Encouraging a biodiverse parish
Wild About Gardens has a great set of wildlife guides, that are applicable to the green spaces that you may have access to at home.
Take your pick from the following guides:
Lawns, ponds, worms, molluscs, bats, bees, beetles, hedgehogs, butterflies, swifts, swallows and martins.
Well that’s assuming there is some at some point!
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has you covered though, for all kinds of nature related summer fun in the last month of summer.
Check out their full set of summer suggestions on the YWT website.
Priority ponds are waterbodies that have a particularly high conservation value: usually because they support important freshwater species or rare community types. These ponds can be permanent or seasonal waterbodies and can span a wide size range: from one metre squared to two hectares.
Volunteers can now get involved by conducting a Priority Pond Assessment Survey (PASS) to identify a potential priority pond.
For more information check out the FHT Priority Ponds Scheme pages.
Beverley Guildhall is hosting a short film showing, from Klosk Tyrer, showcasing Beverley Westwood throughout the seasons. More details on opening times are here.
Look under leaves, search under stones and turn over twigs on the hunt for interesting insects.
A great looking event from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust!
Sign up at Eventbrite.
Butterflies are an important indicator species for biodiversity health, and because their short lifespans is quick to respond to environmental changes such as global heating.
Butterfly Conservation is running its annual Big Butterfly Count again this year, a UK-wide survey aimed at helping assess the health of our environment simply by counting the amount and type of butterflies (and some day-flying moths) that can be seen. Please take some time out to take part in this vital annual count (and if you snap any good shots be sure to get them uploaded to iNaturalist too!).
MWN and Wolds Hedgehog Rescue Centre visited Molescroft Primary School by on the 5th June 2024, this generated a lovely write up in the Molescroft Primary School July newsletter, which you can download here.
Molescroft Wildlife Network accepted a kind invitation from Molescroft Grange Community Allotments to visit their allotment site.
Molescroft Grange Community Allotments was set up on a four acre field on Molescroft Farm Estate that was too small for the large machinery used in modern arable farming. The allotments are managed by the not-for-profit arm of the main farm, Molesfarm Community Projects. This business also receives funding for transport to Open Farm School Days for disadvantaged children, and the initial startup funding came from the National Lottery’s “Awards for All” in 2012.
We discussed how the allotment community are working to improve biodiversity on the site, whilst keeping the allotments productive and showed an impressive wildflower meadow area, and a rapidly establishing pond ecosystem that was buzzing with inverterbrate activity. MWN members old and new had a fantastic walk around the allotments, and look forward to working with the Molescroft Grange Community Allotments in future.
After a visit to the Molescroft Grange Community Allotments this week by MWN, it was only fitting that the daughter of one of our founding members released a wonderful book “This Allotment” edited by Sarah Rigby.
This Allotment brings together thirteen brilliant contemporary writers in a glorious celebration of these entirely unique spaces: plots that mean so much more than the soil upon which they sit.
