Busy times

Heart of the Levels Wildlife Group

Since my last post on June 4th there have been plenty of opportunites to learn more about wildlife.

David Attenborough presented his latest TV programmes covering evidence to support the view that humans are at least contributing to global warming to the extent that he now believes we need to change our ways if we wish to limit the damage mankind is doing to our planet.

Bill Oddie has completed this years Springwatch series of fascinating live TV coverage of bird and mammal activites in the UK Impressive liveTV shots of otters in the ShetlandIsles and from cameras in Devon fixed in bird nesting boxes and nests elswhere will probably encourage people to buy their own specialist cameras to watch bird life in their own gardens.

I was able to visit more reserves at Catcott Heath and two reserves near Cheddar Gorge at Cheddar Wood and Black Rock. To visit these widely spread reserves we need to arrange car sharing and provide details of access arrangements. The range of habitats and variety of flora and fauna is remarkable.

In grassland meadows we can now find orchids flowering. Early purple , pyramidal and bee orchids have all been seen in the last few weeks. The picture above ( showing a Pyramidal Orchid I believe) was taken at Catcott Heath reserve on 6th June this year.

The Wildlife Trust is running its Big Switch campaign and members and the public are being urged to find ways for a week to reduce their energy consumption in four areas. Buying local food, switching to low energy light bulbs, switching to an electricity supplier who can provide electricity from renewable sources such as Good Energy Ltd and by reducing their use of cars as far as possible. I have made pledeges on all four areas but will find it difficult to meet all my self imposed targets. For information go to: http://www.bigswitch.org.uk/

The next meeting of our coordination group is on 22nd June and I hope we can formalise our committee and set a programme for the next 12 months. We also need to find ways to organise communication with our 550 local members hopefully by hand delivery to avoid high postal costs.

Next weeks blog posting should be full of good positive news!