Category Archives: biodiversity

Building a home for swifts

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in biodiversity

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We are bidding for funding for a swift tower on the edge of the orchard site. This will provide a safe and purpose-built nesting site for these endangered birds. Swifts are on the RSPB amber list as their numbers have fallen dramatically in the past few years, this is often an unforeseen consequence of housing improvements leading to a loss of nesting sites. We hope to have a tower in place for the 2013 breeding season. Swifts are sometimes seen above the orchard; we would love to offer them somewhere to land and raise their chicks.

You can see an example of how the tower will look here Swift tower diagram

 

Bat Night and Moth Morning

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in biodiversity, events, insects, News

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The orchard is holding its annual bat walk and moth night on 9th and 10th of June 2012.We will meet in the orchard at 9pm on Saturday 9.6.12 for a bat walk along and around the guided busway. Moth traps will be set up at this time and you can observe how this is done. Meet again at 10am on Sunday 10.6.12  in the orchard to empty the moth traps,identify the different species and release them back into their habitat. Dave Jackson,a local bee keeper, will then give a talk about honey bees and show the colony that is in our observation hive.This promises to be a very full weekend as this Sunday is the second Sunday in the month, so we will also have our maintenance session. We will carry out the regular tree check and weed around the base of each tree. The hedgerows need invasive weeds such as bramble and elder removing .All help is gratefully received. Looking forward to an exciting weekend.
Please remember there are no facilities on site, and especially for the bat walk please dress for the weather and bring a torch.