Author Archives: snotts-gd

Worrying news on Environmental Protection

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This is from The Wildlife Trusts weekly newsletter and is a call for action

The dark clouds gathering over Westminster last week unleashed a torrent of terrible news for wildlife and the environment, with the UK Government launching an attack on nature at a time when we urgently need a plan for its recovery.

From lifting the ban on fracking, to a bill that could clear the way for many of our most important environmental protection laws to be removed, Liz Truss’s government seems to be waging a war on nature.

The announcements sparked an unprecedented wave of anger from wildlife conservation charities and the wider public. The Wildlife Trusts’ director of policy and public affairs, Joan Edwards, has summarised some of the issues in blogs on energy security (here) and deregulation (here). We’d urge everyone, including Wildlife Trust staff, to contact their MP and local Councillor, and demand better. To encourage action, we’ve produced a step-by-step guide on how to help – see it on our website here.

Grizzled Skipper Butterfly Project Work Parties for 2022/23

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These are the dates for the autumn/winter volunteer work parties for 2022/23. Once again we will be laying on 10 work parties during this period. I hope that you are able to come along and help continue the work to support this nationally scarce and locally, very important species.

2022

Sunday 2nd October – GCRN, Lime Sidings to Barnstone Tunnel – hay raking & removal

Tuesday 1st November – Grange Farm, Normanton on Soar – scrub clearance/ bare earth creation

Sunday 13th November – GCRN, Rushcliffe Halt & Cutting – scrub clearance/ bare earth creation

Tuesday 22nd November – Saxondale Disused Railway Spur – scrub clearance/ bare earth creation

Sunday 4th December – GCRN, Lime Sidings to Barnstone Tunnel – scrub clearance and egg laying site maintenance

2023

Sunday 15th January  – Flawborough Triangle – scrub regrowth clearance & treatment/ bare earth creation

Tuesday 24th January – Granby Disused Railway – egg laying site maintenance and targeted scrub clearance

Thursday 9th February – Staunton Quarry – scrub clearance & treatment

Sunday 19th February – Flawborough Footpath – scrub clearance and scallop creation/ bare earth creation

Tuesday 7th March – Site & Task to be Confirmed

We hope you will help us to prepare local sites for grizzled skipper to enjoy in spring 2023. Please contact me for meeting instructions – Chris Jackson (Notts Biodiversity Action Group Officer) Christopher.Jackson@nottscc.gov.uk

 

Celebrating Rushcliffe Awards – nominations open

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Nominations are now open for the Celebrating Rushcliffe Awards, which celebrates the Borough’s wonderful volunteers, businesses, clubs, organisations, environmentalists, sports clubs and athletes, and the best of its health and wellbeing and food and drink sectors.

In partnership with media partner West Bridgford Wire, it is a great opportunity to reflect on so many groups and individuals who play essential roles in Rushcliffe communities. We are pleased to again welcome Great Northern Group as lead sponsors who run Gilt and The Refinery in West Bridgford and Gilt in Bingham.

The 10 categories for the 2022 Celebrating Rushcliffe Awards are …

  • Volunteer of the Year – An individual or group who gives countless hours and dedication to a Rushcliffe community.
  • Business of the Year – Recognising a business in the Borough that supports the local community. This could be through employing local people and apprentices, growing their business, providing work experience or putting profit back into the Rushcliffe economy.
  • Young Person/Group of the Year – An individual or group to watch in the future or being an excellent role model for other young people to emulate.
  • Community Group of the Year – Recognising a club, organisation or community group who may have achieved success and are helping create a sense of place, epitomising what makes Rushcliffe great by coming together to improve their local area.
  • Sportsperson of the Year – An individual who has achieved great success in their chosen sport, made a significant impact in their sport or in their club or team, been a role model for others and raised the profile of their sport or made considerable improvement in their performances and achievements.
  • Sports Club of the Year – Acknowledging a sports club who has achieved success in their sport through diversity, competition or overcoming barriers to enable people to participate. Coaches, officials and volunteer nominations are encouraged to highlight achievements and club initiatives that have helped increase membership or the development of a new section.
  • Food and Drink Establishment of the Year – Recognising a fantastic outlet who provide quality, provenance, and presentation as well as being the best place for a cuppa, sandwich, pint, pizza, or pie.
  • Health and Wellbeing Award  – Celebrating an individual’s or group’s tireless dedication in improving the health and wellbeing of members of their local community.
  • Environmental Group or Project of the Year – Acknowledging individuals, organisations or projects that have an impact in making Rushcliffe a ‘greener’ place. This could include promoting nature conservation, reducing waste, improving energy efficiency, water conservation or improving quality of life for the people of the Borough.
  • The Pride of Rushcliffe Award – An individual or organisation who makes others proud to live in Rushcliffe. This could be an inspirational sportsperson, public figure or head of a community or voluntary group who leads by example to make the Borough a better place to live and work.

Please see below the link to the 2022 nomination form, perhaps you have another worthy nomination?

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RushCRAs2022

Please note the deadline for nominations is 11pm on Sunday 16th October.

All shortlisted nominees will be invited to attend the awards evening later in the year.

Community Development Team

Rushcliffe Borough Council

E: communitydevelopment@rushcliffe.gov.uk

News from the Dewberry Hill site (Rad on Trent)

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We were highly delighted to discover on Sunday morning not one, but two very large and impressive moths in one of the moth traps. This species is the Clifden Nonpareil, sometimes referred to as the Blue Underwing. The beautiful blue colouring is revealed as the moth becomes agitated and gets ready for flight. Once a resident in Kent and Norfolk earlier in the twentieth century, this moth became extinct as a breeding species and has since been considered a scarce migrant though there have been increased sightings in more recent years, but only a handful recorded to date in Nottinghamshire. The two we found may possibly be a male and female.
 
