Cranborne Chase AONB will be featuring on Countryfile at 6pm this Sunday, 9 May. We'll only know what's on when we watch, but several items they filmed complement topics covered in our own schedule of talks and field trips so may be of particular interest. Knowledge, practice and understanding are growing all the time, so it's well worth tuning in to catch up on: Dark Skies: Steve Tonkin, the AONB Dark Skies Advisor, (Young Nature Watch, 'Space travel online experience', 30 March) was filmed discussing our amazing dark skies and may also mention the AONB's Dark Sky Custodians and Dark Sky Accreditation Scheme, part of the Starry, Starry Night project. Rivers: The AONB's Crystal Clear Ebble project with the Wessex Rivers Trust - Alex Deacon, their Catchment Partnership Manager, talked to us last September, and we've also looked at the Nadder with a Field Trip in September last year and a talk coming up in October and back in 2017 we heard about Fish of the River Avon. Farming: The Countryfile team focussed on the amazing work being done by the Martin Down Farmer Cluster, facilitated by the Game & Wildlife Conservation trust - Peter Thompson from the Trust gave us a fascinating and encouraging talk last 19 November, Neil Harley told us about what he's doing near Tisbury on 28 January, and in 2019 Gary Rumbold explained the work of the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group. If you'd like to catch up on any of these, many are covered in Talks or Field Trips/What you missed, or just email me. If you've ever wondered how you'd feel if you'd just got home after flying 7,000 miles, here's a wonderful video from Fowlmere in Cambridgeshire!
And in Tisbury, we've done very best to make sure more and more swifts will, over the next few years, have happy homecomings here. The team from Hampshire Swifts have, over two weekends so far, installed 20 nest boxes and there are more yet to go up. Some of these, if not very close to existing active nest sites, also have sound systems playing recordings of a pair of breeding swifts to encourage others to take up residence. So, if you're up shortly after dawn, or around shortly before sunset, and hear the cries of swifts, look up and see if there are nest boxes. If there aren't, and all you can see is a blank wall, please let us know as there may be a 'natural' nest site often in the tiniest hole. We'll be organising a survey later in the summer, of nest sites in the village. Laura Downer, Andrew Graham and I are hugely grateful to so many people in Tisbury and nearby who've responded to this project - and also to the editorial team at Focus for their beautiful cover and feature in the May edition here. Andrew took over the late David Rear's responsibility for monitoring butterflies in the Oddford Vale and also monitors elsewhere in Wiltshire, he's been doing weekly counts of birds in his garden for several years and last summer extended this to using a trap provided by Butterfly Conservation to monitor moths in his garden as well - hence the stunning photographs posted on this website.
We are hoping to recruit volunteers to help us monitor the population of swifts in Tisbury, after the new nest boxes are installed in April. We already know of a number of nest sites that have been used until last year and it is vital that we check whether they are again this year. For more about wildlife recording, go to that page. On Thursday evening, 6th May at 7:30, Andrew Graham will be giving the last of our online Zoom talks, ‘Everyone Can Be a Wildlife Recorder’ describing how recording the world around us helps us to understand it, and how you too can contribute.
When you hear or read that a species of bird or butterfly, animal or plant has declined by X% or Y% percent over the last number of years, do you sometimes wonder "how do they know that?". Much of what we know about changes going on in our environment is derived from millions of records collected over decades, mostly by ordinary people with an interest in nature, like us. Andrew will describe how the recording systems developed and how they work, how you can access some of the results, and how anyone, with a little time and knowledge, can contribute. Paid-up members will receive the link to this talk very shortly. If you’re not a member but would like to join the talk, please pay the £2 visitors fee, email Dick Budden and he will send you the link. You can: Pay direct to the Tisbury & District Natural History Society bank account with NatWest, Sort code: 54-41-19, Account number: 03123480. If you make a payment this way, please your name as the reference and email Dick to look out for it. Or pay a member of the committee, who will make the transfer on your behalf. Or send Dick a cheque to Chicksgrove Close, Chicksgrove Road, Tisbury, Salisbury, SP3 6LX If you have problems logging on to Zoom, please ring Dick 07944 640 900 and he will gladly talk you through the process. |
Photo: Avocets (Izzy Fry)
The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
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