OXFORD WILDLIFE NUMBER 102 NEWS SUMMER 2014
Four inquisitive horses had recently been put in this field. They are valued for trampling the ground, where the rare Apium repens (Creeping marshwort) has been introduced see page 6. (Photo by Geoff Moxon)
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NEWS FROM BOUNDARY BROOK NATURE PARK We have had a good number of visitors recently. As summer at last approaches we have had many groups of school children visiting the park. Larkrise School as usual makes many independent visits, they are lucky enough to be so close it is like an extra, open air classroom. We have had organised visits from New Hinksey School, East Oxford Primary and Comper Foundation Schools who come and do projects, often using the book we published of suggested projects, designed for children in Key Sages 1 & 2, to carry out in the Park but all of them take the opportunity to go ponddipping as well. As usual, all the children’s favourite activity is ponddipping. This year there has been a problem, the pond is very full of water but it has a thick layer of duckweed on the surface. As we have heard, this year we have had a record amount of rain over the winter and spring and the weather has been mild. The Park was originally an area of allotments which had been cultivated, and presumably lavishly treated with compost and fertilisers over many years. I wondered if the record-breaking rainfall has washed some of these fertilizers into the pond and caused the massive growth of pondweeds such as the floating flowering plant – duckweed.
We have had attempts to clear it but when the wind blows it spreads it over the cleared areas again. Before children come we clear weed from the area near the pond-dipping platform but their catch has been disappointing compared with previous years. I thought that an insect looking for a pond to lay its eggs, would not see any water so would possibly fly away. Anyway, what the children did catch, they examined with lenses, identified and learnt a bit about them before returning them to the water. Some lucky children who caught a leech or a newt were particularly excited. We have also had visits from other groups who came to help us, such as 25 Sea Scouts who helped with conservation work at Boundary Brook and also 2 visits from groups of 25 Beavers (the younger age group of Scouts) who, with the accompanying adults, did a very good job of clearing ivy from the woodland area. Year 10 Magdalen College boys do a lot of volunteering work in the community and at this time of year they all spend a whole school day doing charitable work. A group came to Boundary Brook and worked vigorously on a very hot day and did many valuable tasks. Incidentally another group worked in Holywell Cemetery which OUWG also helps to manage to encourage the wildlife that lives there.
EVENTS
Past . . . Oxfordshire Goes Wild – in Oxford University Museum of Natural History As usual, this was a lovely event and it gave us a chance to examine the newly refurbished museum with the sparkling, newly-cleaned windows in the roof. Right: One resident returns from temporary exile to make its way to the Museum ready for Oxfordshire Goes Wild. Photo by Pete Upham Our contribution was to help the eager groups of children who were eager to do the mini-pond-dipping and examine their catch through lenses or a small microscope. They also did some of the puzzles we laid out such as our feely boxes and life cycle models see one on page 8. We heard later they 2000 visitors this year.
32 Joanna Matthews helps some of the visiting children to go “fishing” in an aquarium and then they examine their catch.
Fritillary Count As the widespread flooding this year included Osney Mead, where we monitor and survey the Fritillaries each year, we had to postpone deciding on the date of the survey until the last minute! We decided on April 28 th in the end when three of us ventured onto Osney Mead, to undertake the annual Fritillary Survey. We had no great hopes as several inspections in the previous few weeks, when the floods had subsided, had revealed no trace of fritillaries although in previous years the counts had taken place in early April. The meadow had been severely flooded for 2 months over the winter to a depth of 2 feet, so we guessed the flowering would be delayed
which was why we had postponed the event for a fortnight. In addition the management had changed and cattle were grazed on the Mead earlier and their footprints had poached much of the area. Had this destroyed the fritillaries? Guided by the GPS and also the bamboo canes that Tim King had put in before we arrived we found the sites where they were found last year. We were surprised and delighted by the crop. In many of the areas where we found them the count showed the same number of blooms and a few had even increased. Below is a summary of our surveys in the last 11 years.