Many thanks once again to Paul Dulwich for organising our surveys and we hope to carry this on next year
 
Phil Taylor

Rushcliffe Nature Conservation Forum

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Rushcliffe Borough Council are organizing the forum in conjunction with Notts Wildlife Trust and anyone involved in nature conservation in Rushcliffe can attend. It is on Saturday 1st Oct.

Please follow this link for details of this year’s forum, which will be held at FarmEco in Screveton https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rushcliffe-nature-conservation-forum-tickets-396949676167   This is the first forum we’ve arranged for a few years, so we’re really looking forward to catching up in person. Please book your place via the Event Brite Link. This is open to all Rushcliffe Friends groups, volunteers involved with managing wildlife spaces and nature conservation enthusiasts in the Borough.

Red Kites in Rushcliffe.

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According to Notts Birders two pairs of Red Kites have successfully bred in Rushcliffe this year. Apparently Red Kites are noted for setting up clusters of nests, so they are hoping that this is the start of a colonisation process over the next few years. So keep an eye on the sky, the next big bird you see might not be the usual Buzzard. Although it does make me wonder – will they be in competition with Buzzards anyone know ?

To look out for – the reddish  colouring on the body, upper tail and wing, but  probably most notable is that Red Kites have a shallow forked tail, whilst the Buzzard tail fans out. Bigger than a Buzzard it `s call is described as a thin piping sound, similar to but less mewling than the common buzzard.

Bonus fact – the UK supports 10% of the RK population.

 

Update on the Badger Edge Vaccination Scheme (BEVS)

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BEVS aims to tackle bovine TB through badger vaccination. As of 2022, with funding from DEFRA, we have moved to a new project area on the South Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire border. Gary Cragg, BEVS Project Manager, gives an update on the project:

‘I’ve been busy contacting landowners, visiting them on site, signing them up to the project and surveying with the help of my BEVS volunteers and EMEC staff. To date I have signed up 10 landowners to give access for surveying which equates to approximately 600ha (6km2) of land. There are lots more in the pipeline, including some of the University of Nottingham land, who I am hoping will be signed up very soon. I’ve had a good response from the landowners I’ve been in touch with, and it seems that every person I see face to face has then given me information about other landowners near to them to contact.

I really want to keep the impetus on new landowner contacts going over the next 6 months of the project and I am working hard on increasing landowner sign ups. We are hoping for the next tranche of funding for badger vaccination will be confirmed over the next few months to enable NWT to progress the project into 2023 and beyond.’

Wildlife for Children

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Rushcliffe Wildlife Watch meets every second Saturday at the Rushcliffe Country Park Visitors Centre between 11 am to 1pm and is open to children between 8 and 12 years of age. Charge £3. For more info contact rushcliffewatch@nottswt.co.uk  . Next meeting is on Sat 10th Sept, with subsequent meetings on the 8th Oct, 10th Nov and 12th Dec.

UPDATE – this is the planned programme of activities  Rushcliffe Wildlife Watch programme Autumn to Winter 2022

Beetle Mania

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The big excitements at the Wilwell Work Party on Saturday was Ian`s discovery of a possible dung beetle (yup it is true to say we are easily pleased). We sent a photo to Christopher Terrell-Nield who knows a thing or two about beetles and he reckons it’s either Geotrupes sterorarius 16-26mm. Among the largest of our species. Habitat cattle pasture but also woodland, moorland and hillsides.
 
Or it’s Geotrupes (Anoplotrupes) stercorosus 12-19mm.. Habitat mostly damp deciduous and mixed woodlands. The typical Dor beetle of woodland, moorland, and upland habitats.
 
But probably the former based on size, habitat and the shape, so it`s gone into Nature Counts as likely.
 
Geotrupes sterorarius – Martin Smith

Brownie fundraisers visit Wilwell Farm Cutting

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On Tuesday 14th June we had the wonderful opportunity to connect some amazing fundraisers with
their local reserve – Wilwell Farm Cutting. As a thank you for generously raising £584 towards our
Ancient Woodland Appeal and support these diverse and much needed habitats. As a thank you Volunteer Warden Gordon Dyne took the Lady Bay 2nd Brownies and their leaders on a guided walk of the reserve.
 
Fundraising champions come in all sorts of, however the Lady Bay 2nd Brownies’s fund-raising activity were was definitely one of the more novel fundraisers we had seen in a long time, with the Brownies donating the proceeds from a pre-loved clothing sale they held the December. When asked why they chose Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust they said ‘we wanted the money to go towards a local cause that was doing something positive for the environment, and NWT was the obvious choice’.
 
Reflecting on the walk and event, Gordon Dyne observed “It was really great to meet a group of young people taking an interest in their natural environment. And I hope they will all take that interest forward into their futures and continue to speak up for our environment in it`s many forms and that we will see some returning as adults to continue the work of nature conservation at Wilwell and other reserves”.
 
Photo – The Lady Bay 2nd Brownies with Sally Chambers Brown Owl receiving the certificate for fundraising with Gordon Dyne (Volunteer Warden Wilwell Farm Cutting) and Sienna Carver (Supporter Care Officer of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust).
 
If you would like to find out more about fundraising for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and
supporting our work – please email fundraising@nottswt.co.uk.