 250 native daffodil bulbs.
Continue reading “Workparty”
Wildflower meadows
Gorgeous pictures taken in our wildflower meadows by wildlife photographer Simon Knight and sent in with a question:
“Here are some pictures from the reserve taken over the past few weeks. It’s a shame we’re about to lose most of the flowers and a huge amount of invertebrate life with the grass being cut so early. Why can’t the grass be cut later in the summer?“
Continue readingBloomin’ ‘eck
Header image by Peter White; all other images taken in the park by FoSCP members and attributed in the viewer.
Bluebell time
Header image by DKG; all the photographs were taken in the reserve
Snowdrops
Cheryl Cronnie has sent us pictures from the bottom copse in Sheepfield, of snowdrops just about to burst into flower.
Continue reading “Snowdrops”
Tufted vetch
This is tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), a species of vetch native to Europe and Asia.
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Moschatel
Moschatel (Adoxa moschatellina) is a new addition to our species lists, reported in May this year by County Recorder, Richard Aisbitt.
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Bimbling
By Ian Bushell
As it was a lovely afternoon and I wanted pictures of the bags of ragwort we had pulled in Lambrok Meadow, I thought I would have a bimble round the reserve.
Continue readingA 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, Local Nature Reserve car parks. Nobody gives it a second glance but its flowers, hidden among its topmost purple leaves, are extraordinarily beautiful.
ID parade
A message from Simon Henstock:
I spotted this growing in the hedgerow down the Country Park this evening. Is it Shepherd’s Purse? 
Bluebells
Simon Knight has sent us pictures of bluebells and says that this weekend, they will be at their best. Come and see.
The extraordinary flowers of wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) growing in the Arboretum.
Conservation status: common
Pictures by Suzanne Humphries
Common spotted orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, in the woods around the edge of Village Green
Just for luck.
A picture from seven year old Amelia Newblé of the four-leafed clover she found in the park. Thank you Amelia.
Primroses
by Sarah Marsh
The Friends have recently planted 150 primrose plug plants in one of the wooded copses in the Village Green area.
Continue reading “Primroses”
The snowdrops are opening
The snowdrops in the copse in the southern corner of Village Green are beginning to open.
Video by Neil Bromhall
Header picture taken in the park by DKG
Here’s one of last year’s posts from snowdrop time:
Spear thistle
Another species named in the Injurious Weeds Act of 1959: the tall and beautiful spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Here is a gallery of pictures of spear thistles taken in the park by DKG.
Click here for a gallery of pctures
Tufted vetch
This is tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), a species of vetch native to Europe and Asia.
Continue reading
Roses in the rain.
photos by Suzanne Humphries
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 