Looking eastward along resurfaced U38 from Five Mile Wood car park
What has WSWG been doing this month?
And here’s how the U38 road has been improved looking westwards with a proper connection to the multi-user path which was constructed as part of the local A9 dualling. Someone maybe needs to trim the broom back a bit before long though!
With the first steps now underway towards prospective community ownership of Stanley Wildwood Rookery through Tayside Woodland Partnerships and WSWG, preliminary site inspection by TWP’s professional arboriculturalist and woodland ecologist is informing thoughts on initial and ongoing management needs and objectives. We will be giving a brief update at the Stanley Community Council meeting on Monday evening, 21 October.
On 16 September, we had a lovely recce walk in Taymount Wood with a group from the Community Payback Team to look at various tasks and activities they may potentially be able to help WSWG with going forward, including hopefully an initial event under our WizzyWARP24 Programme.
On 21 September, WSWG gave a short PowerPoint presentation on the “Wildlife in Taymount Wood” at the annual Tayside Recorders Day in Dundee. Several people came up to us after the event with prospectively very interesting and helpful connections for WSWG in the future, including an Art and Ecology Project on moths (we have already had an initial meeting in Taymount Wood), scope for bio-acoustic applications, and interest from fungi and beetle experts. It would seem longhorn beetles, of which we have quite a few important species in Taymount Wood, are generally in indicator of “good” woodland, and we were further advised that one species (Judolia sexmaculata) we had previously recorded as Nationally Scarce was now Red listed as Vulnerable and Nationally Rare.
On 4 October, WSWG was delighted to attend the formal opening of the Vision PK Sensory Hub in their new George Street premises in Perth which has been specially designed to support the sight and hearing loss community in Perth and Kinross. What an amazing facility it is and what an enjoyable event it was.
On 6 October, a small but wonderful group of guests joined us in Stanley Village Hall for our Silver Sunday event as part of a local programme of events celebrating older people and the role they play in our society. The afternoon consisted of displays and chats about the walking routes, history and biodiversity in the woods, a rolling slide show, afternoon tea from Alison’s Kitchen and a Pop-up Climate Café highlighting the role of woodlands in general and the WSWG Project in particular in addressing the dual climate and ecological emergencies we are in across the globe. A big thank you to everyone who came along, whether for a quick chat or the full thing.
A sad piece of news to finish on, however. Fiver, the baby hedgehog who was rescued in Five Mile Wood earlier in the summer and who had done so well for a couple of months, suddenly took a turn for the worse and sadly passed away at Hogscroft Hedgehog Rescue a fortnight later on 28 September. The cause of his death remains a mystery, but hedgehog carer, Alison, said that whilst this does happen on occasions, it is awful to lose one who was doing so well. At least we know he was in the most caring of hands, so thank you to Alison and RIP Fiver.
Word of the Month
Komorebi: Literally meaning “sunlight leaking through trees”, this Japanese word describes the beauty and wonder of rays of light dappling through overhead leaves, casting dancing shadows on the forest floor. www.morethantokyo.com
If anyone would like to send us photographs of autumn Komorebi, in our woods or elsewhere, that would be wonderful. Please email them (and your name for any credit should we publish it at all) to contact@weststormontwoodlandgroup.scot
What’s coming up next?
Monday 21 October: WSWG will give a 10-minute update on plans being developed for the Wildwood Rookery at the Stanley Community Council meeting (Stanley Village Hall, start time 7pm).
Saturday 2 November: WizzyWARP24 event with Biscuit of Wee Adventures. We will be circulating the event notice very soon.