SNAKESHEAD FRILILLARIES AT OSNEY MEAD 2003-2014 Numbers of flowers (F) and numbers of vegetative plants (V) in different years SUB-SITE South-west West Main Power line 1st new site 2nd new site 3rd new site 4th new site Site X Site Y TOTAL
200 3
58
2007
2008
2010
2012
2013
2014
21
35 (19V)
49 15
40 13
83 (50V) 12(12V) 3 (3V) 2 (0V)
74 (88V)
135 (84V)
60 (3V) 43 (0) 148 (10V) 19 (2V) 9(0) 8 (0) 1 (0) 2 (0) 3 (0) 1 (0) 294 (15V)
60 (8v) 37 (2V) 137 (2V) 23 (4V) 13 (1V) 8 (0)
64 (156V)
51 (9V) 33 (30V) 105(70) 20 (4) 7(2V) 7(7V)) 15 (0V) 4(0V) 2(0) 1(0) 245 (132V)
278 (17V)
42 The Grid references for each site have been left out because of lack of space but I can supply them if you contact me. Fritillaries were flowering on the Wildflower Meadow at Boundary Brook on 6 th April this year. This was 3 weeks earlier than Osney Mead because we were lucky not to have the substantial flooding they had, which delayed the flowering.
Visit to Hogacre Common Hogacre Common is on a site between the Thames and the railway line to the west of Abingdon Road. In a book, called “Taming the Rivers of Oxford” (which we sell on our stalls) there are pictures drawn in the 1850s onward of both the railway line alongside Hogacre and the river in flood. A GWR train attempting to go through the flood water beside the Abingdon Road Bridge in November 1875.
Since then, they obviously haven’t “tamed” the rivers enough, as this year Hogacre Common was inundated for much of the winter. The area was once tennis courts and a sports ground and there is a sports pavilion, wisely built on a raised mound as the builders had the foresight to avoid it flooding. This year 2 feet of flood water covered the site for a good part of the winter. The creation of the site was originally a joint project between Low Carbon West Oxford (LCWO) and Low Carbon South Oxford (LCSO) Hogacre Common Eco Park is about a mile south of the centre of Oxford City and is reached from the Abingdon Road, along White House Road, where it is signposted down a gateway on the left 200m along and down a metalled lane over the bridge across the railway lines. We were guided around the Hogacre Common Eco Park in an anticlockwise direction by Hugo Crombie, from Low Carbon West Oxford (LCWO), and Ben Haydon, who is responsible for the day-to-day onsite management of Hogacre Common. From the entrance we were led along the edge of the woodland and then we entered the wood into an area used by the Forest School. There, there were hidden paths, trees to climb and many opportunities to find out about woodland habitats. A large area of mixed woodland has been planted in the central area of the park, some for coppicing material, some to make a variety of woodland habitats. Some will be used for making charcoal and they have just acquired some furnaces for making the charcoal. On the edge of the park, there are bees in hives on a large, raised wooden platform (see below). This keeps them out of reach of floods but also, with children exploring the park, they are designed to be out of reach of the children but they can still watch them entering and leaving the hives. Bee hives on the platform
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The Shotover Conference th
On 17 May, Shotover Wildlife held a conference in the newly refurbished Museum of Natural History. Several of our members attended and we had a series of interesting talks, by local experts, about the long history of the way Shotover had been managed over the years and the very impressive history of the long-term monitoring of various species of plants and animals found there. For example 1,000 species of beetle had been recorded since 1819 to the present day and Ivan Wright talked about bee flight research there and Jacqueline Wright about the Bryophytes. We had experts talking about aspects of the history of the site including geology and ecology.
Oxford Festival of Nature We had applied to have a stall as in previous years but sadly we did not have adequate cover from members to help on the stall. So unfortunately we had to cancel at the last moment. It may have been that people regarded Cutteslowe Park as being less easy to get to but I hope that next year we will be able to run a stall at this well-attended and interesting event.
