Local January - April 2012 A news and events diary from wildlife and conservation groups in Wildlife the Ipswich area News ‘Resting Blur of Sunlight’ - Under 16 Photography Competition Winner © Sarah Kilshaw Page 2 The saving of Kiln Meadow Page 8 Produced by the Ipswich Wildlife Photography Competition Access to Nature Ipswich and Ipswich Borough Council Wildlife Rangers are pleased to announce the results of our photography competition. We had a great response with very high standards of entries. A big thank you to our judges Matt Berry of the Wildlife Rangers, Darren Mann of CSV, and Peter Bargh of ephotozine.com. All the entries can be seen on the a2nipswich website and the winners plus a selection of others will be on the a2nipswich 2012 calendar – contact Becky at Access to Nature if you’d like one free of charge. Contact details on page 14. First Prize Over 16 Under 16 Nathan Farrell - ‘Frog in the Throat’ Sarah Kilshaw - ‘Resting Blur of Sunlight’ Judges’ comments: Nathan has managed to capture a fantastic Judges’ comments: The rays of light through the wings make this piece of nature in its rawest form - the constant fight for survival! The sparkle like a living jewel! The dragonfly also stands out very well due composition used works very well because it shows all the important to the uncluttered and attractive background. parts - the head of the snake and the partially consumed frog. Runners-up Over 16 Parrish Coleman - ‘Redwing’ Paul Smith - ‘Chalkhill Blue’ Clare Saul - ‘Kingfisher’ Judges’ comments: A beautiful, colourful and Judges’ comments: The composition of Judges’ comments: Clare has captured a well composed photograph! It is technically Paul’s photo is spot on! The curvature of wonderful look of sheer concentration on very well captured, with crystal clear clarity the Scabious stem then leads beautifully to the face of this Kingfisher! You can sense and well balanced framing. Parrish has got all the butterfly and is mirrored perfectly in its the tension in the scene and imagine the bird the elements right with this Redwing shot and proboscis as it sips up the nectar from the diving to catch a fish at any moment! I also like the added bonus of the berry in its beak is a flower. Even the wings of the butterfly follow a that the Kingfisher is shown within its habitat lovely touch too! similar line in the frame! and not set against a plain background. Runners-up Under 16 Lydia Ravenhall ‘An exploring Ladybird’ Emily Ravenhall - ‘Eating the apple’ Charlotte Ravenhall - ‘Fly in the sun’ Welcome Local Wildlife News Welcome to yet another packed edition of LWN, produced primarily by the Greenways Project, on behalf of over a dozen local wildlife, conservation and other ‘green’ groups. We are still very keen to receive any feedback about the publication – good or bad – and © Tim Newton-Syms via © Tim Wikimedia Commons look forward to receiving any suggestions for improvements etc. Contributions We are always happy to receive articles of anything up to 800 words, photographs of local wildlife or conservation work and local sightings or wildlife ‘snippets’ – so please do send in anything which may be of interest. Greenways Project, Stable Block, Holywells Park, Cliff Lane, Ipswich, IP3 0PG 01473 433995 [email protected] Mailing lists – Please note We are aware that some who are members of several conservation organisations may well receive more than one copy of the newsletter. If this is the case we would be very grateful if you could pass on the spare copy to someone who will appreciate it and contact the Greenways Project on 01473 433995 or [email protected], stating which organisations you are a member of, so that we can ensure that you receive just one in the future. If, on the other hand, you don’t currently receive LWN regularly, but would like to, simply contact us (details above) and we’ll add you to the list. © Greenways Project Contents Page Suffolk Wildlife Trust 4 Ipswich Wildlife Group 8 Friends of Holywells Park 9 Greenways Countryside Project 10 Access to Nature 12 Friends of Christchurch Park 13 IBC Wildlife Rangers 14 Landguard Partnership 15 Butterfly Conservation 16 © CMatt Berry RSPB Ipswich Local Group 18 Friends of Alderman Canal 20 Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group 20 Portal Woodlands Conservation Group 21 © Richard Brooks | rspb-images.com Local Wildlife News Snippets 21 Local Wildlife News produced by Greenways Countryside Project. Events Diary 22 3 Ipswich Group Newsletter Chairman: David Munday 01473 217310 [email protected] Secretary: Wendy Brown 01473 259674 [email protected] Treasurer: