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.
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Breathing Places this month
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• 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
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• 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
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• 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 |
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Breathing Places this month
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• 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
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• 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
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• 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 |
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Breathing Places this month
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• Do one thing
Make a bat box to encourage roosting bats into your
garden.
Find out more at www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
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• 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
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• 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.
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Breathing Places this month
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• 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
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• 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
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• 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 |
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