This is your chance to have some fun and pick a team of Eggheads and bring them along to our general knowledge quiz. We have found this to be a very popular event and you are most welcome make up a team name and bring your own snacks and beverages. We will also be serving tea and coffee for you in the break.

Quiz teams are usually made up of four players at a cost of £2 each per person. Please contact Malcolm on 01454 310328 to book your team’s place.

The Old Grammar School, High Street, Chipping Sodbury, 7.30pm.

Many hands make light work, as they say. We had 14 volunteers at today’s Wapley Bushes workday. Our plan was to create a range of micro-habitats in the Western Wood. The Western Wood was planted some 20 years ago and had never been thinned, so we concentrated on three areas to increase the biodiversity as recommended in the Management Plan.

Following Forestry Commission guidelines we carried out some selective felling to open up a glade just off the Ride, allowing light through and encouraging ground flora.

Along the diagonal path we cleared a number of semicircular areas that will provide warm, still air conditions for our many species of butterfly.

Finally we cut back a lot of intrusive brambles and overgrowth at the entrance from the Ride to the Western Wood to improve public access and let more light through to ground level.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who came today – all your hard work will pay dividends later in the year!

This workday will involve practical woodland management work such as tree and shrub planting. This will help to enhance the biodiversity of this precious nature reserve. Please wear walking or wellington boots and bring some gloves.

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

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge is a fascinating place, especially in this cold weather. Here is a video of the birds being fed on the Rushy this morning:

What’s more they also have live webcam feeds of Swan Lake and the Rushy – you can watch the daily wild bird feed at 4pm, or watch the wild birds anytime of the day or night! (Note – the webcam page needs Flash, and takes a few seconds for the video feeds to load – please be patient)

A few photos from today’s walk in the woods and meadows.

A well-attended work morning saw us tackling planting on the woodland edge alongside the Lower Meadow. We planted 150 trees, and as usual they were all traditional species for the habitat: Wayfaring tree, spindle, hazel, hawthorn, purging buckthorn, dogwood, and guelder rose.

Malcolm sorts out the trees

Our volunteers get stuck in

Pat’s picked out a tree

And Isabel has planted hers

 

The reconstruction of the Ride – the path between the two woodlands – has now been completed.

This is thanks to a £10,495 grant from SITA Trust to fund the ‘Track to the Top’ project. The scheme was also supported by a community contribution of £1,200 from Wapley Bushes Conservation Group.

Some 40 metres of muddy path within the woodland was dealt with at the same time. A big thank you to our colleagues from South Gloucestershire Council, who provided invaluable design and technical advice.

Take a walk along the famous Illuminated Trail and see the National Arboretum lit up at night. There’s also the opportunity to visit Father Christmas plus lots of other festive excitement – carols from local choirs and bands, roast chestnuts, mulled wine and great gift ideas from the Christmas Market and Forest Shop, which will stay open until 8.30pm selling fantastic presents and decorations.

The tickets costs are: adults £8, concessions £7, children £4, and the tickets can be bought online from October onwards (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt) or through the box office on 01842 814612.

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening from 26 November to 19 December 2010
5.00 to 8.30pm (last entry at 7.15pm), Westonbirt Arboretum, A433, 3 miles south west of Tetbury,  Gloucestershire.