Category: Wenvoe Wildlife Group

Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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 Collecting Wildflower Seed

September should see some of our sites being cut, mainly the Community Orchard off Station Road and the small meadow at Goldsland Farm. This is done by the Ecology team in the Vale of Glamorgan Council using a special machine which collects wildflower seed in the process. This is then distributed to create new wildflower meadows elsewhere in the Vale. We are currently unable to get machines onto the Upper Orchid Field as Cemex changed the locks on the access gate and we are trying to get a key. However the intention is to take some wildflower seed from here and this will be followed by the normal full cut scheduled for October. Photo shows the seed collecting machine in use last year

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Funds from the Tuckers’ garden sale have been used to purchase a strimmer to be used for our orchard, the mini-meadow and watercress beds at Goldsland Farm.

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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 Seven Green Flag Awards for 2022!!

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This is a tribute to all involved with the community sites. The landowners – The Reader family and Vale of Glamorgan Council – make it possible. Without the land we would not have the orchards and meadows for everyone to enjoy.

Our thanks also to Wildlife Group members who help with the conservation and others who either as individuals or groups cut the grass, strim the vegetation and cut down unwanted bushes and trees, To the Scouts who plant the hedgerows and individuals who fundraise for us – a big THANK YOU.

This year promises to be our biggest crop of fruit so far. Why not visit the orchards and sample over 50 different varieties of apple, pear, plum, cherry, medlar, damson and filbert? The photo shows a Nant Gwrtheryn apple all the way from the Llyn in North Wales. This is in the Welsh Orchard. See if you can find another in any of the other local orchards at Dyffryn, Porthkerry, Peterston etc

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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We are thrilled yet again to be receiving a substantial contribution from the Tuckers following their plant sale. This will be in excess of £800. Our thanks to everyone who manned the stands, attended on the day and spent money as well as donating raffle prizes and plants for the sale. Particular thanks to Mike and Glenys who made the whole event possible. Where would we be without them!

Dog walkers who visit the Upper Orchid Filed will have noted that the dog poo bin has been removed. When the bin was installed 10 years ago, the next nearest bin was in Grange Park. WWG members have emptied the bin ever since but as all other bins are emptied by the Vale of Glamorgan Council and bins are now also available at the corner of Walston Road, Vale of Glamorgan Council were approached to empty it. Even though payment was offered, VOGC was not prepared to help and the decision was made to remove it. We were happy to leave the bag dispenser. However, this has been abused by dog owners who have been placing filled bags in it and so this is also being removed.

Please help to keep this wildflower meadow tidy by taking your dog bags to the nearest bin and help ensure that we retain our Green Flag status. Thank you.

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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Visitors to the Upper Orchid Field will have seen that the field has been cut. This is one of the last wildflower meadows near Cardiff so is an invaluable resource for wildlife as well as being a popular recreational location for walkers, joggers and other visitors. An annual cut is essential to prevent brambles, ash saplings and the ranker grasses from taking over. When we started maintaining the site over 10 years ago this was just what had happened and most of the slope was covered in self-seeded trees. Our contractor, John Crockford, has done a great job, particularly in controlling the brambles which had started to take over the top of the field

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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Meadow Mowing

Our thanks to the Vale Local Nature Partnership who not only cut the Community Orchard for us last month but have now cut Cae Ysbyty at Goldsland, the Hospital Field. This is the first time the small meadow has been cut properly and should help to ensure an even better spread of wildflowers next year. Next year several of our sites will be cut in late summer by the machine in the photo which also gathers wildflower seeds and this can be used to create new meadows around the Vale of Glamorgan.

Our thanks also to the Cardiff Rivers Group who have started to clear around the Watercress Beds at Goldsland. They will be starting to remove the willows that tend to dominate and overshadow a large part of the site.

And particular thanks to Mike and Glenys Tucker who have donated so generously from the Christmas Reindeer sale. This money is so important to the work of the group as it enables us to offer match-funding when we apply for grants.

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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Autumn Activities

Our thanks to John Smith for cutting the Goldsland Orchard site. It is a lot tidier now and this will see us through until next Spring. We hope that gradually grass and wildflowers will replace the Bramble, Teasel, Dock and Burdock. VoGC have used their seed-harvesting machine to cut the Community Orchard on the Playing Fields. The seed has been gathered and will be distributed around the Vale to create new meadows. If you visit there regularly and have a minute to spare, the grass cuttings need raking up and piling around the fruit trees as a mulch. You will need to take your own rake over. Possibly also by the time you read this, the Upper Orchid Field will have had its annual cut by the contractor. A reminder to horse owners that this is a nature reserve and not for galloping through. Nor is there any bridleway access to this area – only footpaths.

Planting of Betony, Oxeye Daisy and Sneezewort has taken place at Cae Ysbyty on Goldsland Farm. The moth trap continues to register new species for the parish although as the nights get colder, fewer moths are on the wing. The photo shows the green Merveille du Jour which looks even better in colour. Check our Facebook pages for colour images. (and here )

The Barbastelle Bat project continues with deployment of detectors around Wenvoe. One detector in 3 weeks generated 36 Gigabytes of data! By November the bats will start to go into hibernation and may not emerge until April or May depending on the weather.

