PAWS January – Wildlife in Gardens

Roger Hance - wildlife in gardens
Roger Hance talked about wildlife in gardens

PAWS January – Wildlife in Gardens

Roger Hance came to PAWS to show the delights of Wildlife present in the Garden.  His slide talk showed some of the wildlife that can be found in our gardens. Because a lot of the natural hedgerows in our countryside are diminishing, it is increasingly more important that we try to help our wildlife out by turning our gardens into habitats that will encourage birds, mammals and insects to live in.

Attracting Birds

Roger gave some useful tips which can help attract more birds to your garden.  Consider Continue reading “PAWS January – Wildlife in Gardens”

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PAWS November – a year of wildlife at Mersea

Dougal Urquhart with hedgehog
Dougal Urquhart with hedgehog
Our meeting at the end of November attracted 9 visitors and most of the members. The speaker was Dougal Urquhart, who has been the Ranger at Cudmore Grove Country Park in East Mersea since 1983.  He showed us some wonderful slides of the photographs that he has taken over the years, to illustrate the changes in the wildlife of Mersea Island throughout the year.

He started with the winter visitors like the Woodcock, Snow Bunting, spoonbills and waxwings.  There are occasional sightings of harbour porpoises and grey seals as well as the common seals that we see around our coast at this time of year.

In the spring the amphibians start to emerge from hibernation and basking adders can often be seen in sunny spots around the park. There are many butterflies and moths emerging too who can be seen all through the summer months.

Dougal explained about the plan to introduce the red squirrel onto Mersea island, as it is one of the few places that do not have grey squirrel who carry the parapox virus that can be fatal to the red squirrel.  He also talked about the many prehistoric animal bones that have been found along the coast line and in the mud of Mersea Island.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and I think that we could have happily let him speak for much longer, but our wine and nibbles were waiting!

The January meeting is earlier in the month than usual on 8th January, so that we don’t clash with the Peldon Pantomime. The speaker is Simon Gallup, who will talk about ‘The Different Histories of Lavenham and Dedham’, which sounds really interesting. In fact we have a really diverse line-up of speakers for all the meetings in 2013.  Our membership list is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found in the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website. If you would like any further information about PAWS, please contact any of the following: Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson 01206 735505.

Jane

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PAWS – March Wildlife Report

barry kaufmann-wright 38 members and 10 visitors attended our meeting in February when we welcomed back Barry Kaufmann-Wright to talk to us about his passion for Wildlife Photography. Barry showed us a small selection of his 4000+ slides taken over 35 years.  Barry’s love of wildlife goes back to his late teens when he worked with Gerald Durrell at Jersey Zoo. Over the years he has worked in the Police Force, his last role as a Wildlife Crime Officer and now currently works for Natural England and DEFRA.  He had wonderful slides of various birds including robins, wrens, dunnocks, kestrels, owls and eagles and wildlife from foxes, badgers, red squirrels, polecats to a unique white red deer (the only one in the U.K.)   He also showed us slides of glorious bluebells, a variety of orchids and butterflies. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and I’m sure he will be invited back another time so we can hear one of his other interesting talks. 

Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on April 26th when Mr. Brian Curtois is going to talk to us about his “30 years with the BBC”.  Membership again is full but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50.

If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on any of the following numbers. Alice 01206 735510, Jane 01206 735004, Julia 01206 735053 or Sue 01206 735212.

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