Tony Clarke 01473 741083 [email protected] Newsletter Editor: John Ireland 01473 723179 [email protected] We are the Ipswich Group of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. We offer an interesting range of monthly meetings with guest speakers which take place usually on the third Wednesday of the month at 7.30 p.m. in the hall of St Margaret’s Primary School, Bolton Lane, Ipswich. Trust members and non-members are equally welcome. During the summer months we offer a variety of trips, some local, others by coach. Details of these and our monthly meetings can be found in our “Diary” section which follows, or on the SWT website, www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org. Chairman’s Letter Magazines Conservation Some of you may be wondering why the last delivery of An interest and involvement in conservation goes back a your magazine was late. Well, it was because HQ had long way in Ipswich too! I recently came across a photo a technical hitch in the production of “Suffolk Wildlife”. of the 1935 Jubilee celebrations in Ipswich showing a This prompted HQ to review the magazine delivery dates float in the parade proclaiming “Protect Wild Birds”. and they have decided to move these dates to: January, May and September. Chantry Park This has improved the situation for deliverers as it avoids Recently about £4 million has been spent on upgrading the busiest holiday period and the pre- Christmas rush. Christchurch Park, so it is really good news that Ipswich However it has made it more difficult for the Ipswich Borough Council is proposing to make significant Group to get advanced advice of dates for meetings and improvements to Ipswich’s largest park, Chantry. They visits to you in good time. Your Committee has been are planning a ten-year programme in which they seek looking at ways to improve the situation; read on for a to involve local people in how to deal in future with, possible solution! for example, recreation and wildlife in the park. A new group, Friends of Chantry Park, is being formed. This Electronic Programme? would be a really worthwhile opportunity for our Ipswich SWT group to get involved. If you would like to take part Soon, if you are on line, you will be able to get reminders in this exciting initiative, telephone or e-mail Alan Gilbert a week or two in advance of our summer walks and for further information on 01473 423273 or alan.gilbert@ outings. Member Steve Pritchard has very kindly offered ipswich.gov.uk. run this facility for us, so if you would like to be included please e-mail Steve with your details. The details you Dave Munday supply will be used to construct a database for this (Chairman) purpose only and will not be passed to any third party. Steve’s e-mail address is:- [email protected] Forms will be available at forthcoming meetings for the same purpose. © Dave Fincham The Environment “Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he’s been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wildlife Dave Munday becomes extinct, the climate’s ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier each day.” A conservationist moan from the last 10 - 20 years maybe? Not a bit of it; it was Anton Chekhov in 1897! 4 Ipswich Group Newsletter Nightjars and glow-worms on the heath by Wendy Brown The evening of Friday 1st July was cool and a bit breezy and it would have been very easy to stay at home and convince myself that I didn’t really want to see nightjars again. Blaxhall Common is just short of Snape and setting out at 8.30pm goes against the grain these days. However, we arrived in good time for the 9.30pm start and were met by the leaders from the Woodbridge SWT Group, Mervyn Miller to tell us about nightjars and Phil Smith to talk about the glow-worms that we hoped to see during the walk across the heath. Tim Newton-Syms via Wikimedia Commons Tim © By 9.30pm about 50 people had arrived – not put off by the chilly wind. By that time the sun was setting – not as spectacular as sometimes, but pleasantly orange and with broken cloud. We set off silently and walked towards the heath and soon we all stopped and stood and listened. All was quiet and then in the distance the Glow worm “shining bright like an LED” call of a tawny owl and at that moment it was magic to be out there. Very soon after that there were two there by our feet was the first glow-worm. It was in short nightjars churring – it comes in short bursts like the grass and its light was round and bright like an LED; it sound of a sewing machine that has suddenly become was the female glowing to attract the male to mate.