- September and October: Duke of Edinburgh’s Award students began working on the Wildlife Conservation Area.
- Sunday 16th September: Sixteen people attended a ‘Foraging and cooking wild plants’ session run by Celia Cox.
- Saturday 8th September: We had a stall at Oliver’s Battery Fête.
- Tuesday 24th July: Strimming of the paths around the Wildlife Conservation Area.
- Sunday 15th July: ‘Big Butterfly Count‘. We did surveys over a fifteen-minute period while the sun was shining (well just about – at least it did not rain). Quite a few species seen, including Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Marbled White, Red Admiral.
- June: The very wet weather (yet another record for June since records began) has resulted in vigorous plants growth, in particular the shrubs, which will need pruning in the winter. The group have bought leather gauntlets and pruning shears ready for the job to be done. Some plug plants of native chalk downland plants were planted in the grassy area as an experiment to see if they could thrive. If they do manage to grow despite the surrounding grass then next year more plants will be planted as seeding appears to be a slow process, from past experience. The plants were donated by Rebecca Hare as they were surplus to requirements at the school.
- May: All the paths and the main grassy area were strimmed. The area just inside the gate, which was reseeded with annual cornflower mix in the autumn, was a riot of coloured flowers. The red poppies, blue cornflower and pink corn cockles were set off by the sea of white and yellow corn chamomile flowers. Many slow worms have been seen this year but no grass snakes have been spotted yet.
- Thursday 24th May: AGM at the Wildlife Conservation Area. 2012 Minutes (pdf)
- Tuesday 24th, Friday 27th and Monday 30th April: Digging out Spanish bluebells again.
- Saturday 17th March: Work party at the Wildlife Conservation Area. We cut the grass on the wildflower meadow and pruned back some buddleias.
- Wednesday 8th February: Talks at Hampshire Wildlife Trust Winchester Branch, Badger Farm Community Centre.
The group gave giving a short talk about the Wildlife Conservation Area. David Askew also gave a talk about Bee Keeping. - Sunday 29th January: Big Garden Bird Watch in the Wildlife Conservation Area.
We also saw what winter has done to the plants and discussed what we want to do this year. Some pruning and general maintenance of plants.
