Local Wildlife News, Produced by the Greenways Project to Promote the Activities of Local Conservation and Community Groups
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Local January - April 2015 A news and events diary from wildlife and conservation groups in Wildlife the Ipswich area News Building homes for wildlife - see page 18 Produced by the 1 MEGABASH Come along and join supporters of Ipswich Wildlife Group, Greenways, Butterfly Conservation and other local groups and residents for a bracing few hours of important conservation work on our local heathlands. We will be clearing gorse and other invasive scrub to allow the heather and other heathland plants to regenerate and thrive, helping the heath return to its former glory for the benefit of natural heathland plants, insects, birds and invertebrates including butterflies, ants, spiders, skylarks and reptiles. PURDIS HEATH Saturday 25 January MARTLESHAM HEATH Saturday 21 February 10am to 3.30pm Full details in Events Diary HotEveryone drinks provided and potatoes welcome from the bonfire Our ethos is to ‘observe & conserve’, so at least 10% of profits from all our holidays are donated to wildlife charities. We recently presented £1,000 to Butterfly Conservation to help care and protect their Catfield Fen reserve in Norfolk. It is part of one of the best and largest remaining areas of fen habitat in Western Europe and is a stronghold for the enigmatic British Swallowtail, along with a rich array of other rare species, including the Fen Orchid. We are delighted that our activities are making a direct and A selection of our holidays in 2015 positive contribution to conservation within East Anglia. Orchids of Greece 7-14 April Birds of the Balkan 8 – 17 May French Pyrenees 21 – 28 May Birds & Butterflies North Greece 6 – 13 June Butterflies of Hungary 27 June – 4 July Italian Dolomites 30 June – 7 July Butterflies of Provence 15 – 22 July Catalonia 9 – 16 Sept 01473 436096 [email protected] www.greenwings.co 2 Welcome Welcome to the winter to spring edition of Local Wildlife News, produced by the Greenways Project to promote the activities of local conservation and community groups. Winter is by far the busiest time in the conservation calendar – whilst all the wildlife is 9 dormant, migrated away or generally just surviving! All the local groups will be flat out © Margaret Regnault coppicing woodland, managing hedgerows, clearing scrub from heathland, grassland and wetland habitats etc. It’s a great time of year to get involved – you can work to get warm and enjoy the rare bits of winter sunshine and all the other weather thrown at us! Please do join Greenways and all our partner groups at the Purdis Heath Megabash on Saturday 24th January (see events listing) or Martlesham Heath Megabash on Saturday 21st February – both offer a great opportunity to work alongside a large number of 12 dedicated volunteers and are a great way to start being involved in practical conservation © Matt Berry work. Contributions We are always happy to receive articles of anything up to 600 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 to: Greenways Project, Scout Headquarters, Stoke Park Drive, Ipswich, IP2 9TH. 01473 433995. [email protected] 13 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. 16 © Rab King If on the other hand you don’t currently receive LWN regularly, but would like to, please consider joining one of the groups that distributes LWN to its members (i.e. Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Ipswich Wildlife Group, RSPB etc). Remember, for those who don’t receive a copy, LWN is available online at www.greenlivingcentre.org.uk/greenways/ James Baker 17 Contents Page Suffolk Wildlife Trust 4 Ipswich Wildlife Group 8 18 Special feature - Stag Beetles 9 Greenways Countryside Project 10 Local Wildlife News is published by Greenways Countryside Project. Butterfly Conservation 12 Editor: James Baker [email protected] IBC Wildlife Rangers 13 Tel 01473 433995 Friends of Christchurch Park 14 Production Editor: Colin Hullis [email protected] Portal Woodlands Conservation Group 15 Tel 01473 728674 Artwork production: Chris Saunders Landguard Partnership 16 [email protected] Tel 01473 721550 Friends of Holywells Park 17 Printed by PJ Print Friends of Belstead Brook Park 18 [email protected] Tel 01473 276010 Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group 19 Printed on recycled paper RSPB Ipswich Local Group 20 The opinions expressed in Local Local Wildlife News Snippets 21 Wildlife News are not necessarily those of the Greenways 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] Group contact: [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 Parking at St Margaret’s Meetings Just a reminder that car parking at St Margaret’s School will Our first meeting of the New Year will have us looking forward not be available due to building works which are likely to go to warmer times when Martin Sanford illustrates and talks to us on for some while. We are not sure when this will begin, so for about Hedgerows, Herbs and Medicines. This is on Wednesday updates please ring any member of the committee or check 21st January. Later in the year Bill Baston will bring along his your e-mail a few days beforehand. superb photos to introduce us to the even warmer climes of Wild Gambia. Full details of our meetings are on the following The nearest car park is at the start of Woodbridge Road where diary page. the Caribbean Club used to be and opposite the back of the Regent. It will probably be a good idea to set out a little Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of a Great Raft Spider at earlier to allow you to park and walk up Bolton Lane or to find Redgrave and Lopham Fen and a Bee Orchid on Belstead alternative parking. To those of you on our e-mail list, please Heath. pass on these details to anybody you know who comes to our meetings. Dave Munday (Chairman) Above: A Bee Orchid on Belstead Heath Left: A Great Raft Spider at Redgrave 4 Ipswich Group Newsletter Lodge Farm, Westhorpe, near Stowmarket On the evening of 18th June a group of 25 had a guided tour Current farming practices require arable farms to grow a of Lodge Farm, owned and run by the Barker family. First diversity of crops. Here too the Barkers thought carefully about impressions of Lodge Farm, with its farmyard bedecked with how to manage this. For example, because rye grass seed containers of flowering plants, were very favourable – possibly takes two years to produce, they grow rye grass under a crop of seen at its best as it had recently been a wedding venue. We barley. When the barley is harvested at the end of the first year continued to be impressed by all that we saw and heard about the rye can grow on to produce seed the following year. This both the commercial practices and the Barkers’ commitment to seemed like a clever idea. In fact Patrick is constantly looking wildlife. for new ideas to improve all aspects of the farm. He is at present experimenting with ways to increase the numbers of turtle We sat cosily on bales of straw in a trailer as Patrick provided an doves, an endangered species. interesting commentary and his father David drove the tractor around the farm. We stopped at various locations to note the The trailer stopped again at the far side of the farm where we diversity of the hedgerows and the wide field margins which got out and walked to have a closer look at two of many ponds provided food and habitat for varied insect and bird life. We had on the farm. From here we walked past a kestrel box positioned at least two sightings of barn owls en route. As we stopped near high up in a tree, to stand beside the moat and ancient bridge of a small field which was unsuitable for cultivation because of its Westhorpe Hall. The original building on the site was the home of size and odd shape Patrick told us how he had managed to turn Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII and wife of Charles Brandon, this unpromising area into a wild flower meadow. the Duke of Suffolk. All members of the party declined the offer of taking up a vacant room. However, some of us were tempted He used an innovative technique which involved mowing and by its idyllic location.