Here’s a quick glimpse of local wildlife events coming up over the next few months. We’ll post details of each a couple of weeks before the event.

• Wednesday 19 September – Bat Walk at Yate Common
• Sunday 23 September – Scenic South Gloucestershire Walk
• Monday 24 September – Wild Food Foray at Wapley Bushes
• Saturday 13 October – Tree Life Centre Open Day, Grimsbury Farm
• Saturday 20 October – Kennedy Way Pond Workday
• Sunday 21 October – Ridge Wood Conservation Day
• Monday 22 October – Fungus Foray at Tytherington
• Thursday 25 October – Wonders of the Universe – Star Gazing, Chipping Sodbury, 
• Sunday 28 October – Kingsgate Park Ponds Workday
• Wednesday 31 October – Owl Prowl at Ridge Wood Nature Reserve
• Sunday 4 November – Wapley Bushes Workday
• Fri, Sat & Sun evenings from 30 Nov to 23 Dec 2012 – The Spectacular Westonbirt Enchanted Christmas
• Saturday 19 January 2013 – Wapley Bushes Workday
• Friday 8 March – AWT Quiz Night Live!

Avon Wildlife Trust’s Southwold Group is very active and would very much welcome new members and volunteers. If anyone wants to help out and try something new then please call Malcolm on 01454 310328 and you will be made very welcome.

Avon Bat Group’s Laura Plenty will be taking us around this green open space for a twilight stroll in search of bats. Bat detectors will be provided and please wear warm clothes and boots and bring a torch. This event has been organised in cooperation with South Glos Council.

Meet at the Westerleigh Road entrance to the Common opposite St. Briavel’s Drive, 7.15pm (until 9.15pm).

We will be pleased to welcome the Chairman of Dodington Parish Council, Gloria Stephen, who will be presenting the Green Flag Community Award at the start of the Wapley Bushes Work Morning on Saturday. Gloria has of course been a frequent volunteer at Wapley as well, so she knows the Reserve well. We thought it would be more appropriate to do the presentation to our volunteers on site rather than at an artificial event in the Parish Hall.

This workday will be our annual stream clearance where we hope to clear the central watercourse through the main woodland. This work is required to preserve the habitat of the rare local thin-spiked wood sedge. We will also have a range of lighter tasks – there will be something for everyone!

Please wear walking or wellington boots and bring some gloves if you have them – we’ll provide all the tools. Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, south Yate, 10.00am.

Avon Wildlife Trust’s Southwold Group is very active and would very much welcome more like-minded people to join them. They organise workdays, walks, surveys, fundraising events and it only takes a couple of hours every other month. If anyone wants to help out and try something new then please call Malcolm on 01454 310328 and you will be made very welcome.

Malcolm masking up ready for spraying

The Orchard for the Future is going well, apart from a minor problem with the quince trees and a few others others which have had to be treated for quince leaf blight fungal infection using traditional Bordeaux mixture and flowers of sulphur. Both of these chemicals are traditionally used in organic agriculture. Thanks go to  Isabel, Malcolm and Tim for carrying out the spraying. At least two further retreatments will be required – one in winter and one before leaf burst in spring.

We are pleased to announce that Wapley Bushes has won the Green Flag Community Award 2012, the national award scheme for well-managed, high-quality public and community parks and green spaces.

Our entry combined Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve, including our recently-planted Jubilee Hedge, with the new Orchard for the Future, which aims to restore heritage varieties of fruit in a public orchard.

We are particularly happy to have gained the Community Award because it recognises the efforts of all our volunteers.

The award will be presented at the next Wapley Work Morning  on 8th September – meet at the Shire Way gate at 10.00 am.

First fruit at the Orchard for the Future!

As part of the Orchard for the Future project, Dodington Parish Council and Wapley Bushes Conservation Group are running a free Fruit Tree Care Workshop on Sunday from 10am to 1pm.

We will be learning about pruning and about how to care for the young trees we planted last year, and starting to rehabilitate some very old fruit trees.

This is an open event, so it could be useful to people who perhaps have a tree or two in their gardens. If you’re interested, just turn up!

The meeting point is the Wapley Rank cottages that are opposite the southern entrance to the Wapley Bushes Nature Reserve, Besom Lane, Westerleigh, South Gloucestershire (satnav postcode: BS37 8RW, OS Grid ref: ST708803). Limited parking is available at the southern entrance to the Wapley Bushes Nature Reserve at Besom Lane.

As part of the Wildlife Trust’s contribution to Chipping Sodbury Festival Week, we will be holding our annual duck race along the River Frome.

Why not come along, have a flutter, and join us for an afternoon of races, a cup of tea and a doughnut? You are very welcome to come along and bring a picnic to enjoy in the park. The races start from 2.00pm.

Meet at Jubilee Park, Quarry Road, Chipping Sodbury, 2.00pm.

Update 25 June: The river was running so fast and deep yesterday that we had to postpone the Duck Race. Yes, it CAN be too wet for ducks! But don’t worry if you’ve paid for a duck, we’ll be running the races one in the near future.

Many thanks to our experts Pauline Wilson (plants) and Alan Daniels (birds). It was nice to see some new faces, including visitors from Patchway and from Leap Valley Nature Reserve. We spotted many varieties of flowers, several types of fungi, 16 species of birds and a steam train!

We shall be having a spring walk around the meadows and woodland to have a look at the different types of wildflowers that are on display. Do come along and learn more about our native flora. Please wear walking boots or other stout footwear.

Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, South Yate, 10.00am.