The Wildlife Group Update
The May Walk with Nightingales
We had a tremendous evening walking with the Nightingales, just over the county border to Alners Gorse & Lydlinch Common in Dorset.
We heard Nightingales as soon as we arrived and they accompanied us throughout the walk at Alners Gorse, with the background music of the more common place but beautiful bird song. The turf was grazed by horses and it promised a stunning display of wildflowers later in the year. We came across an albino Bugle plant (see photo) and Lady's Smock was interesting for two reasons. These Dorset ones were much paler than our ones around Ditcheat and there was a naturally occurring double flowered specimen. We enjoyed seeing the Lesser Spearwort (illustrated below). We moved on to Lydlinch Common and to the song of Nightingales we saw large numbers of beautiful Early Purple Orchids.
On our way out of the Common we saw the foliage of Creeping Jenny, a common horticultural plant growing in its native surround.
About nine of us hived off to a suitably ornithological sounding pub the "Bird in Hand", which rounded off the evening very convivially. We love to have new people join our trips, please leave a phone number or contact email, so I can get back to you.
Tips: Have a little bridge of rocks or plants near your wildlife pond for Toads & frogs.
Meeting up:
· 7th July 2.30pm Garden Visit for Wildlife. £5 pp, children free
· 1st August 8.00pm Bat Walk
Contact information:
Bridget Wadey: email:
or phone: 01749 860240
You can follow our activities by:
· joining our emailing list; contact Bridget see above
· through the FTN news (www.fossetrinitynews.co.uk), there is usually a monthly update on the Wildlife group
· or www.ditcheatchurch.co.uk, this site publishes our meetings and activities as they happen. The Wildlife Group has its own tag