Spring is well and truly sprung, in spite of the cold nights, and May is almost here. It is quite possibly the best time to go birdwatching in South Notts as virtually all our breeding species will be on territory, and you may be lucky to pick out a rarity: May is a good month for anything to show up! Trees and hedges will provide a beautiful green background, wildflowers of all kinds and colours will emerge, and the insect world will finally display its incredibly diverse range of shapes, sizes and colours.
To find out more of what nature may have to offer in the coming month, read our guide for May.
Get closer to nature through our organised events:
Sun 29th May – Keyworth Meadows Open Day Walk with Neil Pinder (07981 928402).We will start with a look at the burial ground wildflower meadow and then walk about one kilometre to Keyworth Meadows at the edge of Fairham Brook, looking at birds, bees, butterflies and wild flowers. Meet at 09:30 in the cemetery car park at the bend in Wysall Lane, return by 1:00pm. NB Lings Lane gets very muddy in wet periods.
Sun 29th May – Bingham Linear Park Grizzled Skipper Walk + other butterflies, flora & fauna with Jenny Craig ( jenny@ifcraig.com ) Meet 10 am at the Tithby Bridge entrance on Tithby Road, Bingham.
For the full Out & About programme follow this link http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=231 more wildlife visits will be added into the summer.
Thurs 28th April – South Notts Local Group AGM
The SNG Annual General Meeting was held online on 28th April, with Gordon Dyne fulfilling his last duties as Chair, to be replaced by Valerie Holt. Minutes of the meeting, including the Chairman’s and Treasurer’s reports are available here.
The current Committee members are:
Valerie Holt Chair/Treasurer Jackie Glenn Secretary
Margie Richards Neil Glenn Martin Price
Chris Overton Alan Hurst Bill Logan
The Group constitution allows for a maximum of 12 members, and we would be delighted to fill the vacant positions. If you are interested in joining and helping local wildlife (and, honestly, the time commitment is small), please contact Valerie Holt at v.holt1@ntlworld.com for more details.
Following the AGM, Janice Bradley, NWT Northern Nature Recovery Manager, talked about the Beaver Project at Idle Valley, explaining the rationale behind the reintroduction and why it is being done at there. Supported by lots of images and videos, Janice gave us an up-to-the-minute picture of progress, including some resourceful behaviour by the resident Longhorns, and the apparent universal appeal to other animals of beaver scent!
For those not fortunate enough to see this excellent talk, it was recorded, and we are in the process of setting up access via Eventbrite. We will publish details on our website and Facebook page, so please look out – it really is too good to miss.
Work Parties
Our local nature reserves rely on volunteers to help maintain them, and organise regular work parties. May’s dates are listed in Upsoming Events, so if you have some spare time and energy please feel free to join in – you will be very welcome!
For other wildlife news and info from around Rushcliffe follow https://www.facebook.com/SouthNottsWildlifeGroup