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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Watercress Beds at Goldsland Farm

We are delighted to welcome the Cardiff Rivers Group who specialise in opening waterways and who will be helping to clear the watercress beds at Goldsland Farm. This is a historic site with newspaper reports from mid-Victorian times telling how women would walk from Cardiff, gather the watercress and then walk back to sell it in the city. It is a haven for wildlife and watercress still grows there although eating it would not be recommended. Initial work will be to start to clear the vegetation and cut back the willows. Regular visitors will start to see changes in the coming weeks. The photo is a painting by Zoffany of a Watercress Seller.

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Barbastelle  Bats

We continue with the Barbastelle project aimed at recording this rare bat which has yet to be found in the Vale of Glamorgan. So far large amounts of data have been analysed and there are plenty of bats, Pipistrelles, Noctules and Myotis species but no Barbastelles – but it is still early days. Visitors will start to see changes to both the Upper Orchid Field and the Community Orchard as annual cuts and seed-gathering machinery work their way through the sites

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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A record for Wales and for Britain

7 Green Flags!! A record for us as a village, for Wales and for Britain. Previously we have achieved 6 Green Flag awards, judged and managed by Keep Wales Tidy but the addition of the Bee Loud Glade made it 7 – a site for every day of the week. A thank you to all those who have helped with the often challenging maintenance of the sites and the Reader family who own 5 of them and the Vale of Glamorgan Council who own two. Not only do we have far more awards than any other village in Wales but even many towns.

Donations are always welcome and we have received recently Wildflower Seeds from a local resident, two Cherry Trees and some slates from Radyr, Echinacea and Penstemon plants from Dinas Powys and a wheelbarrow wheel and mattock from Barry. We have been the first group to deploy Micromoth detectors in the Barbastelle Project aimed at seeing if this rare bat is anywhere to be found in the Vale. The Upper Orchid Field and Community Orchard are to be mowed and the wildflower seeds extracted for use elsewhere with the Upper Orchid Field receiving its full cut later in September. Benches in the Community Orchard and Welsh Orchard have exceeded their lifespan so if there are any spare benches that people are happy to donate they will be put to a good use.

Plenty of fruit is starting to mature in the orchards including Plums, Pears, Damsons and Bullace. One of our more recent apples, Nant Gwrtheryn, from the Llyn Peninsular, has produced its first good crop but will not be ready to taste until later this month (see photo). Least successful have been our Quinces – none of the 4 trees look very vigorous but we live in hope. There is the odd Quince doing OK in the village but the orchards may be a little more exposed and windy

 

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

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Green Flag Judging

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It has been a frenetic few weeks as we prepared for Green Flag judging on some of our sites. As gardeners will know the weather has contributed to a mass of vegetation and it has been a challenge to keep paths open. Green Flags are for open spaces, the equivalent of a Blue Flag for a beach, and factors taken into account include ease of access, information on site, tidiness and biodiversity. The scheme is run by Keep Wales Tidy and this year we have applied for 7 awards. The next highest village in Wales has two! The results will not be out until late Summer/early Autumn, but we are keeping our fingers crossed. The photo shows our judge at the Bee Loud Glade.

We are now involved with the Barbastelle project for the Vale of Glamorgan. This woodland bat has not been recorded yet in the Vale, so a programme has been set up to deploy special bat recorders in 10 locations around the county. We shall be looking after two of them. This involves installing the recorders which are about twice the size of a credit card, changing the batteries every 3 weeks and downloading the data – this goes on for a year! Anyone wanting to help with the project can contact the Wildlife Group.

And, finally, our thanks to those who have donated items to the group. We have received wildflower seeds from a resident in the village, plants from Dinas Powys and two Cherry Trees and some slate tiles from Radyr.

 

 

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Wenvoe Wildlife Group

Green Flag Judging

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It has been a frenetic few weeks as we prepared for Green Flag judging on some of our sites. As gardeners will know the weather has contributed to a mass of vegetation and it has been a challenge to keep paths open. Green Flags are for open spaces, the equivalent of a Blue Flag for a beach, and factors taken into account include ease of access, information on site, tidiness and biodiversity. The scheme is run by Keep Wales Tidy and this year we have applied for 7 awards. The next highest village in Wales has two! The results will not be out until late Summer/early Autumn, but we are keeping our fingers crossed. The photo shows our judge at the Bee Loud Glade.

We are now involved with the Barbastelle project for the Vale of Glamorgan. This woodland bat has not been recorded yet in the Vale, so a programme has been set up to deploy special bat recorders in 10 locations around the county. We shall be looking after two of them. This involves installing the recorders which are about twice the size of a credit card, changing the batteries every 3 weeks and downloading the data – this goes on for a year! Anyone wanting to help with the project can contact the Wildlife Group.

And, finally, our thanks to those who have donated items to the group. We have received wildflower seeds from a resident in the village, plants from Dinas Powys and two Cherry Trees and some slate tiles from Radyr.

 

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