EVENTS
NB: All events are held at 5 Oaken Clough Terrace.
As parking is restricted, please park at the top end of
Oaken
Clough toward the entrance from Oldham Road. Proceed straight
ahead to wrought iron gate. This is Oaken Clough Terrace. Walk across the
terrace to the end house and this is number 5. Please respect the privacy
of our neighbours and please do not initiate conversation with them. Your
co-operation is appreciated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Breathing Places this month |
|
Do one
thing
Plant a wildlife friendly shrub or tree Hawthorn, blackthorn, guelder rose
and field maple provide food, nesting sites and cover for small mammals and
birds.
Find out more at
www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
|
|
What to look
for
Snow rain hail and sun make January an unpredictable month. Hazel catkins
blow in the breeze pollinating the tiny crimson female flowers and snowdrops
spill out of copses. On lakes and reservoirs, rafts of winter wildfowl include
pochard, tufted ducks, mallard, and wigeon. Mistle thrushes sing from treetops
on gusty days and over reedbeds and shrubberies huge flocks of starlings
swirl in the evenings. It is fox breeding season and on still evenings you
may hear the unearthly scream of a vixen calling to attract a mate. Roe deer,
fallow deer and muntjac are easier to see with the trees bare of leaves,
especially early in the morning or late afternoon. Insect life may seem hard
to find, but
dragonflies, which
mimic bees, bask in
the winter sun. Look under logs for invertebrates such as woodlice and
centipedes, but don't forget to replace logs as you find them. On elder trees
look for the dull purple ear fungus which looks and feels like a clammy human
ear!
Find out more at www.open2.net |
|
Did you know
The mountain hare's coat turns white between December and March. The Peak
District including the National Trust's Derwent Water and Kinder Scout, has
seen a steady increase in the mountain hare population, but numbers are declining
in Snowdonia and Scotland.
Find out more at
www.nationaltrust.org.uk |
|
|
19th
|
Symbolism (Bryan)
(Rescheduled)
|
26th
|
Committee meeting
|
|
|
|
Breathing Places this month |
|
Do one thing
Set aside a corner of your garden for wild plants such as nettle and bramble.
This will provide cover for small mammals and food for a variety of insects
including butterflies.
Find out more at
www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
|
|
What to look for
Spring is in the air and many animals are coming out of hibernation. Peacock,
comma and brimstone butterflies all fly on sunny days. Long-tongued flower
bees, looking like small black or brown bumblebees, visit garden plants such
as lungwort. And the bee-fly. which looks like a bee but with a long snout,
searches for nectar among the blooms of primrose lesser celandine, butterbur
or wood anemone. These plants are important sources of food for hoverfllies
and solitary bees Some birds are already breeding: noisy rooks in their treetop
colonies and coastal gannets. The first chiffchaffs cash in on the insect
supply and sing from sallow bushes in sunny woods. On downland and coastal
grassland, smart wheatears, fresh in from Africa, are flirting their white
rumps on their way to upland breeding haunts. You may see young rabbits above
ground for the first time in fields and roadside verges. It is a busy time
for voles too, with families to feed; you may catch a glimpse of one in a
hedgerow or field border. Now is a good time to look in streams for freshwater
invertebrates, like mayfly and stonefly, as they prepare to emerge as adult
insects.
Find out more at www.open2.net |
|
Did you
know
There are more than 1,000 species of moth at the National Trust's Wicken
Fen (the first ever nature reserve) in Cambridgeshire.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk |
|
|
7th
|
Committee Meeting (2pm)
|
16th
|
Badgers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Breathing Places this month |
|
Do one thing
Make a bat box to encourage roosting bats into your garden.
Find out more at
www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
|
|
What to look for
Millions of migrant birds will be flooding into Britain from south of the
Sahara. Cuckoos swallows house martins and delicate willow warblers arrive
on the south and east coasts Among our resident birds, the nesting season
is well under way. Great tits, blue tits and long-tailed tits are rearing
young and robins, song thrushes and blackbirds are fledgling. It's breeding
time in the water too; watch out for sticklebacks in ponds and rivers; the
red-bellied males will be busy tending their nests of sticks and vegetation.
Smooth newts float in their spring finery like miniature dragons in garden
ponds. The first bats are emerging from hibernation, look out for our smallest,
the pipistrelle, and our largest. the noctule. In woods, tides of bluebells
are a magnificent sight. Look out for other spring woodland flowers like
dog violet, yellow archangel and greater stitchwort. On heaths, gorse and
broom are flowering and in marshy areas, lady's smock, the food plant of
the orange-tip butterfly. Keep an eye out for some early invertebrates on
foliage such as the hawthorn shield bug or green shield bug.
Find out more at www.open2.net |
|
Did you
know
Bats in the UK eat only insects (such as midges. moths and mosquitoes), which
they catch in flight or pick off water, foliage or the ground. The pipistrelle
can eat up to 3,000 midges in one night one-third of its body weight!
Find out more at www.bats.org. |
|
|
17th
|
Herbs
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Breathing Places this month |
|
Do one thing
Create a compost heap to recycle kitchen waste, provide a hibernating space
for many animals and produce rich compost material for gardening. Find out
more at
www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
|
|
What to look for
September is a fruitful month as plants and animals feast on nuts and berries
and prepare for lean times ahead. Look out for berries of elder, woody
nightshade. hawthorn, sloe and blackberry. Keep an eye out too for acorns
and conkers. Wood mice gnaw hazelnuts carving deep grooves in them, and fill
up nest-boxes with crab-apples! In grassy areas brightly coloured waxcap
mushrooms are making an appearance, their red and yellow colours standing
out against the grass. Ivy is a valuable source of nectar and attracts droneflies
and other hoverflies, late bumblebees and red admiral butterflies. Devil's-bit
scabious is also very popular with insects in woodland rides and clearings.
On trees and shrubs look out for the striking colours of the pale tussock
moth caterpillar. Many dragonflies are still on the wing including the migrant
hawker and common darter. In some rivers, salmon are travelling upstream
to breed. On wires, swallows and house martins gather before their epic journey
to central and southern Africa. On lakes and reservoirs. drake mallards and
other ducks begin moulting into their bright winter feathers.
Find out more at www.open2.net |
|
Did you
know
On average. there are 10,000 million insects per square kilometre of habitable
land that's 10,000 per square metre.
Find out more at
www.royensoc.co.uk |
|
|