Area Group meeting

This is a beautiful plant which I saw growing at the side of one of our local water ways  , its called Flowering Rush ( Butomus umbellatus ) Its in my top ten of local wild flowers and quite rare round here. Seen during one of our local Botany Group field expeditions!

This afternoon two of our committee are attending one of the regular meetings of representatives from all the nine volunteer area groups within the Somerset Wildlife Trust.  I've been to several of these over the recent years and they always give an opportunity to share news , meet friends in other groups and to discuss common problems around the county.
Hot topics this time , common to most voluntary groups are:
recruiting volunteers to help run the groups programme of activities,
succession arrangements to assist a change of leadership of the group,
ways of communicating with the wider membership in our part of Somerset,
coping with responsibilities such as providing first aid cover for walks and other Health and Safety issues,
keeping up to date with wildlife conservation projects and debates
and many other issues from time to time.

The social contact is very important to maintain motivation. Its sometimes difficult to remain positive and optimistic with so many threats to wildlife in all its forms which are many and serious.

Wildlife Gardening.

The Somerset Wildlife Trust has an active and productive gardening section. Click here to visit their web pages.
With a bit of luck you will also be able to see some relevant photos.

I had this in mind whilst talking to a couple who run a local plant nursery. Note not a garden centre. I liked what I saw and suggested that, locally we in the Wildlife Trust, could cooperate with them in some way to encourage people to make their gardens as wildlife friendly as possible.

They have a web site and a Blog and here are a few quotes from their site.

"We are surrounded by the Somerset Levels, with flora and fauna abundant and no noise or pollution. Just the sound of nature in a relaxed and tranquil setting.

Throughout the Nursery you will find plants that originated from all corners of the world. We owe a great debt to the Plant Hunters who were willing to risk danger and disease so that we could enrich our gardens with colour, fragrance and beauty.

It makes sense to ‘buy local’ and help your environment grow: healthier and cleaner.

We strive to be environmentally friendly, by collecting rainwater from our tunnels to irrigate and mist the plants. We let the birds, insects and amphibians control pests and we carry out good plant husbandry techniques to eliminate diseases."

I hope something can come from this exchange of thoughts on an important subject.

Somerset Wildlife Trust, Area Group public meeting

Somerset Wildlife Trust  works closely with the Area Groups of volunteers who organise amongst other things, local  public meetings on natural history and conservation  subjects as well as carrying out  fund raising. The Groups provide an important feedback from all parts of the County. Hundreds of hours of volunteer labour in many forms is quite priceless. However, I'm sure I've said before that organising public meetings is always a fairly stressful activity. Mainly because we never know if anyone is going to turn up! So when the event is a new venture like last Thursday's quiz evening it was even more uncertain. But as it turned out it can be claimed a success but a number of aspects need reviewing and our organisation needs sharpening up.
What went well was that a sufficient number of members and some non members did come along, the questions went done well, we did meet up with around 20 people who don't usually come to talks and we collected enough money to cover costs. And of course most importantly everyone said they had enjoyed the evening including the committee.

With 10 sections of questions only two were natural history  ( because we didn't want to put people off) and they were challenging enough. We did intend taking a photo to prove it happened but forgot all about that in the rush and after a few glasses of wine.Should we do it again , well the committee will need to talk it over and we will see how everyone judged the event. I would say yes but with a number of important details which need to be more carefully organised.

 Identifying this butterfly was one of the questions , not too difficult but do you know its latin name?

 Photographed in our local meadow.

Some of the committee in action last year.

Wildlife identification

As you may realise I spent 6 years studying part time with the OU and ended up in 2006 with a BSc Hons, Open Degree, specialising in human geography and the environment. Since then I have become involved , as a volunteer , with the Somerset Wildlife Trust and spent a lot of time photographing wildlife and trying to identify a wide range of plants and insects. That is not always easy and I make do with my own efforts with key books and sometimes contacting people who know more than I do. So this week I was very interested to get details of the OU iSpot web site which you can find here.

I've started to explore its potential for helping amateur naturalists to acquire a better understanding of the wildlife they are exploring. Its very early days for the web site as it is with my use of it but I have started by registering and posting my first message with a photograph of a moth hoping to get confirmation of its name etc. We will see how it goes and I will add posts to let you know how I get on.
Let me know if you try it and what you think of it by adding a comment to this message.

