LOGO
Those of you who attended the event last week will already know that this is our new logo. A lovely design by Fiona Van Es. The other design by Neil Partington was also popular – I have included it at the end of this letter, it would be lovely to use that one too in some form – I thought it would look good on a T-shirt for instance?
LAUNCH EVENT 15th MARCH
Thank you to everyone who turned out for this and for the very positive feedback we have received. We had over forty attendees which was fantastic!
Many thanks go to Fiona Van Es, Craig Dunton and Lynne Kenderdine for their very interesting and informative talks. It was a bit rushed at the end as we were running out of time, if any one would like to see the film about the Avon Valley Project it is on the Devon Wildlife Trust website: https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/.../our.../avon-valley . If you missed the event, Lynne gave a very similar talk recently online – I have included a link to this in the accompanying email.
Many thanks also to Sasha Holden and Gill Soul for their help with refreshments and to all those who donated cakes and biscuits, also to Rob Van Es for his technical support and to the Congregational Church for the use of their facilities.
I think we all came away feeling inspired, proud and privileged to live where we do. As Lynne highlighted to us, Loddiswell occupies a unique and key position at the heart of the Avon Valley. There are no hard boundaries with the surrounding countryside, the village blends into it and we have ready access to some beautiful wild places and amazing wildlife right on our doorstep. As Craig informed us, we have 16 of the 17 species of bats native to the UK in South Devon, which includes the rarest bat – the Grey Long Eared and the extremely rare Barbastelle. It is easy to take for granted that we have in our valley: otters, kingfishers, dippers, barn owls, dormice, hedgehogs, slow worms, glow worms and a plethora of other wildlife, many of which are locally quite common and it makes it easy to forget how rare they are elsewhere. One exciting more recent discovery Lynne told us about, is that there is now a breeding population locally of the very rare water vole. They had disappeared from the Avon Valley, but a few years ago a small number were introduced to the marsh at South Milton. Since then there have been more and more sightings and they are gradually working their way upstream.
Lynne was very excited by the potential of what our group could achieve and feels that we will have a very positive impact on the conservation of wildlife in and around Loddiswell, which in turn will benefit the wider area and in particular the Avon Valley Project. Our hope is that, as well as benefiting the wildlife, our activities will also bring the community together and be instrumental in promoting its health and well being.
BRIMRIDGE VISIT
Lynne mentioned Brimridge in her talk, which is an interesting re-wilding project about two miles upstream from Loddiswell. I have asked Mary Clark if we would be able to make a group visit for a walk around it in the summer and she has kindly given her permission. I will let you know about the date when it has been arranged.
BIOBLITZ 17th/18th JUNE 2022
Please note these dates in your diaries – we will be having a committee meeting soon to plan this event, more information will follow. We anticipate having some moth trap evenings and one or two bat walks before these dates too. We should also place some dormouse tubes in strategic spots prior to the event.
OLD SCHOOL FIELD
Still no news on this at the moment, we're keeping our eyes peeled for further planning applications.
COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY 29TH MARCH?
For those of you on the committee I'm tentatively suggesting the 29th March, 7.30pm at Woolston Lodge - in our big greenhouse (with log burner!). I will email you all separately too.
WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS AND DBRC COLLABORATION
Thank you very much everyone for your posts on the Facebook group – it's lovely to be able to share all this information – it's taken off so well I'm having a job to keep up with transferring it to the website!
An exciting recent development is that, following on from a meeting between myself, Lynne Kenderdine and Ian Egerton from Devon Biodiversity Records Centre, (DBRC) DBRC have chosen to work with our group, providing some support and training for a few volunteers. They only have the resources to work with a small number of parishes so we have been very fortunate. The volunteers will be trained in how to identify plant and animal species and how to conduct surveys. We can then survey sites in and around the village, hopefully on neighbouring farmland too. The results will be submitted to DBRC providing them with vital information, as there are many pockets of land that they know nothing about as yet but could be of great ecological significance. Likewise members sharing their wildlife sightings via the Facebook group or website: the first swallow, swift, cuckoo or wildflower in bloom etc., are also important and have more significance than perhaps people realise. So please keep contributing!
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