Guided Wildlife Walk around North Hinksey led by Tim King We met on the old bridge over the Seacourt Stream at the end of Willow Walk. First we looked at a nearby boundary stone, erected in 1901 to mark the old boundary between Berkshire and Oxfordshire. It commemorated the Oxford botanist and pharmacist, George Claridge Druce, who was at that time Mayor of Oxford. John Ashdown said that there used to be a mayoral tradition where each year, after a booze-up at the pub (now a business) by the Seacourt stream on the Botley Road, the mayor and his retinue were punted around the streams to view all the boundary stones, rather like the 'beating of the bounds' by water. The inscriptions on the stones all face the water, but this one was turned round relatively recently and faces the wrong way, because concern was expressed over damage from flowing water. Tim King then led us down Willow Walk, to see the diverse MG4 flood meadow vegetation on Osney Mead. This was the field, owned by Oxford Preservation Trust, where we survey the fritillaries each year (see page 3). Six weeks after our survey in April the field looked quite different. The vegetation was higher and the meadow was a rich mixture of herbaceous plants, many in full bloom (120 species of flowering plant have been counted here). The damp-loving, meadow sweet was prominent and other flowers included knapweed, red clover, yellow rattle and many more. Tim had laid down a quadrat and, in our brief count, we identified at least seventeen different species in the 1m2. Above: Examining the quadrat. Right: Tim shows us 3 of the 6 tubes involved in local flood defence. (Photos by Geoff Moxon) We then returned to Willow Walk and saw three of the six Environment Agency tubes which are part of Oxford's flood prevention measures. The debris still surrounding them showed how the water had poured through the tubes this winter, helping to drain the water coming over the Osney Mead flood meadow, sending it on its way to the Thames, to flood settlements downstream!
62 We went across to the other side of Willow Walk to be greeted enthusiastically by four horses, recently put in here to graze on the lush grass. This is where one of UK’s rarest plants, Apium repens (creeping marshwort) has been introduced. It is classified as Critically Endangered in the UK and it requires wet ground with short, disturbed turf (hence the grazing of horses). It is flourishing here and the only other place it thrives in the UK is found in Port Meadow. As we returned to the path, which was in places lined by an unwelcome plant – the rapidly colonising, introduced Himalayan Balsam was just starting to flower and threatens to spread yet more seeds which could spread it down-stream.
Finally we went to the nearby North Hinksey churchyard where, standing by the square memorial, we were asked to guess which way was north. We walked around the four sides and soon spotted that there were more mosses on one of the surrounding stones – yes, that must be the north side! Tim then took us past some extinct molehills to a gravestone with a massive, active ant-hill behind it. He reckoned it was home to 60,000 underground yellow meadow ants which patrol the grassland around their mound. They would be “farming” honeydew from root-feeding aphids which exude a honey-like fluid which they collect to feed their larvae and all the other ants in the hill. The ants also collect the firstinstar aphid babies and feed them to their own brood. Tim pointed out that gravestone inscriptions are useful to date the maximum age of an ant-hill.
Summer Open Day We had a warm sunny day and after a slow start a number people, mainly families with young children came and, as usual, pond-dipping, ably supervised by Chris Lewis, was the main attraction for the children. Large numbers of newt tadpoles were caught and the catch was enthusiastically examined.
Future . . . Sunday 6th July: Wildlife Discovery Day in Oxford University Parks We are going to take part at this event which will have family wildlife-related activities on the day as well as encouraging visitors to explore the site with a wildlife trail and we will have a stall. with our usual activities for children. They are planning to set up more towards the middle of the park, closer to the river, past the cricket area. See details on page 12 and a map of park on http://www.parks.ox.ac.uk/
Moth trapping evening Wednesday 27th August. Moth trapping evening at Boundary Brook Nature Park. Drs Ruth Ashcroft and Anthony Cheke from Friends of Aston's Eyot are setting up some moth traps in contrasting habitats on the reserve which is an excellent way to experience how many kinds of moth there are that you don't normally see. Many of these will be identified on the spot and the rest will be identified later and then released. Setting up will be around 7.30pm, but not much will happen before 8.30pm, as moths tend not to start coming
in until it is really dark around 9pm. We chose this week as it closely follows the new moon (24 August) as bright moons distract the moths from the trap lights. We will finish when people are exhausted or midnight, whichever is the sooner! So feel free to come for as long or short a time as you want from 7.30pm until we decide to close. It will of course also depend on the weather. If you want any more details you could contact Ruth or Anthony directly on 01865-248344
For other events see details on page 12.
