Reports for past WyNG meetings


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New bird and bat boxes for Wymondham - 16th February 2009

Nineteen new bird and bat boxes have been installed in the Tiffey Valley, Wymondham to celebrate National Nest Box Week (14th – 21st February). The boxes were bought using funds donated to Wymondham Nature Group by Waitrose, under its ‘Community Matters’ scheme.  Members of the Group, Ann Roberts (Chair) and Tony Barnes (Footpath Officer), fixed the boxes to trees in the Town Cemetery and on Becketswell public open space, by kind permission of Wymondham Town Council.

National Nest Box week was instigated in 1997 as an annual event to encourage everyone to put up nesting/roosting boxes in their local area to help the local bird, and bat, populations. Natural sites, such as holes in trees and buildings, are fast disappearing, as gardens and woods are ‘tidied’ and old houses and barns are repaired.

Chair of Wymondham Nature Group Ann Roberts said:
 
“We are very grateful to Waitrose for the funding to buy these boxes, and the customers of Waitrose who nominated WyNG as their chosen charity. The Town Cemetery has hundreds of mature trees and Becketswell is also a good habitat for nesting birds and roosting bats. We have chosen boxes suitable for robins, tree creepers and other small birds, and we’ve also put up bat boxes, because five species of bats live in this part of the River Tiffey valley.

“We are also very grateful to Wymondham Town Council for their support.”

For further information, please contact Ann Roberts on 01953 604311. Wymondham Nature Group is a local group of Norfolk Wildlife Trust www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

“Wymondham Nature Group Chair Ann Roberts with the nest boxes in the Town Cemetery”

 

“Status of Norfolk‘s Butterflies”
Fifty-three members and friends of Wymondham Nature Group (WyNG) braved the elements to hear an illustrated talk given by Andy Brazil on the Status of Norfolk’s Butterflies. Andy is the Butterfly Recorder for Norfolk and his task is to collate records of butterflies occurring in the county. There are many ways in which the numbers of Norfolk’s 32 resident and other migrant species of butterfly have been recorded over the last 30 years. These records give valuable information about the health and distribution of the various butterflies in our region. Butterflies are very dependent on the right food plant and weather to breed successfully. As a result many species, such as the Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Small Copper and the once common Small Tortoiseshell are in decline. However, our Norfolk specialist butterfly, the Swallowtail, is thriving, with careful management, in the Broads.

More records of butterflies are needed and Andy asked for more people to send in their sightings so that a complete picture of the butterfly population in Norfolk can be ascertained. Contact: recorder@norfolkbutterflies.co.uk also www.butterfly-conservation.org

Next Meeting
The next indoor meeting of WyNG will be on Thursday 12th March 2009 at 7.30 p.m  Tony Leech will be presenting “The Good. The Bad and the Ugly”, an illustrated talk about fungi. The venue is the Town Green Centre (behind the Methodist Church), Wymondham, admission £2.00, including refreshments.  For more details about WyNG, please telephone Ann Carpenter on 01508 488337, or visit us online at www.wymondhamonline.co.uk.  WyNG is a local group of Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT).  Further information about NWT is available online at www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk.