August 2025 - Walden Countryside News
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August 2025 - Walden Countryside News |
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A talk with photographs by Dave Law, 20th August - 7:30 pm at Sewards End Village Hall
Dave Law knows Noakes Grove better than most of us: three mornings a week he is there with a group of Bell Day Nursery youngsters, for a forest pre-school session and, at other times, with his camera taking the beautiful photographs that will illustrate this talk
Photographs by Dave Law
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Holly Blue |
.......Treecreeper..............Robin |
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Female Azure damselfly |
Coal Tit |
After the talk there will be light refreshments and a brief AGM: |
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Harvesting our Wheat Crop - Work Party Sunday 17th August
10am - 3:30 pm, come when you like, bring a packed lunch (tea/coffee provided).
Our experimental wheat crop with all its crop-field flowers is almost ready for harvest. By the 17th it will have been cut and the work party job will be to stook the cut crop, thresh the seeds and sort the wild flower seeds from the wheat.
Enough wheat seeds will be kept for next year as will the wildflower seeds. Any surplus wheat can be milled and made into bread.
Missing Mammals
We are trying to record as many species as possible that are found in Noakes Grove. We have found all four specis of amphibians but there are a lot of mammals which may be present but have yet to be seen. How many of the following mammals can you help find?
Mole - ought to be present but no molehills found. |
Weasel - Stoats are present and weasels must be. They are just good at hiding | |
| Hedgehog - should be present if the badgers have not eaten them or out-competed them for food | Polecat - was extinct in Essex but has now returned to our area. So far, only records are of those killed on the road. | |
Water Shrew - usually present with common and pygmy shrews but rarer. They can live away from water. |
Red Deer - probably extinct in Essex. Those in Bendysh Woods have all been shot. | |
| Harvest Mouse - easiest way to find them is looking for nests in long grass. | Roe Deer - present in many woods (and at Kings Field) Much rarer than Fallow or Muntjac. | |
| House Mouse - generally prefer houses and garden sheds. | Water Vole - probably absent - not enough flowing water. | |
| Dormouse - really rare. We need some dormouse nest boxes. | Otter - may pass through but no streams with fish so not resident. | |
| Edible Dormouse - invaded Essex near Bishops Stortford a few years ago. May arrive at Noakes Grove in a few more years. | ||
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