OBSERVATIONS
What is this chaffinch doing? For most of April and until the beginning of June we have had a chaffinch banging on the windows. I have seen this behaviour when a wagtail has attacked the side mirror on our car, presumably thinking it was a rival and trying to see it off. The chaffinch stands on the window sill and bangs its beak on the window many times, presumably attacking its reflection, but then it flies up to the top of the window and bangs the glass before flying down to the window sill again. It repeats this many times. I was surprised to see that there are marks on the glass where it has been tapping, it must have a sticky beak. Can anybody suggest what it is doing?
Janet Keene Just one observation from the end of March and beginning of April: on a sunny morning I and the gardener both saw bumble bees emerging out of moss in a mossy part of the lawn. They were large bumble bees and seemed a bit dazed at first. It was a lovely experience to see them emerging, presumably they came from eggs that had been laid last autumn and had not hibernated there? Best wishes,
Helen Mary Bell
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Please send your observations to us
Grants - The Patsy Wood Trust We have had an amazingly generous grant of £9,236 from the Patsy Wood Trust. It is for the development and management of Boundary Brook Nature Park and it covers the anticipated regular expenditure such as running expenses, insurance, rent, plants, seeds and etc. as well as the cost of refurbishing the Visitor Centre, improving drainage and biodiversity of the Park. We were invited to submit an application on the strength of our connections with Patsy Wood. Patsy was the half sister of Robin Buxton who has had many connections with OUWG. Patsy was a pupil at Oxford High School when I was teaching Biology there in the 1970s and 80s. She was a wonderful pupil, conscientious, and she always looked happy and friendly. She came on a biology field trip to North Devon and she hosted an end of term picnic for our group in their lovely garden which was near the school. She then had a successful career after graduating in agriculture and forestry before going on to work on forestry projects with Oxford University, Buckingham county council and The National Trust. However, it was in wider environmental management that she found her real niche. Her work aimed to bridge the gap between environmental awareness and action.
With colleagues at Oxford Brookes University, she established and directed the Environment Information Exchange to work with small companies, retailers, schools and other organisations to tackle waste, pollution, and energy and water wastage. The exchange flourished, winning Oxfordshire sustainability and conservation awards in 2001 and 2004, in large part due to Patsy's ideas, persuasion and enthusiasm. She did a lot of tree planting in Wales as well as enriching hedges around her local allotments and established an allotment orchard. She supplied and planted trees in the gardens of friends and acquaintances. She also planted trees clandestinely in Oxford. When she found a spot that needed a tree she simply planted one resulting in some beautiful additions to the city landscape. Sadly she died from a very aggressive cancer in 2007 aged only 47 and she left a charity fund to support suitable causes with some sort of connection with people who had known her. The Patsy Wood Trust aims to continue this spirit of generous support for projects and activities that Patsy cared about. She lived in Argyle Street - so the trustees felt there was geographical and community connection with our group. We are so grateful for this tremendous support. Janet Keene
Volunteers wanted We are looking for more sources of volunteers to help us to bring about the wonderful changes that this grant will fund. Does anyone know of any organisations we might approach to supply us with volunteers, who might help us either regularly or for a one-off task? If so please could you let us know of either individuals or organisation with their contact details. Please contact the newsletter editor - Janet Keene (details at the bottom of page 12.)
A bean tepee Emma Hughes and a group of children and parents have been working in the kitchen garden. The children have been learning to weed and plant, and have had great fun looking at the wildlife that they uncover in the soil. The children have so far planted some potatoes, beans, peas, sunflowers, currants, strawberries, and tomatoes. The children made a bean tepee out of any long sticks they found lying on the floor around the nature reserve and planted beans at the foot of each stick. They also found some small sticks to use as supports for peas. They planted potatoes from the 'Grow your own potatoes' primary school project; this is a project that teaches children about growing their own potatoes, and about healthy food sources (see http://gyop.potato.org.uk/pc50/Aboutthe-project). The children have sown seeds (such as sunflower and tomato) and are waiting to see what emerges. The idea is that the children can watch the plants grow and then (hopefully) pick the produce so that they experience the full cycle of growing. So far the potatoes and currants are looking good!