Bats in Somerset

I've noticed from the visit counter that people regularly view this Blog searching for information about bats. As I have posted very little on the subject it may help if I put some contact details and web links in this post. Hope this is useful.

Somerset Bat Group
Contact Name:	David Cottle
Telephone:	01749 674257
The Somerset Bat Group provides an advisory service on Bat problems and conducts roost visits on behalf of Natural England. It carries out systematic recording and regular monitoring of a large number of summer and winter roost sites. It has close links with the Bat Conservation Trust and is a branch of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

David can also be contacted via the Wildlife Trust on telephone: 01823 652400

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Here is a web site link to The Bat Conservation Trust:
Here is an extract from their site:

What are bats doing now: July

Young bats will start to fly at three weeks old, although their mothers will still be feeding them with milk. Young bats are very small (less than an inch) with thin, slightly grey fur, and are sometimes found on the ground as they learn to fly.

The Trust runs a forum which you can use , after registration, to raise any questions about bats.


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Here is a link to a web site, "First Nature Guide" giving photos and details of UK bats.

Somerset Wildlife Trust 2006/2007

Presentation by Simon Nash, Chief Executive Officer for the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

As reported in my last post staff and volunteers were given a presentation at Trust HQ on January 12th 2007, of the Trusts achievements in 2006, the challenges already anticipated for 2007 together with key priorities for the next 12 months. Simon kindly made this information available for publication here.


Achievements in 2006

• Reorganisation and clarification of the "People and Wildlife" (PaW) team.
• Mendip project fundraising success and set-up.
• The Badger campaign.
• Huge expansion of our education work.
• Carymoor merger.
• Dedicated Volunteer Support
• Dynamic and solid fundraising team.

2007 - key challenges

• Climate Change….
• Unsustainable development.
• Maintaining organisational momentum whilst achieving consolidation.
• Communicating in a larger/more complex organisation.
• Generating sufficient income in a challenging and changing environment – its all about people as well as wildlife.

Priorities for 2007

• Sustainability successfully integrated across the organisation.
• Improved valuing of and retention of our members.
• Measuring our performance – and reporting on results (not process) – clearly showing what difference we make.
• Creation of a Wildlife Info service.
• Continued and improved engagement with volunteers.
• Carymoor fully incorporated into the Trust’s work; FC and Carymoor Education work ‘seamless’.
• Seamless working between SWT and SERC which will include a consistent GIS system across SWT and SERC, with more people using it.
• The Mendip Habitat survey.
• Success in getting trainees into environmental jobs sooner than ever before.
• Management of Visitor Centres refined to ensure a co-ordinated and well planned approach.
• Successful access project started on our reserves.
• Advisory work and Wildlife Sites project developed/re-launched after a long absence of capacity
• Successful Mendip project well on its way
• Successful campaigns and lobbying.
• Levels and Moors project well developed by end of calendar year.
• Tone Floodplain project scoping completed and, ideally, project started.
• Parrett Sluice to become "as dead as a Parrot"! and abandoned as a bad idea.
• Web-site revamped – more accessible.
• Continue to increase our influence, profile and effective working with partners.

We hope in our local group to be able to make a contribution to some if not all these challenges and priorities in 2007.

Shopping over the internet can raise money for the Trust

I've been checking out the Trusts shopping link and because it seems a good idea here is some information to help you look for yourself.
Shopping over the internet is growing in popularity and if you wish to let the Trust benefit all you need to do is to start from the Trusts web page as shown below.



Click here to go to their web site. http://www.somersetwildlife.org/




Many of the big names can be accessed from this web site. By using this link from the Trusts web site the retailer automatically registers your purchase and makes a small contribution to the Trust. If all internet shoppers in Somerset used this device it would add hundreds of pounds to the Trusts finances. Look for the "Buy At" link.

Help raise funds for our vital conservation work by shopping on the internet.

Click here to visit 'Buy At', where you can purchase gifts from retailers including Marks and Spencer, John Lewis and Amazon and earn the Trust commission at the same time. And don't leave without visiting our shop where you can 'Adopt a Dormouse'

http://www.buy.at/somersetwildlife