West Cheshire Wildlife

LOOKING AHEAD

Hopefully, by the time this lands on your doorstep, Spring will have well and truly sprung! With the bitterly cold March we have had, I think we are all starting to forget how lovely it is to see the daffodils and primroses at this time of year. I know I haven’t seen as much snow for a long time!

The Winter talks were very good this year starting with Peter Cunnington telling us about alpine plants and showing us some wonderful photographs of plants in scree slopes, and making us all think that walking in the Alps in Spring might be a lovely thing to do. This was followed by an update on Gowy Meadows from Jackie Hulse, and all of the progress that has been made there. There will be a guided walk on Sunday June 11th so that we can see the changes for ourselves.

As Christmas approached we had an excellent meal at The Frog in Upton – both the food and the service were very good, especially considering that there was over 20 of us!

January brought Paul Kemp, the Trust’s grazing officer, to tell us all about the cattle and sheep which he looks after. We should be able to see some of the cattle when we visit Gowy Meadows. It was well worth the wait for our February speaker, Brian Webster, who unfortunately had an accident on his way to talk to us. We were treated to wonderful slides of the wildlife of the Falkland Islands – I think my favourites were probably some of the penguins.

Our final talk of the season was from Elizabeth Barratt, Conservation Officer at CWT, who spoke to us not just about British bats, but also the exotic, and very large, fruit bats or flying foxes. We have been very lucky, and are very grateful, to have been able to borrow a data projector from Ness Gardens for some of these talks, the improvement in quality of modern digital photography is amazing.

I am hoping that we can organise some talks again next year, starting in September or October – if you have any suggestions for topics, please contact me as soon as possible.

Help Needed – Please!
This leads me on to a plea. We need more people to help run West Group – Pam and Frank have not been in the best of health over this last year, and I am sure that we all wish them better health in the future. As my husband, Ray, will be fully retired in October 2007, we shall be spending more time on our canal boat and less at home in Chester. This means that I would like to hand over the chairmanship of West Group sometime soon – or at least find someone to run in tandem for a year or so. Please think about this carefully, and consider if you have the time and commitment to help. It would be a great shame if West Group folded after all of the good work that has been put in at Moston.

Talking of Moston.....
At the moment, for the time of year, Moston Community Nature Reserve is looking really good. The meadows and brambles have been cut and burnt on several bonfires, the pond is really full after all of the wet weather, and the snowdrops and primroses are really pretty.

The site has been visited by several school, Watch and community groups, and the education staff at Grebe House are starting to use the site much more than they used to do. It is very rewarding to know that all of our hard work is paying off.

Work parties continue to be held on the morning of the second Saturday of each month, starting at 10am, and people usually start drifting away after 12 noon. One of our volunteers, Will, has made the pond his pet project and has made an excellent job of removing the blanket weed and excess reeds. Our trusty volunteer Jean has not been for a while as she broke her wrist before Christmas, hopefully she’ll be back soon with her friends. They always seem to have a good giggle about whatever they are doing, and are a joy to work with. If you feel that you cannot help with any of the work on site, but would like to visit and have a look around, please do not hesitate to com on a Saturday morning and give moral support – we love to see people while we are working, if only so we can have a rest!

I think that’s about all of the news for now – I hope to see some of you at the work parties, or maybe at the Gowy walk. Please think about any help you can offer, and contact me with any thoughts you may have about things mentioned above.

I wish you all a good summer,

Gwynneth Buss Chairman