82 Photo: Emma Hughes
Attracting Ladybirds to a Garden. I was asked the other day, “I know Ladybirds eat aphids but what vegetables do I grow to attract them to my veg garden?” Well, as with all wildlife you need to provide food, water, shelter, somewhere to roost/breed and hibernate, so on its own a veg plot is unlikely to be enough. What does matter is what’s going on in the rest of your garden and wider community in which your garden is set. Plants with umbrella-shaped flowers attract ladybirds so in the herb garden, dill, feverfew, statice or fennel may work or try cosmos, or coreopsis in the flower border. Avoid using any pesticides is a great tip alone, most pesticides kill ladybirds too. Ladybirds living a year can consume 5,000 aphids, so they are effective in themselves at combating aphids in your plot. Nettles are the preferred egg laying plant for ladybirds and that’s where you’ll be able to watch the strangelooking larvae as well. For hibernation, ladybirds gather in a large group, often amongst the stems of perennial flowers and ornamental grasses such as pampas grass. So leave the pruning back of these types of plants until well into spring when the ladybirds have emerged. If you’ve spent the entire summer attracting them, hibernation zones are key to having them return the following year. It may appear counterproductive, but leaving aphids and pests alone will help with attracting ladybirds. Decoy plants that will attract aphids may help in keeping your desired plants aphid free until the ladybirds appear. Plants that can be used as aphid attracting decoys include early cabbages, nasturtiums or radishes. The easier you make it for ladybirds to find food and water and all the other things they need, the faster they will realize your garden is where they should stay. With these tips attracting, and more importantly, keeping ladybirds in your garden can be easier. You can enjoy the benefits of attracting ladybugs all summer. Happy Gardening Stuart Mabbutt Wildlife Gardening Specialist 01865 www.stuartmabbuttgardeningltd.com
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The photo above shows one of our Life Cycle puzzles which we use at our Open Days and stalls. You can see this, and the other photos in colour on our website under reading matter > Newsletters Most people recognise the commonly found ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) with its scarlet wing covers and 7 spots. They are welcomed by gardeners as they eat the aphids (such as greenfly), so often found on our roses, vegetables and also on agricultural crops Many gardeners are familiar with the things that look like little dark grey insects with orangey patches on their backs, with out realising they are ladybird larvae (see picture) and they too eat the aphids.
Our Website
Mark Franks updated and added many new features, including many photographs, to our original website and made it a most useful and attractive source of information. We would like to thank him for all the excellent work he has done. Sadly, as he is now too busy to continue, we are urgently looking for someone to take over as Webmaster. Mark is willing to show what needs doing, and how to do it, to anyone who is interested. It mainly involves updating the Events section and adding the latest Newsletter to the site 4 times a year. If you would like to find out more please contact the newsletter editor Janet Keene - details at bottom of page 12.
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Is it a bird? We were very surprised when we took a group of school children around Boundary Brook Nature Park in May to see a strange sight! As I was about to show them the cylindrical Woodcrete bird house in a tree on the way to the pond I was surprised to hear a buzzing sound and then I spotted a group of bees circling the bird box. We paused at a suitable distance and looked back at the box and the industrious bees leaving and entering the opening. I took some photos and sent them to Ivan and Jacqueline Wright, who are experts on bees as well as many other oganisms, Ivan replied, “Your bees are clearly the Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) - in both pics you can see, on some, the nicely contrasted areas of orange, black and the bright white tail - especially on the one just going in. This species is 'double brooded' which means that a queen will start a colony quite early in the year, and this first colony usually develops early enough to produce new queens and males that can restart the process for a second colony during the same year. As it's now May, your colony will be a 'first', and will produce new queens that will each go out and a try to found a second colony, but whether one of these new queens might stay on to raise a second colony in the same place - I haven't any experience and can't find anything in a book - so don't know. I'd say it would be good to clean out the box when all is finished (especially if a Bee- or Wax- Moth attack occurs, and this can be done when activity has ceased. However, because of the double-brooded aspect, the box could go dormant as soon as mid-June, or could stay active until September. Or of course, it could go dormant in June and another queen from another nest set-up in July!! One thing worth mentioning is - I'm sure you are aware that bumblebees are not nearly as aggressive as honeybees or Vespid wasps when their nests are approached, and I guess you have a policy about youngsters and bumblebees. But this particular species Bombus hypnorum does seem to be just a little more fractious than other Bombus when their nest is approached. So for example, it would be worth regarding the combination of head height, on a path, with children about.” Since we have had our bird box used by bees I’ve heard of two other places where bees occupied a bird box this year. Have you heard of others? Is this a new phenomenon or is it just I haven’t come across it in the past? Janet Keene
