...a wildlife pond...

Tadpoles. Very hungry tadpoles. It's time they got a place of their own...

...back at the beginning of the year, I wrote about all the things I really wanted to create in my garden. One thing on the list was a wildlife pond. Well, we've gone and done it! With a lot of help from our lovely friends Mark and Caz, plus the neighbourhood kids, we've put together a very cute little pond.
It was so easy! The whole thing took a couple of weeks (off and on) and cost about the same as a tank of petrol (£55). If you'd like to make one for the same price, the dimensions are 250cm x 170cm, with a depth of just over 70cm.
H and I have also been looking after some extremely hungry tadpoles; this pond will be their new home. We're very excited and can't wait for relocation day. I'll do another update when I put the edging in and create other features like a marsh and beach.

Pond Conservation are a national charity dedicated to the protection and creation of freshwater habitats for wildlife. Find out more about them at http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/

I've downloaded their free book "Creating Garden Ponds for Wildlife", which should give me a good idea about how to plant up the pond and manage it in the future.

...flowers and fierce beasties...

This is Mark. He knows his plants. He came to explore the wild patch and found over 90 species of plant. This is brilliant, considering the weather wasn't great, and it is still quite early in the year. His records have been put on our community spreadsheet and will be passed on to the VCR (Vice County Recorder) that way, the records become official.

Meet Ian. He knows his "bugs". His specialist subject is bees, ants and wasps, but he knows a little about a lot of other invertebrates too.
On a dull,overcast day in April, he found 8 species of ladybird, countless flies, numerous spiders and a plethora of bees. All of which will become official records for the site when submitted to the VCR.








Now you think that would be enough for one day. But it wasn't. Not only did they volunteer to come over and help out, they stayed all day, met the neighbours and shared their knowledge with local, very interested families. GJ, aged (nearly) 4 took an instant shine to Ian as they both shook tree branches with large sticks in order to dislodge the insects living on them. GJ bounced, shook the branches and then stood completely still, mesmerised as Ian and Mark showed him what they'd caught.

This is what I mean by CBT (Community Biodiversity Training). Ordinary people coming together to value a local piece of land and learn about it, in order to protect it in the future. Good people like Mark and Ian are out there, near you just waiting for you to ask them over.

...there is a Place Plan meeting due on the 1st May to discuss larger-scale developments in Shrewsbury. It will also (hopefully) be a chance for us to air our views and share what we've discovered so far about the wildlife and community on Corner Farm Drive.
I would really like this whole experience to be positive, informed and constructive. It is very hard to remember this sometimes, so excuse me if I rant occasionally!

Can you spot the spider?



 I am learning so much about planning, communities and wildlife- it's woken me up to the wildlife on my own doorstep, so much so that even a fly in my cup of tea gets identified and added to the list! (You think I'm kidding? I rescued a Notiophilus biguttatus from my mug just an hour ago).

Would anyone like me to try and put together a toolkit for other communities in similar situations? I can't promise it will be perfect, but it might help you get started on your own "Community Biodiversity Training"! Comment to let me know what you think and what information you'd like to see.

Hope you all had a good Easter break?

...wildlife at Corner Farm...

Just a quick update to let you know that over the last few days of sunshine we've seen more of the following:

Butterflies...
...orange-tip, peacock, small tortoiseshell, brimstone, red admiral and holly blue...

Birds...
Chiffchaff, garden warbler, rook, crow, blackbird, robin, bullfinch, chaffinch, greenfinch, bluetit, great tit, coal tit, blackcap, dunnock, wren, house sparrow, song thrush, pheasant, red-legged partridge, greater spotted woodpecker, buzzard, jackdaw, wood pigeon...

Invertebrates...
Woodlouse, nursery web spider, orb web spider, wolf spider, crab spider, bee fly, centipede, slug, snail, 2-spot ladybird, 7-spot ladybird, 22-spot ladybird, harlequin ladybird, caterpillars, hoverflies, buff-tailed bumblebee, white-tailed bumblebee, red-tailed bumblebee, common carder bee, red mason bee, common wasp, lacewing, ground beetle, earthworms, springtails, millipedes, beetle larvae, (plus the butterflies above)...

Mammals...
...wood mouse, house mouse, badger tracks and latrine, fox tracks, pipistrelle bats, molehills...

Flowers...
...nettle, dock, fumitory, ivy-leaved toadflax, ivy, holly, ash, oak, birch, fir, elder, hawthorn, blackthorn, common field speedwell, germander speedwell, ground ivy, lesser celandine, greater celandine, red clover, white clover, bittercress, plantain, goosegrass, garlic mustard, white mustard, sycamore, damson, willow, violets, common chickweed, mouse ear chickweed, creeping buttercup...

The total stands at 91 species, with more surveying of moths, beetles and spiders, bats and fungus over the coming months.

The local residents are having lunch together tomorrow to share our thoughts and to find out what's been going on. Mark and Ian will be there, and they're planning to search the area looking for more plants and animals.

It's not all about the species count though. It's becoming more about the stories people have of the land we're potentially about to lose. There must be a way for the existing land to be protected in the same way it's valued?

I'll let you know how we get on...