What has WSWG been doing this month?
- Sorry for putting this top of the list but WSWG is still looking for a treasurer to join our new board. It’s started to hold things up so please do get in touch if you can help.
- Tayside Biodiversity Partnership’s 21 Days of Nature Challenge – this was a wonderful thing to have been part of in May for anyone who signed up. So much fascinating information about so many aspects of our wonderful natural world, starting with hedgehogs, trying out No Mow May, hopping onto frogs, toads and other pondlife, our beloved badgers, swifts, butterflies and bees, a trip to the seashore, flying away home with ladybirds, waking to birdsong, a walk in the woods, up trees with the red squirrels, then snakes alive, bugs galore, mushrooms and much, much more. Some endangered, others not. And the simple message that every flower counts. Celebrating the UN Day of Biodiversity on 22 May too. Such a delight and such a treat to share in so much wonder. Well done to TBP and PKC Biodiversity Ambassadors for putting this amazing compilation together.
- This month, Margaret Lear’s blog “Little Pictures, Big Pictures” gave us a real close-up look at our “Gap Site” in Five Mile Wood. What Gap Site? Nature is working miracles here! Go and see for yourselves or look out for our Summer of Nature walks and come along then.
- Thank you also to everyone who contributed the huge number of comments in the WSWG Community Consultation Survey. So many, though, that we’re still working through the hundreds and hundreds of them to ensure appropriate inclusion in our overall Survey Report. We’ve also been poring over postcodes to be able to give special emphasis to the views of people living nearest the woods in the Stanley and Bankfoot community council areas. We will do our best to publish the full report for you this month!!
- On 23 May, WSWG volunteers joined in the C406 Tackle Litter Group’s community litter-pick by clearing up the rubbish at the Taymount Wood car park and woodland edge. They gathered four black bags of gunk, a large pair of curtains in the ditch-water, an old TV, and more. Forestry and Land Scotland agreed to pick-up various bits of old fence-wire debris to complete the job …. for now. Along the 2.5 miles from West Tofts to Ballathie, the C406 group collected a total of 30 black bags in all. (Who? Why? What a mess! Well done to everyone who helped clean it up.)
Word of the Month
Summer solstice: The summer solstice is when the sun is highest in the sky and daylight hours the longest. This year it falls on Monday 21 June, a day later than its most common date (as was the case in 2020), although it can be any date between 20 and 22 of the month. The summer solstice marks the start of summer, which lasts until the autumnal equinox, landing this year on Wednesday 22 September.
What’s coming up next?
Our “Summer of Nature” Programme in Taymount and Five Mile Woods in recognition of huge support in the Community Consultation feedback for managing the woods for climate and biodiversity, nature walks, environmental education and biodiversity surveying and recording:
- BeeWalk Survey Scheme and Butterfly Transects – surveying transects for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Butterfly Conservation from June to September. Your chance to take part in national bee or butterfly surveys and adding to our knowledge of the wildlife in Taymount and Five Mile Woods at the same time. No specialist skills required. On-line training or other support will be given to help with ID. Email us if you’d like to join in or register direct with the relevant organisation. These surveys can be done on your own but can be a nice thing to do with the family or a small group of friends.
- IRecord App – an easy way for you to record the flora and fauna you see whilst walking, running, cycling or chilling in the woods. Can be done informally at any time.
- Bird-spotting Walk in Five Mile Wood* as part of Swift Awareness Week – Saturday 10 July, 10.00am – 12.00pm.
- Information Walks* – join members of the WSWG Steering Group to chat about WSWG Proposals for the woods. Taymount Wood, Sunday 18 July at 2.00pm – 4.00pm Five Mile Wood, Saturday 31 July at 2.00pm – 4.00pm Taymount Wood, Saturday 7 August at 2.00pm – 4.00pm Five Mile Wood, Sunday 15 August at 2.00pm – 4.00pm
* Covid limits of numbers may apply.