EVENTS FOR OTHER
ORGANISATIONS (For contacts see page 11 unless otherwise listed) JULY Tuesday 1: Ocean circulation and climate, a talk by Dr Renske Gelderloos. The ocean plays a very important role in the Earth's climate system through storage and transport of heat, fresh water, and carbon. Dr Gelderloos will discuss the principle ocean circulation patterns and how they affect well-known climatic phenomena such as El Niño and the hydrological cycle. 7.45pm, The Old School Room, behind St. Peter's Church, First Turn, Wolvercote, OX2 8AQ. Members: Free, Visitors: £2. (ANHSO) Sunday 6: Bugblitz at Earth Trust Centre, Little Wittenham, Oxfordshire, OX14 4QZ. Admission free. A fun-filled day full of creepy crawlies and critters! We’re aiming to record as many mini-beasts at the Earth Trust in a ten hour BugBlitz exploration marathon. Open to anyone, from experts to interested families. The idea is that you go out and collect as many species of mini-beast as you can find at the Earth Trust. Friendly experts will be on hand to assist with the identification of your finds. A ‘drop in’ event, join us at your convenience, and hunt for mini-beasts for as long as long as you wish during our ten hour bug exploration marathon. 8am-6pm. Please note the Poem Tree Café will not be open on the day. Email: admin@earthtrust.org.uk Phone: 01865 407792. Sunday 6: Rousham, A field trip to Rousham, A walk which includes stretches of the scenic River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal in the vicinity of Rousham. The habitat is varied and should provide us with a range of bird species, some with young. The walk can be muddy in places after heavy rain but otherwise is fine. The meeting time for this walk is 9am
10 2 in or close to the recreation ground car park in Steeple Aston at OS Ref: SP 476262, just off Paines Hill. Details: Barry Hudson 01993 852028. (OOS) Saturday 12: A Hunt for Purple Emperor and Other Butterflies at Bernwood Forest, with Dennis Dell. 10.30 am to 12.30pm. Bernwood Forest was a royal hunting forest in Anglo-Saxon times, and is today a Site of Special Scientific Interest and widely considered to be one of the most important butterfly sites in the United Kingdom. If you would like the possible option of staying on in the afternoon then please bring a packed lunch. For further details email fieldsecretary@anhso.org.uk (ANHSO) Saturday 12: To look for signs of otters led by Ellen Lee with Judy Webb on hand to talk about the hedgerows. 3 pm to 4.30-5.00 pm. Meet at the punt rollers Mesopotamia at 3 pm. The walk via the University Parks and over the Rainbow Bridge before heading north along the river as far as Wolfson Nature Reserve looking for otter spraints, principally on trees and bridges etc along the way. Returning parallel to the river, to give us a chance to look at some of the hedgerows. (NMWG) Saturday 26: Earth Trust River of Life Project, Chris Parker, 10 am to 12 noon, A guided walking tour of this project which will transform over 2 kilometres of Thames riverbank, restoring wetland features and wildlife habitat, Parking spaces are limited so car sharing is encouraged please contact the Field Secretary to offer or request lifts or for further details email fieldsecretary@anhso.org.uk (ANHSO)
SEPTEMBER Tuesday 2: Speaker to be confirmed. 7.45 pm The Old School Room, behind St. Peter's Church, First Turn, Wolvercote, OX2 8AQ. Members: Free, Visitors: £2. (ANHSO) Sunday 7: The September Field Trip taking place at Bladon Oxon. Details of starting time is best checked with the organiser Steve Alley 01608 659628 (OOS) Wednesday 10: The Passenger Pigeon a talk by Dr Mark Avery at 7.45pm. Please note it will be held at Exeter Hall Kidlington as will all indoor meetings this coming season. Thursday 11: Tales of an Urban Birder, an illustrated talk by David Lindo, a well-known broadcaster and writer who specialises in urban birds and wildlife. Time: 7.45pm Sandhills School, Terrett Avenue, Oxford OX3 8FN. Free to local group members. Visitors welcome, £3 on the door. Time: 7.45pm. Contact Tel: 07813782514. E-mail: lindaeneal@aol.com (RSPB) Thursday 25: St. John’s College, Oxford. A guided tour with the head gardener, Phil Shefford, of one of Oxford’s largest colleges. Fine grounds with many trees and shrubs. Meet 14.00 at the college entrance on St.Giles. The Tree Club welcomes anyone interested in trees to join in its meetings Annual subscription £10, single attendance £3. Further information, contact Bruce 01865 331289 or Ian 01865 245864.
CONTACTS FOR OTHER ORGANISATIONS Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire (ANHSO): Alison McDonald 556651 Botanic Garden: Oxford 286690 British Trust for Conservation Volunteers 01296 330033 Butterfly Conservation: David Redhead Oxford 772520 Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) Sietske Boeles Oxford 728153 City's Countryside Sites or Biodiversity in Parks Oxford 252240 email: parks@oxford.gov.uk Forest of Oxford: John Thompson Oxford 513528 Friends of Aston’s Eyot (FAE) Ruth Ashcroft 01865 248344 Friends of CS Lewis Reserve (FoCSL) Helen d'Ayala Oxford 775476 Friends of Oxpens Meadow (FOM) Margaret Maden Oxford 721372 Friends of the Earth (Oxford): Jackie Walkden 07981 572629 Friends of the Trap Grounds (FoTG) Catherine Robinson Oxford 511307
Friends of Warneford Meadow (FoWM) Sietske Boeles Oxford728153 Local Wildlife Trust (BBOWT): Oxford 775476 New Marston Wildlife Group Curt Lamberth 07763 191072 Oxford Conservation Volunteers www.ocv.org.uk (OCV): Jo 07887 928115 Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum (ONCF): Oxford 407034 Oxford Ornithological Soc. (OOS): Barry Hudson 01993 852028 Oxford Tree Club (OTC): Ian Gourlay Oxford 245864 Oxfordshire Badger Group: Julia Hammett Oxford 864107 Oxfordshire Bat Group: David Endacott 01235 764832 Rare Plants Group (RPG): Sue Helm 07774205972 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB): Peter Wilkinson Oxford 452579 Science Oxford Live (SOL): Oxford 728953 Shotover Wildlife (SW): Chair: Ivan Wright Oxford 874423 SS Mary & John Churchyard Group, Ruth Conway Oxford 723085 Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre (TVERC) Gavin Bird Oxford 815411
NEXT NEWSLETTER Please send your copy for the next newsletter (for October, November and December) as soon as possible to:
11 2 Janet Keene, 7 Norwood Avenue, Southmoor, Abingdon, OX13 5AD or if possible email: keene@ouwg.org.uk. The final deadline is by the end of August.
OXFORD URBAN WILDLIFE GROUP Don't forget that we are here to help. Please contact any member of the committee for help or advice on wildlife matters and we will attempt to help or to put you in touch with someone who can answer.
Website: www.ouwg.org.uk Alan Hart (Warden) of Nature Park 07901 120 308 Janet Keene: Newsletter Oxford 820522
UNIVERSITY of OXFORD – Department for Continuing Education
Many of the Day and Weekend classes get booked up in advance. Here are some of the classes that are advertised so do look on the website. Some are online courses Look in good time to see what is coming up that might interest you. .
DAY COURSES Citizen Science from Outside to Online: technology for wildlife recording Rewley House Sat 29 Nov 2014. Fees from £62. The Medicinal Properties of Plants Sat 13 Sep 2014 Rewley House. Fees from £62.
WEEKLY CLASSES Evolution: Life explained through natural selection Tue 20 Jan to Tue 24 Mar 2015 at Ewert House 7-9pm. 10 meetings. Fees from £185. Animal Behaviour Thu 16 Apr to Thu 18 Jun 2015 at Rewley House 7-9pm. 10 meetings. Fees from £185. The History of Life: from the first cells to first humans Wed 1 Oct to Wed 3 Dec 2014 2-4pm. 10 meetings. Fees from £185. Vertebrate Life Tue 14 Apr to Tue 16 Jun 2015 Ewert House, 10.30am-12.30pm. 10 meetings. Fees from £185.
ONLINE COURSES Field Techniques for Surveying Birds, Field Techniques for Surveying Fish & Amphibians, Field Techniques for Surveying Invertebrates, Field Techniques for Surveying Mammals & Reptiles, Field Techniques for Surveying Vegetation, Data Analysis in Ecology: Statistics for Ecologists and Field Biologists, Ecological survey techniques. The above are part-time over five weeks, tutor-led training course which can be taken from anywhere in the world. They are taught entirely online fees from £395. Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques is a part time (mostly online) one year course. There are many excellent courses coming up these are just a few of the details so visit Rewley House for leaflets or for more information contact the Administrator, Day & Weekend Schools, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA. Tel 01865 - 270380 or by email: pp@conted.ox.ac.uk. Website: www.conted.ox.ac.uk
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OUWG EVENTS
www.ouwg.org.uk
JULY Sunday 6: Summer Wildlife Discovery Day at Oxford University Parks 11am to 4pm Giffords Circus is onsite at the same time, so it should be a very busy event and a great opportunity to meet lots of local people. We are having a stall with activities for children – do come along to join in and help if you can. http://www.parks.ox.ac.uk/
AUGUST Sunday 3: Summer Picnic for OUWG members and family at Boundary Brook Nature Park from 12 noon onwards. Bring a picnic – maybe with some items to share. You can sit and chat or go and explore the Park on your own or have a guided walk in a group. We are going to invite members of East Ward Allotment Association to join us. Saturday 16: Elder Stubbs Festival 2014. We are having a stall at this interesting multi-national event in the Elder Stubbs Allotments. There will be live music and food from many nations. Fruit is on sale from the orchards and there are children’s activities. Do visit our stall and, if you can spare an hour or so to help this would be excellent. 12-6pm. Elder Stubbs Garden Group, (opposite Florence Park) Rymers Lane, Oxford, OX4 3LB. It attracts over 2,500 people from the local community enjoying a day of music, dancing and unique activities in this wonderful setting with orchards, allotments, sculptures, woodland and other habitats. Wednesday 27: Moth trapping evening at Boundary Brook Nature Park. Drs Ruth Ashcroft and Anthony Cheke, from Friends of Aston's Eyot, are setting up some moth traps in contrasting habitats on the reserve. Setting up from 7.30pm, moths probably won’t arrive until about 8.30pm.
SEPTEMBER Sunday 7: Open Day at Boundary Brook Nature Park. 2-5pm. There will be guided walks stalls with native wild plants, cottage garden plants and seeds, as well as booklets about wildlife for sale. Wheelchair access, admission free. Children under 14 to be accompanied by an adult. WORK PARTIES Boundary Brook Nature Park: Sundays between 10am and 1pm except on July 6th and after midday on August 3rd. when we hope you will be joining the picnic. Refreshments provided during work parties. Ring 07901 120 308 on day to ensure park will be open.
BOUNDARY BROOK NATURE PARK. Come and help us to manage the Nature Park. You can choose your task from a variety of jobs. A warm welcome guaranteed. You need not come for the whole time. Please ring on the day of the work party to ensure it has not been cancelled through bad weather etc. Contact: Alan Hart 07901 120 308. There is often someone working at Boundary Brook so, if you want to come at other times, find out who will be there and when by ringing Alan Hart but check before setting out to make sure it is still on. Bus route: Stagecoach Route 3.
OXFORD URBAN WILDLIFE GROUP If you wish to contact OUWG or would like to become a member write to the editor: Janet Keene, 7 Norwood Ave, Southmoor, Abingdon OX13 5AD or Tel: Oxford 820522. E-mail: keene@ouwg.org.uk
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